Hrithik Roshan is shooting for his next film Mohenjo Daro. The period film dates back to the time when survival of the fittest was not just a theory but a necessity. 

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For one scene, the actor was required to overpower a 20-foot crocodile. Naturally, this was not possible to do with a live crocodile, so a remote-controlled plastic croc was used to film the scene. The rest was to be taken care of at the post-production stage with computer graphics (CG). The problem started when these pictures were released by the film’s team. The reaction the cast and crew expected to the hunky actor fighting the monster was nothing short of phenomenal. Instead of bouquets, they got brickbats.

The feedback that Hrithik got, disturbed him. His fans took to social media to say how fake the croc looked and poked fun at the pictures. The actor, a perfectionist, took this criticism to director Ashutosh Gowariker. He suggested that they re-shoot the scene and try and make the beast look more real. 

Says a source, “Ashu refused. Shooting a period film is very difficult and he wants to go by his own conviction. Ashu is convinced that they had filmed good footage and was not willing to change things because of comments on social media. This created some stress between the actor and the director. When Hrithik is not happy with his work, he is difficult to handle. It keeps niggling him and he gets restless. For now they have decided to stay away from the subject, lest it hamper the progress of the film.”

The status quo as of now is that they are not re-shooting. But this is not the end. The actor and the director have both agreed to revisit this at a later stage.  

Hollywood’s most famous animals

Tai the Asian elephant (Operation Dumbo Drop, Water for Elephants), Crystal the capuchin monkey (The Hangover Part II ) and Finders Key, the gelding horse (Seabiscuit, War Horse) are the most in-demand animal actors in Hollywood. These animal actors share the same anxiety as A-list actors — that one day they won’t have a career left and they will be replaced by a younger stablemate or understudy. Squirt, a capuchin, spent 16 years patiently in Crystal’s shadow before landing a role on a 2011 episode of The Big Bang Theory because Crystal was booked elsewhere.