Mahaveeryar on OTT: Did you know Shanvi Srivastava fell off a horse while Asif Ali was petrified training for the film?

Mahaveeryar, which has Nivin Pauly, Asif Ali and Shanvi Srivastava in the lead, is available to stream on Sun NXT from February 10

Asif Ali as Veerabhadran in Mahaveeryar

Director Abrid Shine’s Mahaveeryar is finally dropping on an OTT platform this week. The movie, which has Nivin Pauly, Asif Ali and Shanvi Srivastava in lead roles, took on an experimental subject of a fantasy with elements of courtroom drama and time travel, and that was also what excited the actors to be part of it.

Asif, in an earlier interview with OTTplay, had told us that he was all game for working with Abrid and Nivin in the film. But the biggest challenge didn’t come in the form of its dialogues, which had archaic Malayalam, or the heavy costumes – but as horse-riding. And the filmmaker didn’t break it to him till he had arrived in Jaipur to shoot for the movie.

Asif said as soon as he had checked in to the hotel in Jaipur, Abrid told him that he should turn up at the race course for horse-riding in the evening. “I was thinking that we are in Jaipur and so, we are going to watch horse-riding,” said Asif. But it wasn’t until he was taken to the polo club that he got to know that he would be riding one for the movie.

Also read: Exclusive! Asif Ali on learning horse-riding for Mahaveeryar: I saw the horse throw Shanvi Srivastava off it

The actor was given tips on how to connect with the horse, by feeding it jaggery. But within minutes of “trying to ride it”, Asif explained that he found it impossible. But what truly reinforced his belief was when Shanvi, who was trained in horse-riding too couldn’t manage.

“On the first day, they let me sit on the horse as someone else held it and made it strut. That itself was hurting me. And then when I looked for Shanvi, I saw that the horse had already thrown her off its back and she was laying on the floor,” explained Asif.

The actor finally spent a week training to ride the horse – 45 minutes before the shoot and 45 minutes after – and finally mastered it. “Now, I can ride solo as well,” said the actor.

Mahaveeryar has Asif Ali essaying the role of a minister in its past portions, who is instructed to kidnap a woman and bring her to the king. The movie is set to being streaming on Sun Nxt from February 10.

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