Mallika celebrates her birthday with leeches

Mallika Sherawat celebrated her 31st birthday on the sets of her home production Hisss in Kerala. The b'day girl groaned, "I am shooting in the jungles with rain, mud and leeches and dodgy network. The snake suit which doesn't allow me to use the loo for 10 hours and the leeches and rain are a perfect combination." The Hisss unit managed to surprise her with a party and a cake. Mallika says, "To top it all, the crew threw a raw food birthday party after pack-up and got a food cake made of raw vegetables and nuts."

Mallika loves eating raw foods and vegetables. At her home, you won't find anything that is not naturally grown. Vikram, who is living in the same apartment, is a typical North Indian who loves to eat non-vegetarian and rich, spicy food but at Mallika's home, that is tabboo. Her brother and co-producer Vikram Singh could not be with his sister on her special day. He joins her today. When asked if he had a present for his behna, he laughs, "I'm joining the unit today and the only gift I can think of is a lot of raw vegetables tied up in a bundle as a gift to Mallika!"

Now, Mallika has emotionally blackmailed Vikram to also eat raw foods to boost his health and physique. He makes his acting debut next year. Vikram admits, "I am currently on a strict raw food diet. Our mom had sent a cook for my food who used to cook proper Haryanvi food but after I came back from a 15-day break, I saw that this dude had forgotten to cook anything spicy or non-veg and served up instead raw, boiled or half-cooked food and vegetables as that's healthy. Nowadays, I eat my dinner early by 7.30 pm."

A source adds, "During the shooting of Hisss, Vikram would eat the unit food once in a while as it's spicy and rich but didn't let Mallika know about it. He knows she's doing it for him and just wants him to be healthy and fit so he doesn't mind." Now, he's dreading joining his sister in Tekkady.

Tekkady, where the unit is shooting, is apparently infested with leeches and the unit's having a tough time fending off the blood-sucking insects. Vikram reveals, "There are leeches but we just remove them and continue shooting. Our director Jennifer (Lynch) liked the topography of Kerala the best. We have put up tents in the jungles and the hotel accommodation is also good. We plan to release Hisss next year. It will depend on the kind of post-production we have to do - like special effects, etc. Robert Kurtzman (special effects director) is also in Kerala."