Location Diaries: The toughest hours of shooting for Aari

Aari, who's been working on his upcoming horror film, Nagesh Thirairarangam, says he's not had a good night's sleep for a while, on account of all the night shoots. He recently had a lengthy schedule at an old cinema theatre in Tindivanam. "Somehow, I managed to keep awake," he says.

His co-actor, Kaali Venkat, however, got his sleep with some innovative solutions. As the duo was waiting for the lights to be changed, Aari says he was surprised to see Kaali sleeping. He says, “The shot required that he lie down on a paai. Kaali was quite tired and sleepy. So, when he saw the mat on the floor, he just went to sleep.”

Aari then decided to play a prank. “I clicked a few photos of him sleeping and shared them on social media captioning it, 'living his character on the sets'. When we woke him up and told him about the posts, he laughed and took it sportingly."

Aari will also forever remember the making of this film because it was during shooting that he got the news that his mother passed away. “I was devastated, but knew that a few hours of shoot was pending. If I had left immediately, it would have upset the entire schedule. So I contained my emotions and told my brother to take care of things till I reached. The director was reluctant to ask me for retakes during the shoot, as he knew about my turmoil. But I managed to do my job and headed to Palani the next day. Those were the toughest hours I've ever had during shooting.”