Mamtha,
the lass from Kerala who will be seen for
the first time in Tamil alongside Vishal
in Karu Palaniappan’s Sivappathigaram
recently got the taste of vintage Chennai
weather. Well, for those of us who have
been in Chennai for a considerable period
of time, September would be among the more
forgiving months of the year. Not for Mamtha.
It seems that she is till in the Kerala
mode, expecting chill showers every half
an hour without any irritating dust particles
finding their way into the respiratory tract.
Little
did she know that Chennai is that
part of the world where it is summer
for 50 weeks in a year and if one
is lucky enough, there might be rains
in the remaining two weeks. Last year
was an exception. Getting to the heart
of the matter, Mamtha couldn’t
adjust to the heat and the dust and
went down with all the symptoms of
the now rampant Chikungunya. The producer
of the movie might have got nightmares
but then it was confirmed that there
was no chikungunya, only a mild running
nose, swollen eyes, slight temperature;
nothing to worry about. But then,
these things are good enough to deem
a person unfit for shooting, and that
is what happened.
Mamtha
ended up resting in her hotel room for two
days. When she returned to the sets on the
third day the director found that her eyes
were still swollen and that no amount of
make up would hide that from the camera.
With the release date nearing the director
had no choice but to shoot the ‘not
so pretty heroine’, but he chose to
shoot all her scenes from a long range.
The results will be out on the screen soon.
