You are a famous personality in Hollywood. What got you here?
Yes, I have done more than 400 films and TV shows of different budgets. It was William Keenan- the American liaison man of the production house who got the ball rolling. It was through his maneuvering that Jennifer got the directorial offer. Once she was on board, she pulled me in the crew for the film had to have a lot of special effects. I took up the project as a challenge because I had never done a serpent film earlier.

Tell us about the work in the film?
The film mostly consists of prosthetic make up, animatronics and CGI. There are several major sequences that show the transformation from a snake to a woman and vice versa. To achieve the required result, we have go through nine stages of transformation.

Tell us about the stages.
Stage one is transformation from snake to woman. This stage shows both the sides of king cobra. The transformation starts with the swelling of the body after which human effects start appearing with the coming out of hands, legs etc. After this we see a half snake, half woman Mallika and finally she is seen shedding the snake skin.

What about the other stages?
Stage two involves the snake puppets to miniature version of Mallika to the full body make-up and finally to the human form. Then we have the insert stages like the coming out of snake to the final human form. Stage 3 involves snake features like back transforming, tail bursting out of her limbs, change of skin texture to snake skin texture. Then we go into the animatronic puppets and later getting into computer generated images (CGI). Only at the end do we see a 6 foot tall cobra.

Please talk of make-up and costumes
The film has a lot of MUFX (prosthetic make-up) that’s basically a technology that has won hearts and awards. Prosthetic make-up is the process of using sculpting, molding and casting techniques to create advanced cosmetic.

It has been used in Star Trek, Lord Of The Rings, The Hulk and in vampire movies. I build my requirement from scratch, so that they can move, breathe, sweat and bleed almost as if they are real. I have created nine models of snakes in different stages. These are operated by five people simultaneously with the help of remote controls.

How long does it take to get the snake’s make-up done on Mallika?
It depends on what stage she is in, in that particular scene. Make-up for the earliest stages takes 2-3 hours, while the later stages take 4-5 hours.

How many artistes does it take?
Two artistes work on her get-up, Connie does her body and Melanie does her face. The material she wears is quite slimy, it just sticks on to her skin.

Does it restrain Mallika from carrying out her regular bodily functions?
Some suits are really uncomfortable, so much so that Mallika can’t go to the toilet for almost 8 to 10 hours at a stretch. Though it’s torturous, she’s a good sport. The snake suit does restrain her natural movement, for she can only move in a way a snake can! Most of the time she has to be carried. She has to be covered so that no one sees her get-up and is carried to and fro from the sets every time she has a shot.

What about the eyes?
She has to wear huge contact lenses in her eyes, they are so big that they cover the whites of her eyes as well. It’s quite painful. She needs to remove them every half hour so that her eyes can breathe.

Tell us about your experience working with an Indian crew
Oh! it was great working with the crew who are very dedicated, very helpful. I never ever imagined that I will get such a good crew to work with. This experience has gelled very well with the fact that I have never worked on such a project earlier.