A Snake on sets of 'My Name Is Khan'

When Shah Rukh Khan shoots, everyone would give an arm and a leg to be present on the sets.

However just before the shooting of My Name Is Khan began in Filmcity, Karan Johar taken aback by the presence of an extremely slimy and uninvited guest on the sets - a full grown water snake.

Recounts Karan, “Yes, a snake was spotted when the set was being made. Our production designer Sharmista Roy was on the sets but the others said we should not harm the snake because they are considered a good omen. So we respected that belief and it was allowed to go away on its own.”

But what the filmmaker hadn’t accounted for was the snake’s second visit. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time. A major sequence was being shot inside a specially constructed tank at Kranti maidaan in Film City. It was a flood sequence and the cast and crew were inside it when an assistant spotted a huge water snake. “It was chaotic to say the least,” says a source present on the sets. Shah Rukh was immediately taken out of the water and Karan flatly refused to resume shooting till the snake was caught.

Karan confirmed the horrific scare. “We had 500 extras in the water tank when the snake was spotted. An expert snake catcher Abhishek Verma got into the water and caught the snake. We made sure not to hurt the snake and it was later released in its natural habitat. Thankfully everything came back to normal after that.”