Mallika and Jennifer Lynch Get Snaky

Seen as a sort of Slumdog Millionaire for horror buffs, snake-fanciers and males generally, Hisss (India/US-2010; dir. Jennifer Chambers Lynch) stars Mallika Sherawat, one of India's sexiest female stars, as a shapeshifting Naga. (If you don't know what a naga is, go read this article on Undead Backbrain to catch up on the whole part-woman, part snake thing.)

Here's director Jennifer Lynch and Mallika Sherwat on set:

Says producer Govind Menon:

I definitely want people to see this film and say it is the greatest horror movie made in the history of cinema –- better than Hitchcock, better than The Exorcist.

Ambitious, eh? He sees Hisss as a genuinely international film -- the first Bollywood film to have the sort of money and Hollywood co-production backing that Jennifer Lynch brought with her to the project. When asked why it will appeal to Western audiences, he commented:

The vampire has been around for 200 hundred years, but this character has been around for 5,000 years... It crossed all of these different countries and cultures [India, China, and the Far East in general].

However, I would've thought this was a far more down-to-earth reason:

Mallika said of her role in the film (which is performed without dialogue):

I’m happy to be a part of this. For a snake that doesn’t speak, my character in the movie is very sexy, it’s venomous and it can swallow whole. A story like this comes only once in a lifetime. It’s a popular legend you are part of...

She added:

As it is, my parents have disowned me! Now, when they see me making love to a snake…?! Oh my God! And it was a rubbery, slimy, slithering snake. And Jennifer would tell me, ‘Lick it harder!’ Yuck!

Click on the above image to see it much larger.

You can read a longer article (from which I took the above quotes) on Buzzine Bollywood.

For more pictures from Hisss, the trailer and more info on the film, read Part 2 of the Undead Backbrain article "Of Snakes and Women" here.

And just for good measure, here's some pictures provided by Avery, who gives Mallika his vote for "Sexiest Actress of the Year". He comments: "I know the female cast of Assault Girls are all equally super-sexy but this lady makes a man-eating serpent sexy."

 

• Sources:  Bollywood Buzzine; BharatBytes; various Google searches.