When Kundara Johny talked about his fight sequence with Mohanlal in Kireedam

Kundara Johny, an actor who worked predominantly in Malayalam cinema, died of a heart attack on Wednesday. He was at the age of 71 and was checked into a private hospital in Kollam, where he took his last breath. Recently, just before he passed away, Kundara Johny talked of filming a significant fight sequence with Mohanlal for the movie Kireedam.

Kundara Johny reminisces about shooting a fight scene with Mohanlal

In an interview with Manorama Online, Kundara recalled his experience of working with Mohanlal in Kireedam. The actor said, “That fight scene in Kireedam was shot in the lower part of Thiruvananthapuram museum. It is a place where waste is dumped. The shoot was from morning to afternoon without a break. Others will put coffee and biscuits in their mouths. His hands and body were all dirty. Every time the soil was stirred, the worms came out.'' 

After that, the director asked if the location should be changed, but many shots were taken there already. So, Kundera said that he asked Mohanlal if he was okay to shoot there, and when he agreed they went on to film the fight scene. 

The actor also added that after the shoot, he had to take a bath with Dettol. Kireedam was later remade into Telugu and Tamil, in which Kundera got to reprise his role. He said that the same scene took four days to shoot in Tamil and six days to shoot in Telugu, which was shot in just two and a half hours in Malayalam.

More about Kundara Johny

Kundara Johny began his film career in 1979 and garnered critical acclaim for essaying negative roles in Malayalam films, notably in blockbuster hits such as Kireedam and Chenkol. He was last seen in the Malayalam film Meppadiyan in 2022.

The actor is survived by his wife Stella, who is a professor at a college in Kollam.