Did Silambarasan shoot with a real snake for his new film?

A video of TR Silambarasan catching a

snake

on the sets of

Eeswaran

may have gone viral among his fans, but it has got the film’s team in trouble. An animal activist has filed a complaint with the forest department for using a snake for the shoot.

The

complainant

, on condition of anonymity, tells us, “The snake in the video looks real. You can see someone holding the snake’s tail from behind so that it doesn’t move. You can easily make out the difference between a real snake and the one created using graphics. I have filed a complaint with the forest department.”

The activist, who was a former member of the Performing Animals Sub-Committee of the Animal Welfare Board of India, adds, “Snakes come under the

Wildlife

Protection Act 1972. So, you don’t get permission to handle them for film shoots unless you take a natural shot of them in a place like a zoo. Permissions are granted only for shooting with privately owned elephants.”

Talking about the snake that’s reportedly used in the

Susienthiran

directorial, he adds, “It’s a cobra and the video could have been shot after it was defanged, drugged or had its mouth taped. Otherwise, you can’t handle a cobra like that. That amounts to cruelty. In this age of graphics and technology, why use wild animals for shooting?”

Following the controversy, director Susienthiran and producer Balaji Kaappa released a statement, which read, “We actually shot that scene with a snake made out of plastic-like material. In the film, we will be using visual effects to make it look like a real snake. No news or stills about this scene were released by the film’s team. This video has been leaked when the visual effects work was being done. We are inquiring into how the video got leaked. Following the complaint by a social activist, forest officer Clement Edison called us for an enquiry. We gave full cooperation to the enquiry and gave our side of this story. We have also assured him that we’d be submitting proof to back our claim.”

Clement Edison, forest range officer , tells us, "The film’s team has informed us that it was graphics and not a real snake. We’ve asked them to submit the documents to prove that it was graphics. The enquiry is still on and we are awaiting the documents."