Kunchacko Boban on shooting with a real lion for Grrr - ‘It was scary but...’ | Exclusive

Count on Kunchacko Boban to always be game for risky sequences in his films! For his upcoming release, Grrr..., the Chaaver actor shot with a real-life lion in South Africa.

The movie, which is helmed by Ezra director Jay K, is a slice-of-life comedy drama that also has Suraj Venjaramoodu in the lead. The sequence, which featured the same lion that was also used in Idris Elba’s Beast (currently streaming on Netflix), had to have the actor present in a few shots.

Also read: Grrr director Jay K explains why Kunchacko Boban’s shoot with the lion from Beast, Yellowstone prequel was risky 

In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, Kunchacko told us, “If you look at the whole thing, it was scary. But we were well taken care of; all safety measures were in place. We just had to have that presence of mind while we were doing the shot. I enjoyed it. I love taking risks and I love adventures. I am an outdoors person and all these experiences happen because I am part of the film industry. So, I am lucky and I don’t want to waste my luck.”

In an earlier interview with us, Jay said that the team had sought the help of an animal keeper named Luke Cornell, who has a host of well-trained lions that were used in movies such as Beast and Yellowstone’s prequel series 1923, as well as Akshay Kumar’s Samrat Prithviraj.

Before shooting the whole sequence, the team had sent Cornell the entire description of the scene setup and what they were planning to achieve with the lion in the scenes. While some part of the sequence was completed using VFX, a part of it had to have Kunchacko and the lion together.

The filmmaker was all praise for Kunchacko’s willingness to do the shot, especially because it was something that could have been weaved together by shooting the lion’s and actor’s portions separately.

Watch Koose Munisamy Veerappan, Kadak Singh, Scam 2003, Chaaver and more on OTTplay, by subscribing to the Jhakaas monthly pack which provides access to 19 OTTs at just ₹49 for the first month. 

The movie, which also has Rajesh Madhavan, Shruti Ramachandran and Anagha, is expected to hit the theatres by February 2024, and is set against the backdrop of a zoo. Meanwhile, Kunchacko is also part of Amal Neerad’s upcoming movie.