14 March,2021 04:36 AM IST | Mumbai | Uma Ramasubramanian
Rana Daggubati in Haathi Mere Saathi
The year-long wait for the release of Haathi Mere Saathi hasn't been easy on Rana Daggubati, but he insists it has been worth the while. As the adventure drama gears up for a March 26 outing, the actor says it was big-screen-or-nothing for him. "The makers were on the same page [regarding the film's release post the pandemic]. Even as there were many [OTT] offers on the table, we decided to hold off till theatres across the country opened up. We made this film for the big-screen experience. We shot it in the middle of the jungle. Resul Pookutty, through his sound design, has tried to give it a larger-than-life feel. When viewers are watching this film, we want them to feel that they are in the middle of a rainforest, and [one can] never get that feeling on a mobile phone."
Told through the lens of a man who shares a deep friendship with one of the elephants, the Prabhu Solomon-directed drama focuses on the issue of human encroachment in India's elephant corridors. The director, who had previously worked with Unni on two films, roped him in for the trilingual. "Unni is busy because he is one of the few elephants with the Animal Welfare Board of India [AWBI] license. So, we had to [schedule the shoot] according to his dates because the elephant's comfort was our priority," says Daggubati.
A crucial part of prep entailed establishing a rapport with the animals off screen. The actor reveals that as the first step, he trained with animals in Thailand. "I worked with 10 elephants in Thailand. [Before shooting with Unni in the forest], we took out time to understand how he is with plants, trees and other animals around him. Since he doesn't communicate much with humans, we kept an eye out for his reaction to having a human around him in the film."
