As Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan get ready to create an Ichchadhari universe called Nagzilla, Reena Roy who played a shape-mutating ichchadhari nagin in Raj Kumar Kohli’s blockbuster Nagin almost forty years ago, sends all her best wishes to Kartik.
Says Reena, “It is a novel idea. I don’t know why no one thought of it before.In our country snakes have a very special place. They are feared and yet worshipped.”
Recalling her own Nagin experience Reena Roy says, “Nagin gave me a chance to play the avenging hero. I killed so many heroes in that film. No one knew at that time that the film and its songs would become so popular. I went on to do several other films with Kohli Saab, including the other superhit Jaani Dushman(1979) . But nothing in his career, or mine could equal the craze of Nagin.
Reena Roy got to do Nagin by default. “I got to do Nagin with Kohli Saab because nobody else wanted to do it. He asked every major heroine. They all said no. Then the script came to me. I was immediately interested. A lot of people warned me, ‘Tu pagal hai kya? This girl in Nagin goes around killing her enemies. It will finish off you career even before it has started.’ But I was young and reckless. I was willing to take on anything that came my way.I plunged into it. The only two people who supported my decision to do Nagin were my mother and sister Barkha. It took me to the next level of my career. It was the central character.”
Shooting Nagin was not easy. “I had to behave like an icchadhari naag. I had to slither on the muddy ground and dance. I had to wear very hard lenses whenever my character turned in a naag. During those days they didn’t have soft lenses,the hard ones bruised my eyes. They would try to stop to the shooting for my comfort. I would insist they carry one. Ek junoon tha(there was passion). I was game for any challenge. I am sure Kartik Aaryan will make a terrific ichchadhari nag. I can’t wait to see what he does.”
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