Express News Service
Shooting for her upcoming Oru Kuppai Kadhai in the city, actor Manisha Yadav had several unusual experiences. She plays a slum dweller, while choreographer-turned-hero, Dinesh, plays a conservancy worker. Due to the nature of his role, Dinesh had several scenes that show him loading garbage in various parts of the city. For one particular scene, he had to hop back on the truck as it moved and when it stopped, had to throw garbage into the truck. Manisha was stationed on the opposite side of the road.
Director Kali Rangasamy and his camera team were hidden from view, and bystanders did not know that a film was being shot. “I had an unkempt look, with dark tan make-up. Onlookers thought I was a real slum dweller. Dinest master too was in uniform,” explains Manisha. All was fine, till she started following the instructions of director Kali. “I had to walk a few steps and give the hero an angry look. Then I had to do a namaste and some other gestures and stomp off towards a tea-shop nearby. But the shot was not working out, and so for the next hour, I had to keep repeating the same action several times. The director was giving me instructions through my hidden mobile phone.”
Soon, the local shop owners and auto drivers began to get suspicious. “Seeing me repeatedly doing the same movements so many times, several people began approaching me to find out what was happening. They thought I was a slum dweller and wondered what was wrong with me.” But before they could get too close to Manisha, a group of assistant directors nearby came to her rescue. “They explained it was a shoot without revealing who I was.”
Manisha was pretty amused by the reactions to the hero’s antics. “For one scene, Dinesh master had to do weird gestures to express his joy about getting married. He had to swing from the truck for repeat shots and punch the air. Soon, the driver of the garbage truck began to think something was wrong with him. We were sitting in a car after my shot and watching from afar. The real conservancy staff around him didn’t know a shoot was on. They all began to look at him like he was crazy! We all had a good laugh because it looked so funny. But of course, it was no fun for him since he had to actually stand amidst garbage bins, and they stank quite a bit.”
