When a script asks an actor to almost drown, most fans assume a body double or camera trick. For The Vvaan, Tamannaah Bhatia went into the water herself — and she did not know how to swim.
In a new interview with Mid-Day, Bhatia opens up about the moment that scared her most: an underwater sequence in the song Chhathi Maiya, where her character faces a near-drowning situation.
“I cannot swim. I was required to almost drown, and I know how to do that very well,” she said.
The line is playful, but the preparation was not. Before the shoot, Bhatia took swimming and deep-sea diving classes. She also credits her co-star for keeping her steady through the sequence.
“I have to give credit to Sidharth; he is a deep-sea diver and supported me a lot,” she said.
Sidharth Malhotra, who leads the film with Bhatia, is a deep-sea diver himself. For a performer who had never learned to swim, having that expertise on set made a difficult sequence safer.
Why a near-drowning shot matters
Underwater work tends to read as effortless on screen. In reality, it demands breath control, trust in the crew and enough training to stay safe while performing fear. Bhatia’s honesty makes that invisible work visible — a reminder that a short, dreamlike song sequence can take weeks of physical preparation.
The scene also carries the film’s theme. The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest is a folk-mythology thriller about a rational urban man whose worldview is upended by supernatural forces around a forbidden ancestral forest. In Chhathi Maiya, the character’s loss of control is precisely the point, so the actress had to sell vulnerability rather than heroics.
For fans, that context changes the viewing. Once you know Bhatia was genuinely scared, the emotion on screen reads as more than performance; it becomes a record of someone doing the thing that frightened her.
The Vvaan at a glance
- Release: September 25, 2026
- Leads: Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia
- Directed by: Deepak Kumar Mishra; written by Arunabh Kumar
- Supporting cast: Sunil Grover, Shweta Tiwari, Anup Soni and Maniesh Paul
- Box office: Around ₹58.85 crore net in India during the opening week; more than ₹76.5 crore worldwide gross after nine days.
No rift, she says
Bhatia also addressed reports of tension between the director and Malhotra. She said she had heard the rumours but found no truth in them.
“The Vvaan was made with the purest of intentions, with the best resources that we had. Filmmaking is about unity in diversity,” she said.
Her view of the film’s success is less about validation than gratitude. “I have got more than my due from The Vvaan,” she said, adding that acting remains its own reward.
The combination — a performer confronting a real fear, a co-star who happens to be a diver and a folk-horror premise that is clicking with audiences — has kept The Vvaan in the conversation beyond opening week.
Source: The Times of India
