Abhishek’s Ravana

Abhishek and Aishwarya are in the beautiful jungles of Kochi shooting for Mani Ratnam’s tentatively titled Ravana . For the audience who loved the duo in Guru and longed to have an eyeful of them yet again, romancing each other, here’s a little disappointment.

Unlike what many would have thought and wished for, Abhi will not play Ram but, the character of Ravana. Aishwarya is slated to portray the role of Sita and playing Ram to her will be Vikram, a popular actor from down South. The Ram-Sita-Ravana story will be incomplete without Hanuman and to play the bit, Ratnam has roped in Govinda.

When we asked Abhishek about how he is gearing up for the role he said, “It’s a joke between Mani and me. He got me to put on weight for Guru and now he wants me to lose it for Ravana.”

But there is something more than just the weight training and harsh diets that has made the shooting quite tough. We hear that Abhi has hurt himself and the area from the knee to the base of his shin has been bruised.

To make matters worse, as he is shooting in the jungles, he has to wear trousers, unlike the comfort of wearing shorts while shooting for Dostana . Being into a trouser all day is further abrading the skin. But then, Abhi has loving wife Ash by his side so we are sure things will be ok for him soon.

Abhi has also gone real short with his hair this time. In fact, it is the shortest hair cut he has sported ever on screen and off it, almost like a crew cut.

With Ratnam behind the lens and actors like Abhi, Ash, Vikram and Govinda playing the mythological characters one wonders what is the story of Ravana that Mani Ratnam wants to tell us?