09-05-2006, 11:35 PM
<b>Indian actress turns snake charmer</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->When a snake slithered onto a movie set scaring crew members, Sen didn't flinch -- instead she bowed before it and chanted Hindu hymns to calm the reptile.
Filmmaker Tanuja Chandra told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper in an interview published Tuesday that as they spotted the snake, which lay coiled at the edge of a dance floor of a pub they were using as a set, Sen told everyone not to disturb it and it would leave.
<b>"As she went closer, the snake hissed. We all moved back, but Sushmita went down on her knees and closed her eyes," said Chandra. "She bowed before the snake and chanted some mantras."</b>
Chandra said the unit members were surprised when "the snake didn't move from that place for a few hours. Later it left quietly."
Sen, who plays a rock star in the movie "Zindagi Rocks," or "Life Rocks," said she wasn't afraid.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"The snake is considered very auspicious so I asked everyone not to get scared of Nag Devta (snake god)," she told the paper. "I assured Tanuja that with the blessings of Nag Devta the film is bound to rock."</span>
Many Indians pray to snakes <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Filmmaker Tanuja Chandra told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper in an interview published Tuesday that as they spotted the snake, which lay coiled at the edge of a dance floor of a pub they were using as a set, Sen told everyone not to disturb it and it would leave.
<b>"As she went closer, the snake hissed. We all moved back, but Sushmita went down on her knees and closed her eyes," said Chandra. "She bowed before the snake and chanted some mantras."</b>
Chandra said the unit members were surprised when "the snake didn't move from that place for a few hours. Later it left quietly."
Sen, who plays a rock star in the movie "Zindagi Rocks," or "Life Rocks," said she wasn't afraid.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"The snake is considered very auspicious so I asked everyone not to get scared of Nag Devta (snake god)," she told the paper. "I assured Tanuja that with the blessings of Nag Devta the film is bound to rock."</span>
Many Indians pray to snakes <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->