Aishwarya Rajinikanth Says Team Lost 21 Days Of Footage During Lal Salaam Shoot

Aishwarya Rajinikanth, in a recent interview, talked about facing a lot of challenges during the shoot of her recently released film, Lal Salaam. The director of the highly ambitious project, with cameos from Rajnikanth and cricket superstar Kapil Dev, spoke at length about how they had to compromise after losing important footage.

Aishwarya reveals team Lal Salaam lost 21 days of footage 

Speaking to Vikatan, Aishwarya said, "We were shocked as we lost 21 days of footage. It was a huge irresponsibility. It's unfortunate. During the shooting, we had 500 junior artists almost every day.” She continued talking about the portion of the project that went missing. 

“As a team, we were 2,000 people. We had a 10 camera set-up to shoot a cricket match. Since we didn't have enough days, we brainstormed on camera angles to shoot a match. The entire cricket match footage was lost. It went missing."

She then spoke about the logistical problems that were caused. "The shooting was complete - Appa (Rajinikanth), Vishnu Vishal and Senthil had changed their getups. We couldn't go for reshoots because of budget constraints and logistical issues.” It was Rajinikanth and Vishnu Vishal who suggested going for a re-shoot. 

She added, “They didn't want me to compromise on the quality. We couldn't completely shoot, but took a few shots and managed the rest. It was a huge compromise. Maybe, it was meant to happen. The hard disk went missing."

Aishwarya on Rajnikanth’s Laal Salaam cameo

As per a 123Telugu report, Aishwarya shared how though the original character of her father Rajnikanth in Lal Salaam had a screen time spanning just ten minutes, the role was extended keeping in mind the audience's desire to see the actor on screen in an impactful role. She said, “His character was originally intended to be a 10-minute cameo and appear in the 2nd half."

“However, people come to the theatre to see my father. Fans shouldn’t be disappointed, and hence, we made changes to the entire script. The entire edit was reshuffled in the last two days,” she added.