Hissss… When snakes come calling!

The unit of John Abraham’s Force had quite a scare in Naigon recently.

Unseasonal rains threw producer Vipul Shah and director Nishikant Kamath’s schedule of Force for a six because the location had to be shifted from the underwater Kutch to Naigaon. And that wasn’t the last of their woes.

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Last Tuesday, over 150 snakes slithered onto the set that was under construction, a night before John Abraham and Genelia D’Souza were to report for shooting.

Though most were non-poisonous farm snakes, some snake charmers were called to lure the creepy crawlies away before the stars came calling.

Shah admitted that the location had been chosen since it matched the topography of the Kutch desert. But he hadn’t reckoned with the snakes, who come out at night when the temperature drops.

“We’re getting gumboots for all the unit members and medical help is available on the sets in case of a snake bite,” says Shah, pointing out that since they are shooting during the day, he doesn’t expect anything untoward to happen.

However, as an added precaution, he has altered the schedule and will shoot the song portions in Kutch as planned, once the weather is back to normal. “We’ve no choice but to shoot the action and other parts here,” he sighs. “If superstition is to be believed, snakes on the sets contribute to a film’s success. Still, we don’t want to take any unnecessary risks.”