"Veera" is all set for an exciting tiger Sequence!

Yash Patnaik's heart-warming story about a brother-sister bond titled 'Veera"- Ek Veer Ki Ardaas on Star Plus has been getting appreciation since the time it was launched in October 2012. The show is gearing up for important sequence involving a tiger. On being asked whose idea it was to incorporate the tiger sequence Producer Yash Patnaik says, "After recreating Rural Olympic extravaganza (in Amritsar) for Veera we wanted another event for Veera post IPL. That's the time our team along with the channel came up with the idea of introducing tiger as a threat. It was a novel idea and a difficult task to take the entire unit to Thailand to shoot with the wild cat. Everyone had the adrenaline rush with the thought of shooting with a tiger".

Post the news of Sampoorn's (Sudhanshu Pandey) death the villagers of Pritampura will start sighting a tiger in the outskirts. Villagers start keeping a vigil on the tiger to protect children as well as the pets. After few days the sighting stops and it is believed the tiger has gone back to the woods. Suddenly after a few days the tiger makes a sudden attack. Tiger plays a key role in the main storyline to take the story and human equations forward.  On being asked how it will take the story forward Producer Yash Patnaik says, "Visually it will be a treat to see a tiger in a daily not just in one or two episodes but regularly in the track which will take the story forward. This is going to be big draw for kids. Ranvijay and Veera have been the mainstays of the show and tiger sequence will have an impact on them individually and collectively. For kid audience they will see a different side of a tiger which has never been explored on TV. Here tiger is not just an object, it plays a character".

Producer Yash Patnaik says, "In India we don't get permission to shoot with a tiger. First we tried to get a trained tiger in Mauritius. But somehow that didn't work out. Then I went to Thailand which has a good population of tigers. I personally met half a dozen tiger trainers and over 80 tigers at places like Sriracha Tiger Park, Tiger Temple etc., before zeroing on the wild cat 'Teeyayi' for our shoot. 

We developed a detailed story board for the entire sequence which was shared with the tiger trainer 'Ken' in Thailand. Ken trained the tiger over one week to do the difficult sequences. We flew the entire unit from Mumbai. When we were all set to shoot weather played spoilt sport as it started raining there. We had to find a large studio where shooting with a tiger was allowed. After much deliberation we found Montri Studios in Bangkok which allowed us to shoot with Teeyayi. The entire set was created there and finally we shot over a couple of days.

It was a daunting task to shoot with a tiger. The entire unit was on extreme attention as the mood of the tiger could swing either ways when it sees so many unknown people around. We had few Machans (higher platforms) in the floor for the crew to operate from as we were shooting with an unleashed tiger. Few cages were mounted for cameramen and Red Epic cameras for operation on the ground level. The trainers and support staff were brilliant. Our cameramen Sanjay Memane, Anil Katke and director Waseem Sabeer did a fabulous job. They were closest to the unleashed tiger. Finally we completed the most challenging shoot of our life."

Mamta Patnaik creative producer creatively supervised the entire sequence to give optimum impact.

The episodes of Veera On Star Plus involving Tiger will be aired from 30th May onwards.