Actor Samantha is going places and she has raised the bar for herself. After The Family Man 2 and the super hot special song she did in Pushpa, she’s now all set to pull off high octane action sequences — for the first time in Telugu and Tamil cinema — in her next film Yashoda, a thriller.
The film’s director-duo Hari-Harish were wondering who to rope in as stunt choreographer for action sequences. “It was then that Samanthaji suggested the Hollywood stunt master Yannick Ben’s name; in fact, she had worked with him during Hindi web series The Family Man 2 and exuded confidence that Ben does a great job,” reveals Harish, adding that the film’s producer Sivalenka Krishna Prasad too endorsed the idea.
Yannick Ben choreographed stunts for Hollywood movies like Transporter 3, Project 7, Paris By Night Of Living Dead, Inception, etc., apart from a few Bollywood films. He also composed action sequences for Pawan Kalyan’s Attarintiki Daredi, and Mahesh Babu-starrer 1— Nenokkadine.
Unlike recent female-centric films, Harish states that the action episodes in this film are phenomenal. The film has a total of eight action sequences and most of them are shot in a specially constructed set.
Director-duo Hari-Harish
Now eight is a big number isn’t it. “But all the action sequences are organically part of the script and nothing is forcibly inserted,” he clarifies.
Since Sam is a fitness enthusiast, there was hardly anything required for her physical transformation. But she worked hard and had rehearsed extensively for a few days before shooting the action sequences.
She pulled off the scenes with great elan, like a pro; she was just awesome,” beams Harish.
These major action scenes were shot on Samantha and others for 10 days in three different sets. The next action episode is scheduled to shoot at Kodaikanal. These action sequences in the film are going to be a major highlight.
“Since this is a multilingual action thriller, it’s been an exciting and enriching experience to work with a performer like Samantha and Hollywood technicians,” says Harish.
But when asked about Sam’s role in the film, he doesn’t want to reveal anything, but says, “She plays a warrior. Sam is a sweet girl in the film, but she can quickly transform into a force to reckon with when she’s cornered.”
