Neeta Pillai: Training for The Kung Fu Master was often painful, but I never wanted to give up
By - TNNDeepa SomanUpdated: Dec 31, 2019, 16:09 IST
Neeta Pillai: Training for The Kung Fu Master was often painful, but I never wanted to give up
She was all spunk as the inspiring chairperson Irene in the 2018 film Poomaram. But who knew that was just a glimmer of what Neeta Pillai was capable of. After the release of the trailer of her second film The Kung Fu Master, again with Abrid Shine, her steely fights in a snowy backdrop has left many agape. But Neeta reveals, it was no piece of cake and shares with us the stories of the scars and bruises as a result of playing the character.
When were you told about this role?
Director Abrid Shine told me about his plan to direct an action film almost towards the end of Poomaram’s shoot. However, I didn’t have a complete picture of what’s in store. But, when he asked whether I would be interested to be part of it, I said yes. I love the genre of action movies.
You are in full-on action mode in the film’s trailer. Do you have a background of martial arts?
No. I trained in them for the first time for this film. For almost a year, I trained in various martial art forms. I started with kickboxing, followed by a two-month session in taekwondo. Later, I also did judo, karate and finally, kung fu.
Tell us about your character in The Kung Fu Master
My character Ritu Ram is a Malayali girl, whose family is settled in North India for many years. She is a martial arts teacher and the film revolves around a few incidents and the journey of her life.
And how easy or tough was the process?
It was extremely difficult. Regardless of how active you are, developing such skills push us outside our comfort zones. I understood that right at the beginning. At the kickboxing stage itself, I could see how exhausting it can get. However, I didn’t want to give up. There were times when I felt, ‘One more push and I would drop’. Every muscle and nerve were pulled to do this.
Shine sir himself arranged for my trainers and we practised in Kochi. I used to train for almost five hours and once back, I was always dead tired.
Did you suffer any injuries?
Usually in films, fights aren’t done in contact. Even partial contact fights are rare in shoots, apparently. But, that wasn’t the case in The Kung Fu Master. It was all contact fight, with no harness or padding and so, every punch and kick is for real. And I was fighting men who were all trained, strong martial artistes, that too in supremely cold locations.
We shot majorly in the Himalayan Valley, Badrinath and China border, where weather conditions were quite harsh. All of my toes turned blue without proper blood circulation after snow got into my shoes, giving me a frost bite. I could not place my leg on the floor or slip in a footwear. And yet, I had to put on my shoes and fight! That was extremely painful and often I couldn’t even sleep at night.
I also had two injuries, the first of which was a ligament tear that happened three months into the shoot. I had to take a month and half break for it to heal, and it also affected the shoot. Then, towards the end of the shoot, I dislocated my shoulder leading to another break of the same duration. Many other artistes on the set were also courting injuries now and then.
I was trained in kung fu syllabus intensely and we kept this for the last after we completed everything else. But that’s when I got my shoulder dislocated and I couldn’t shoot for that part well since I still have my right arm immobile. This has been very painful for me.
But I should say I could never give up and enjoyed every bit of this project, its challenges, the team I worked with – all of them kept me going. I am always grateful to Shine sir for giving me this opportunity.
It would have been a transformative experience too.
Yes. Despite how demanding the training or shooting was, I was completely in it, physically and mentally. The contact fight experience in itself conditions you quite a bit. I lost a lot of weight, but gained strength. It has also given me the confidence to feel brave in my own company. It has improved my reflexes too, quite a bit. I don’t know whether I can punch anyone to pulp if confronted (laughs), but I feel I have what it takes to protect myself better, now.
Other than the training, what were the other challenges of doing this project?
The weather in which we were shooting this film posed a great challenge. Reaching the location itself was tough, and we had to carry camera and equipment and walk for about four kilometres for the same. We could only shoot from 10 am to 4 pm as these places had an early sunset, so we had to ensure we reach on time. I could see how tough it is to shoot an action film in such weather conditions. Sometimes, during the shoot it would start to snow. We would think of shooting with the snow, but there is no guarantee that it would snow the next day too. So, there are times we worked continuously from 10 am to 4 pm without lunch breaks. Adding to that was the frost bite woes.
As we couldn’t waste any time on the set, I had to undergo practices and rehearsals till about midnight after we got back to our motel post shoot, daily. This was one another major challenge I faced in addition to everything else.
You had joined the film industry putting your studies on hold. What’s up with that now?
When I took Poomaram I was in my final semester of my masters, which I pursued in the US. My faculty were quite supportive, at the same time, strict about submitting various works on time. I sat in the green room of the movie and finished my project. After first schedule of Poomaram, I had gone back and finished my masters.
What I had to put on hold was MBA, for which I had gained an admission. I got it deferred by a year but could not make it in time. But I spoke to the dean and faculty, and they understand this is a good opportunity for me. They have asked me to re-apply whenever ready.
