Location Diaries: Battling the blues

Shooting in mid-sea for debut director CV Kumar's Maayavan turned out quite an experience for heroine Lavanya Tripathi.  The unit was filming in  mid sea, off the coast of Chennai. Though Lavanya has been on many a boat ride in Mumbai in the past, this particular one turned out different. Due to rough weather, the motor boat she was in along with the crew and hero Sandeep, was soon rocking dangerously on high waves. To her horror, Lavanya discovered that she was prone to sea-sickness ! Before she knew it, she was vomiting more times than she could count.

Hero Sandeep Kishan had to jump into the ocean and Lavanya had to stand up and display emotions and say her lines. So weak was she due to the vomiting, that she had to be held up for her shot after which she would literally fall down. This continued for the entire duration of the day's shoot. More  was in store. Due to bad weather, the boat had wandered off  deeper into the sea than planned. Soon, the Coast Guard caught up with them and  they were surrounded with armed officers who  demanded to know what they were upto,  While the unit  furnished the necessary proof of a film shoot, Lavanya was slumped exhausted on a pile of netting atop some gunny bags. "I was so sick that I couldnt even look up to answer their questions. This seemed to make them more suspicious as they wondered whether I was drugged or kidnapped. I came to know all this later after the unit sorted out everything," says Lavanya.

There were also days when pranks were played on her by hero Sandeep. "Once, during a shoot on the beach, I noticed some people doing some vigourous kuthu dance moves. I was asked to join those dancers. Maayavan is a realistic thriller with no scope for such a mass dance so I was very surprised. But I complied and started dancing vigourouly in my salwar suit as instructed. Halfway through I noticed the entire unit and Sandeep laughing uncontrollably from a distance. Apparently Sandeep had pulled this prank on me and made me dance with some visiting college students on the beach! The kuthu number wasnt part of the film at all!" she laughs.