Isha Koppikar recently opened up about a tough scene she shot early in her career that involved being slapped – not once, but 14 times. Yes, you read that right. Who slapped her, you ask? None other than Nagarjuna. It all happened during the shooting of Isha's second film, Chandralekha. The film, directed by Krishna Vamsi, was her debut as a lead in Telugu cinema.
Isha Koppikar, new to acting, was keen to give her best. “I got slapped by Nagarjuna. I was a fully committed actor that I want to perform in a real, method way,” she told Hindi Rush.
The actress shared that during a scene where she had to express anger, she wasn't quite getting the emotion right. That's when she made an unusual request: “So when he (Nagarjuna) was slapping me, I couldn't feel it. This was my second film, so I told him, ‘Nag, you really slap me.' He said, ‘Are you sure? No, I can't.' I said, ‘I want that feeling. I am not feeling it right now.' So he slapped me, but softly.”
Even after this, the director did not quite get the expression he wanted, and the scene had to be shot again and again. “In an attempt to look angry, I got slapped 14 times. At the end, I literally had slap marks on my face,” Isha Koppikar said, adding that Nagarjuna felt bad afterwards. “Bechara mujhe leke baitha, bola sorry. I said, ‘I asked for it, why are you saying sorry?'”
Chandralekha was a remake of a Malayalam film of the same name, originally made by Priyadarshan. The film also featured Ramya Krishnan, Murali Mohan, Chandra Mohan, Giri Babu and Tanikella Bharani in important roles.
Coming back to Isha Koppikar, she is known for her performances in movies like Don, LOC Kargil and Salaam-e-Ishq. The actress was last seen in the 2024 sci-fi movie Ayalaan, co-starring Sivakarthikeyan and Rakul Preet Singh. Sharad Kelkar, Yogi Babu, Karunakaran, Bhanupriya and David Broughton-Davies were also part of the project.
