Bollywood actor Isha Koppikar recently opened up about a rather intense experience from the sets of her Telugu debut, ‘Chandralekha.’ She got slapped—no joke—14 times by her co-star Nagarjuna while shooting a scene.
She talked about all this in an interview, and honestly, it sounds brutal.
Isha Koppikar recalls getting slapped by Nagarjuna 14 times
Here’s what happened: Isha, being all-in for her role, told Nagarjuna to slap her so she could really feel the emotion. He hesitated at first, but she insisted.
The first slap was pretty gentle, but the director wasn’t happy with the take and kept asking for retakes. Before she knew it, she’d been slapped 14 times. Yes fourteen. She ended up with marks on her face. Poor Nagarjuna kept apologizing, but she told him not to worry—after all, she was the one who asked for it.
In an interview, Isha revealed, “I got slapped by Nagarjuna. I was a fully committed actor who wanted to perform in a real, methodical way. So when he was slapping me, I couldn’t feel it.”
The actress continued, “This was my second film, so I told him, ‘Nag, you 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.”
Isha Koppikar added, “In an attempt to look angry, I got slapped 14 times. At the end, I had slap marks on my face. Bechara mujhe leke baitha, bola sorry. I said, ‘I asked for it, why are you saying sorry?’”
About Chandralekha
‘Chandralekha’ was directed by Krishna Vamsi and is a remake of a Malayalam film by Priyadarshan. Besides Isha and Nagarjuna, the movie also starred Ramya Krishnan and Murali Mohan.
Isha’s no stranger to Bollywood, either. She’s had roles in movies like ‘Don’, ‘LOC Kargil’, and ‘Salaam-e-Ishq’. More recently, she was in the 2024 sci-fi film ‘Ayalaan’ with Sivakarthikeyan and Rakul Preet Singh.
That movie performed well at the box office—critics liked it, audiences liked it, and it pulled in about Rs 76.5 crore at the box office.
