Mammootty was injured in epic sword fight during 'Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha' shoot. 'I still have mark on my thigh'

Mammootty’s stellar performance in Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha is etched in the history of Malayalam films. Now, years later, the megastar has come out with an incident that took place during the shooting of the film, considered the magnum opus of the late M T Vasudevan Nair, who penned the script.

Mammootty recalls the incident in which a sword pierced his thighs. To do the role of Chandu, the protagonist, Mammootty had to learn Kalaripayattu and horse riding, but the folk martial art is not something that could be mastered easily.

So Mammootty was tasked with learning just the steps necessary for the shoot. So, in a scene when there is a clash of swords in play, Mammootty jumps to grab the sword from the air, but in the process he misses it and the sword somehow is thrust upon his thigh. The mark of that wound is still there in his thigh.

The megastar’s revelation came ahead of the re-release of the epic movie during his interview with actor Ramesh Pisharody. “In Hollywood, when they plan a movie, they conduct a workshop,” Mammotty said. That is the standard operating procedure in filming in many countries, he noted.

But Malayalam film industry can’t afford such expenses. “When Chandu the character was being filmed, there were swords, horses, and all the paraphernalia necessary for such a shoot. But if we need to master Kalaripayattu, it would take months of practice,” says he.

Mammotty candidly admits that in movies, actors learn only the tricks of trade necessary for the shots to be filmed. Aping the steps necessary alone would be sufficient to make it feel real– you need to just practice the steps shown to you two or three times.

“Those days we had the guts to do such steps without much safety measures,” Mammootty told the interviewer.

Most of the risky steps enacted were original. The swords were made of metal and were heavy. “There is a scene in which you have to jump and grab the sword in the air. You won’t get the sword many times. During such an effort the sword pierced my thigh. Since it was in the thigh which would be covered, the shooting was not affected, ” he revealed.

Getting injured was common in those days and no one complained. We had to expect such things. “The horse might jump and we may not be able to control it. Those things were bound to happen, almost like the horse would immediately know that the person who has mounted on it is not a master in the art,” he said.

“There was such a teeming atmosphere during the shoot with hundreds of people, including technicians, and horses and elephants,” said the superstar reminiscing fondly about one of his career-best performances. The film has re-released in theatres after 36 years.