Rajinikanth was being spat on his face by Sridevi in reality? A trip down memory lane

It was nearly 35 years ago when Ninaithale Inikkum was first made starring Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and Jayaprada. Yesterday the film was re-released digitally across 100 screens in Tamil Nadu. At the same time the two superstars of the Southern film industry, Rajini and Kamal, bonded over the trailer launch or rather a re-launch of one more film together, 16 Vayathinile, which was originally released in 1977.

At the event Rajini made a trip backwards to his yesteryears and recalled, "During the shoot, no one would talk to me, as I was a relative newcomer. It was Kamal, to whom the production people went, to have a chat.” The film’s producer, S. A. Rajkannu, was praised a lot by the superstar at the event, "When Rajkannu met me about re-releasing 16 Vayathinile a few months back, he told me that we should give away the collections to Kamal, who was at that time having difficulties in releasing Vishwaroopam. It is difficult to find such persons in our film industry."

Meanwhile Kamal recalled the tough times 16 Vayathinile had to undergo in 1977 to get released, "The majority of comments that we got when making the film was that it would flop. In fact, when I was driving from the studio, a person riding a bike came up to me and said that the film will tank.” Then he commented on the difficulties the production unit had to pass through while making the film, "When we shot the scene of Mayilu running in slow motion, we did not have the budget to afford a camera that could shoot slow motion scenes. So, Sridevi literally ran in slow motion." When asked about his relationship with Rajini, Kamal said that he has always been glad thinking that their friendship has survived the trying times throughout years while several people tried hard to break the bond. Then it was revealed by director P. Bharathiraja that actress Sridevi, who enacted Mayilu in the film, was asked to spit on Rajini’s face for real by the actor himself while shooting a sequence. He remembered, "It was taking several takes to shoot the scene and finally, Rajini went to Sridevi and told her to go ahead and spit for real. Such was his dedication.”