

We had to be very careful while shooting the arrows, it was very challenging. “Arrows have sharp edges at the end and we used to shoot them, it used to leave cut marks on our hands. The opposite parties – the Raavan sena or Meghnath sena were rarely over there.” Dipika Chikhlia in a still from Ramayan. We were fighting a war against the chroma most of the time. Talking about shooting the war scenes, Sunil said, “We were not facing the enemy but had to imagine them and fight.

You just can’t be sitting like a wanderer, you have to keep the mood and everything that goes with it.” You go through the complete storyline every time you are sitting there. As an actor that’s your input to bring in the character, make sure that you keep it alive and keep the thoughts behind. Every time before the shot, the assistant director would say, ‘ab to neeche baedh jaiye (now you should sit down)’. It was a long stretch and went on for a very, very long time. You have to keep the continuity of the mood. On being asked about her thought process during the Ashok Vatika sequence, Dipika told Hindustan Times in a video chat, “It does get monotonous but as an actor that’s what your challenges are.
