The shooting of Priyadarshan’s ‘Billoo Barber’ was quite full of untoward incidents for sure- first, there was a poisonous snake in Lara Dutta’s room and then it was heavy downpour which disrupted the shooting.
While the shoot was going on at Pollachi in Coimbatore district, a poisonous snake entered Lara’s room at night but Lara did not panic to everyone’s surprise.
Recalls actor Irrfan Khan,
“To her credit, Lara handled the situation very sensibly and bravely, probably because she didn’t know how poisonous the snake was. If it had bitten her it would’ve been disastrous.”
Irrfan can’t stop praising Lara and says,
“I’ve realised that facing the camera with her was as challenging as co-starring with Tabu or Dimple Kapadia. Lara is the most underrated actress I’ve worked with.”
Apart from snakes, the cast and crew also had to deal with heavy torrential rains but they could not postpone the shoot because Shah Rukh Khan had to get back to Mumbai.
Said Irrfan,
“Pollachi is one of the most peaceful spots in the world. Though prone to the monsoon vagaries at this time of the year, never did we imagine that the weather could act so unpredictable.
Suddenly during the last two days the weather acted up more than all of us who were facing the camera … ha ha. We were in a panic. Because there was no way Shah Rukh could delay his departure. Priyan had to wrap up his work at any cost. So we had no choice but to shoot through the rain … which was harrowing.”
