Tragedy strikes on the sets of ‘Raavana’

Looks like Mani Ratnam has been perpetually prone to misfortunate, ever since he ventured into the filming of his bilingual flick “Raavan’. Right from Day 1, the ace filmmaker has been exposed to obstructions. Earlier, he was supposed to sign a deal of Rs.150 Crores with a top-notch production house but they later backed off. Also, Forest Department of Kerala imposed many restrictions that dissuaded Mani Ratnam, and he opted for other location.
Amidst these issues, his health was affected, and he suffered cardiac arrest, which in turn stalled the filming for nearly a month. However, as he withstood against all these odd factors, an appalling tragedy hit their shooting floors, last evening in the forests of Athirapally, Kerala. Kunju– A male elephant out of madness turned to be more ferocious killing its own trainer on the spots.
The entire film crew inclusive of Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Vikram and others were blown out of waters witnessing this incident. They were immediately commuted to furthermore deeper regions of forest, until other trainers calmed it down.
Witnessing the nightmarish scenario, Mani Rathnam has shifted the shooting to forest regions of Ooty and Coonoo

Look who's keeping company to Ash on Ravana's sets!

Mani Ratnam's Ravana is one of the most talked about and most awaited film of the year. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Vikram and others in pivotal roles. The latest dope from the sets of Ravana is that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will be donning the role of a dance teacher in the film.

Director Mani Ratnam has requested the dance diva Shobhana to teach a few elegant steps to Aishwarya. Sources from the sets tell us that the two beautiful ladies not only matched their steps together but also got along like a house on fire on the sets of Ravana.

Aishwarya is a great dancer herself and with Shobhana’s dance training, Ash is sure to wow her fans.

Ash talking Tamil

She had done before, she has done it now. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had tried her skills in Kollywood and had delivered mind blowing performances in ‘Iruvar', ‘Jeans’ and ‘Kandukonden Kandukonden’ and went on to earn appreciation from South audience. Now, she is back again in Shankar’s magnum opus ‘Endhiran’ and ‘Robot’ in Hindi, with leading hero and Superstar Rajinikanth.

The movie team has found that this former Miss. World has exceptional grasping powers. She impressed all, including the Superstar, with her good hold on the Tamil language that she had mastered in a very short span of time. But Ash is only amused about it and said that regional languages were not a problem for her, at the same time she was not at all familiar with Tamil. The team were prepared to have re-takes while shooting the Tamil version but “she was soon rattling off the dialogues and getting hang of the emotions with equal skill in both the Hindi and Tamil takes. So much so that Rajini Sir was taken aback,” sources said.

Initially, it was said that she had easily learnt the ropes of Karate, which was necessary for her character in the movie.

Aishwarya’s Tamil Stumps Rajnikant

Aishwarya Rai has many hidden talents. One is her ability to grasp languages quickly.

This, the unit of Shankar’s Robot discovered while shooting with Aishwarya. She was required to hold her own against the glib-talking super-talking Rajni Sir.
“And since Tamil isn’t really familiar territory for Aishwarya everyone including Rajni Sir and director Shankar was ready for several re-takes as she got used to the dialogue.”

To everyone’s surprise Aishwarya got a grip of the language in no time at all.

“And she was soon rattling off the dialogues and getting hanged of the emotions with equal skill in both the Hindi and Tamil takes. So much so that Rajni Sir who has waited for decades to work with Aishwarya was taken aback.”

When asked about the above incident Aishwarya laughs, “Regional languages have never been a problem. I did a Bengali film Chokher Bali and I was able to get a hang of the complex intonations, though later they needed a particular sing-song tone and my voice had to be dubbed.”

But the buzz in Robot is that they are planning to retain her Tamil lines in the final print.

Says the actress from Ooty, “I’m not at familiar with Tamil. My mother tongue Tulu is very different from Tamil. But you must remember my first film River was in Tamil and I had to say lengthy lines in that film. From my beginnings with Mani Ratnam in Tamil to this my second Tamil film of my career….it’s been quite a journey.”

At the moment she’s shooting in the freezing cold in Oooty for Mani Ratnam with Abhishek. “We shifted from the jungles of Kerala to Ooty by car so I couldn’t accompany Abhishek. I’ve finished this schedule and go back to Shankar and Robot. Really gruelling.”