Mammootty faced the leopard without dupes in Mrugaya : IV Sasi

Mohanlal’s Pulimurugan released on Friday and receiving tremendous response from everywhere. The concept of man vs wild has been used very rarely in Malayalam film industry. Pulimurugan used the latest VFX technologies available to make a wonderful action adventure movie. But before 27 years, without any techniques and visual effects IV Sasi directed the cult classic Mrugaya.

Mrugaya starring Mammootty was written by one of the all time greats, Lohithadas. Mrugaya tells the story of Varunni, the uncultured and drunkard hunter who arrived in a village to kill a man-eating leopard. The story was inspired from a real life hunter.

Director IV Sasi in a recent interview has shared about his experiences while shooting the movie. A trained leopard was hires from Chennai with a trainer. Mammootty used dupes only for 2 long range shots in the movie. Since there was no safety measures or other facilities available like today, it was quite a tedious task to complete the shoot.

The trainer used to show how to fight with the tiger before each shot and Mammootty had to follow that. The director remembers how Mammootty, after the initial fear, did an amazing job without any preparations.

The shoot was completed within 30 days. Mrugaya was a success at the box-office and won two Kerala State Film Awards. Mammootty won the best actor award and IV Sasi won the awards for best director.