With director Girish AD’s Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, starring Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju in the lead roles, all set for release on August 21, paving the way for a direct clash with director Vysakh’s Prithviraj Sukumaran-led Khalifa, Malayalam movie audiences are all pumped as the Onam box-office showdown has finally begun. Recently, during the promotion of Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, actor Vinay Forrt, who plays a key role in the romantic comedy, shared an anecdote from his early acting days when he was slapped multiple times by a monk during the making of a film.

Guerrilla shooting in Haridwar gone wrong

The incident apparently occurred while Vinay was shooting for director Sajeevan Anthikad’s Prabhuvinte Makkal (2012) in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, in a guerrilla-filmmaking style. For those unfamiliar, guerrilla filmmaking, according to Studio Binder, is defined as “a shooting style that is done clandestinely with no film permits, limited props, and usually a bare-minimum crew.”

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As he bowed down in front of a monk at an ashram, as per the script, Vinay Forrt recounted that the monk dealt a massive blow to his back with an open palm. Shocked, he tried to get up, but the monk held him down and slapped him again. “Prabhuvinte Makkal is a movie I still like a lot. In Haridwar, we had to film a few scenes in guerrilla style,” he recalled during an Onam-themed promotional event organised by Bhavana Studios, which has bankrolled Bethlehem Kudumba Unit.

“When we went for shooting in an ashram, there was a swami (monk). The scene was supposed to feature the swami blessing me. When the director said ‘action,’ I bowed down for his blessing, and he gave me a hard slap on my back. Shocked, I tried to get up through the pain. But he held my head, pushed it down, and slapped me again and again,” Forrt shared.

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‘Fahadh Faasil watches the song whenever he feels low’: Vinay Forrt

The actor joked that some of his ruthless friends still revisit the song often. Nivin Pauly, who was sitting beside Vinay Forrt as he shared the story, added, “That song is still on YouTube, and you can clearly see the scene in it. Upon receiving the first slap, he flinches and tries to get up, and then gets slapped again.”

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“I think whenever Fahadh Faasil (actor and co-producer of Bethlehem Kudumba Unit) feels low or sad in life, he plays that song on YouTube,” Forrt humorously remarked.

Also starring Swasika, Madhu, Kalabhavan Mani, and Salim Kumar in key roles, Prabhuvinte Makkal marked Tovino Thomas’s acting debut as well.