‘Mohanlal wanted to shoot with real gun, Bhadran was stunned when triggered’; Major Ravi shares shocking experience

‘The shooting was in Salem. I brought Mohanlal, the hero of the film, to Salem by car. I also went to the location. Director Bhadran was there. I did not know Bhadran at that time. Lal said that he had talked to Bhadran about giving me a role, but that did not happen. Ganesh later played that character.

Me along with Priyadarshan reached Bombay one more time. It was for an advertisement shoot. Meanwhile, noticed Priyan losing his temper and talking loudly on the phone. When enquired about the matter, Priyadarshan asked me to go to Madras the very next day. Told me that the director asked Mohanlal to shoot with a real gun. The director said could not make people doing action scenes to do that. Priyan said Mohanlal told him that he does not have the courage to use the real gun and so asked him to send Major Ravi.

The next day reached Chennai on the first flight. When I went there, they kept the pistol in my hand. It was Bhadretten's own pistol and there was bullet in it. There was a photo. Lal will stand in front of it. When they say fire, Lal has to move from there and Major Ravi should shoot instead and the bullet should hit the photo's forehead.

In the meanwhile, no safety measures were there. Later asked the art director to arrange safety measures. Meanwhile, Bhadrettan was getting upset due to the delay. He asked me to do it quickly. I said no as was dealing with the original gun.

The shooting started later. Took a shot after the first rehearsal. When said action, Lal moved and I fired and the shot hit on the forehead correctly. Bhadrettan first smiled and later seeing the bullet on the forehead, he was stunned. Bhadrettan then understood me and gave me respect as a commando,’ shared Major Ravi.