Mallika Sherawat's best on-screen kiss has been with a snake, the most out-spoken actress tells NDTV's Anupama Chopra in this video about her soon to be released movie ‘Hisss’. Chopra asks to Mallika about her transition from a Bollywood actress to a slimy slithering snake in Hisss, an Indo-American film produced around the very popular Indian myth of the Nagin.
Hisss, aka ‘Nagin: The Snake Woman’, directed by Jennifer Lynch with Mallika Sherawat playing the lead role as Naagin, is slated for release on October 22, 2010 in India. Sherawat, who now lives in the United States, has been in India to promote the film. At the Cannes Film Festival, Mallika Sherawat promoted the film by posing with a giant African Rock Python (22 feet/ 6.7 meters long) python on the red carpet.
The film Hisss, produced by Govind Menon, Vikram Singh, Ratan Jain and William Sees Keenan, also features Irrfan Khan, Jeff Doucette and Divya Dutta. The film is edited by American film editor Tony Ciccone, and special effects designer Robert Kurtzman developed the look of the Snake Woman for Sherawat.
Mallika Sherawat makes her musical debut on the film's soundtrack alongside Julian Lennon, and Shruti Haasan sings and appears in a promotional video with music by Dave Kushner for the film.
The film was simultaneously shot in Hindi and English, and it will be released with other versions in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. A substantial part of the film was shot in the jungles of Kerala State in India, and the tribal leader of Thalikakal in Kerala, Mooppan Raghavan and several members of his tribe were recruited as extras for the film. The film was also shot in locations in Mumbai, Chennai, Madh Island, a near-shore island of Mumbai.
The story is about the curse of a Naagin, a shape-transforming Cobra Goddess, half-woman and half-snake, and if humans desecrate or violates it, they are doomed to suffer the curses of the snake woman with death and infertility.
The story depends on the civilizations that flourished in the Indus Valley, where the inhabitants sculpted the image of the shape-shifting snakes that were said to inhabit a mysterious temple far away deep within the jungles in the legendary spice forests of the Malabar Coast. And according to Hisss, from here the legend travelled across India, and the Far East along the silk route. In 2008, an American man George, packing high tech gear and evil intentions, traveled into this forbidden forest, here he captures a male cobra of the size of large python when he is at his weakest while mating. But George does not realize horror and destruction awaiting him.
Mallika Sherawat's film Hisss, directed American director Jennifer Lynch, also featuring Irrfan Khan, Jeff Doucette and Divya Dutta, will hit the theatres next week in India. The film will be released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu this week and in Malayalam the next week. But its international version is postponed for release and may not reach theatres in USA and other countries before January next year, as the Hollywood version is not yet ready for release.
Hisss was to have a grand release across US theatres on October 22, along with the desi version, but news reports say, according to producer Govind Menon, “…we are building up the film a bit”. According to Menon, the international version with subtitles will also release in Malaysia, Australia, UK, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa the same week in Phase 1, and in Phase 2, Hisss will have a theatrical release in Hollywood.
