Rani Mukerji on overcoming hydrophobia for 'Mardaani 2': Was disturbed, had a fear

Rani Mukerji’s edge of seat entertainer and much-awaited cop thriller Mardaani 2 is all set to release this year on December 13. Rani Mukherji, who is presently busy with promotions of her upcoming film in a recent interview with a leading media news ncy spoke about how she overcame her fear of water. “re was a scene in film that required me to do an underwater action sequence. When I heard it for first time during script narration from Gopi I was quite disturbed because honestly, I have fear of water as I actually do t kw how to swim. From childhood, I have fear of getting into pool.”

Rani on overcoming hydrophobia 

“All my life I have tried several times to be able to get myself to swim but unfortunately, I have t been successful. first thing I asked Gopi after narration got over is how important is underwater sequence, is it very imperative for film or wher we can do without it. To my utter shock, Gopi said that it cant be changed and he would like to shoot sequence underwater and he would prefer t changing it,” Rani said.

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Sharing how she overcame her fear, Rani added: “I realised that it was going to be a huge challenge for me going forward with film to do this particular underwater sequence. Doing an underwater shot is still ok if y are just beauty shots as one can still man it however doing action underwater gets very challenging. I spoke to Gopi and gradually told him that unfortunately, his lead actor does t kw to swim and he was utterly shocked. He was n in a dilemma of how this sequence is ever going to take place. I requested Gopi to keep underwater sequence as last thing that we will shoot for film so I could get time to practice swimming and also try to get rid of my fear.”

And she took her time to practice swimming. “We finished shooting film in June and because I was so scared to even attempt doing underwater sequence I kept delaying practice sessions and n we kind of reached September/October. Everybody started to panic and said that w we are at a deadline and we have to shoot it. I guess since we were that close to deadline I knew that re was or option but to shoot in October as rains had also stopped and this was only window for us to shoot. I mustered cour and started going for my swimming lessons.

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It was her coach Anees Adenwala who helped Rani a lot in combating her fear. She said: “He (coach) trained me so well and was absolutely wonderful. He actually eased me in water and I realised that at this point if I don’t get rid of my water phobia I would never in life and this film gave me a great chance to tackle demon in my life of t being able to swim. I practised with him and he trained me for underwater sequence. We shot sequence in Khopoli where military people train. It’s a 30 feet pool which is very deep. y had to make pool look like we are in middle of Chambal river where sequence is actually taking place.  

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“It was a night sequence, it was very dark. Everyone was shocked as I actually mand to do it. I am pretty proud of myself today that I dealt with my demon which is fear of water and I overcame it through this shoot. I am glad that Gopi put this sequence in film because I have finally overcome my fear of water and w I can gladly swim in a pool if t in sea.”

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(All quotes have been taken from PTI)