Mani blasts bomb for Ash

A source said, "Mani wanted stunt director Sham Kaushal to shoot an action sequence where a petrol bomb was being used. The scene was being shot with Vikram and Aishwarya Rai. It was a difficult scene to execute as Mani wanted the bomb to blast midair, a few feet away from Vikram, just seconds before it would hit the ground. If there was even aslight error in the timing of the blast, Vikram would get seriously injured.Mani insisted that the scene should be executed just the way he wanted it andthat too with Vikram, Aishwarya and rest of the actors in theframe."Commenting on why Mani was so adamant on making the scene asprecarious as possible, the source said, "Mani himself had been in a similarsituation when his film Bombay had released and a bomb had blasted midair and hewas saved by just a few seconds in 1995."Sham Kaushal, actiondirector of the film, confirmed the news and said, "Yes, it was an extremelydifficult scene but Mani sir was very clear about the way he wanted to shoot it.Somebody had to throw the bomb from a distance of 25 feet and the bomb had toblast midair at a distance of about 15 feet from where the actors werestanding.""The next day we shot it exactly the way Mani wanted itand he was happy with the result. When I asked him why he wanted it to be shotin a particular way, he told me that he had faced a similar situation. He toldme that he was reading a newspaper at his Chennai residence when someone hadthrown a pipe bomb at him but he was saved as the bomb had erupted midair beforeit hit him. That's why he wanted the same sequence. I guess that's why all of usreadily push ourselves that extra mile for him," added ShamKaushal.Follow us on Twitter for more stories