Maniratnam risking lives of Aishwarya Rai and Vikram.

One of the finest filmmakers in India, Maniratnam is nearly ready with his most ambitious film Raavan. Sources say that the ace filmmaker took inspiration from a real life incident which almost killed him in 1995 to can an extremely risky action scene for the film.

The same source said, Maniratnam wanted stunt director Sham Kaushal to shoot an action sequence in which a petrol bomb was being used. The scene was being shot with Vikram and Aishwarya Rai. It was a difficult scene to execute as Maniratnam wanted the bomb to go off in mid air just a few feet away from Vikram. The bomb was to blast just seconds before it hit the ground. Even if there was a small error in the timing of the blast Vikram would get seriously injured.

Maniratnam insisted that the scene be executed just the way he wanted it and that too with Vikram, Aishwarya and all the other actors in the frame. Commenting on why Mani was so adamant on making the scene as precarious as possible, the source said Mani himself had been in a similar situation when his film Bombay released. A bomb went off in midair and he was saved by just a few seconds in 1995.