Mallika falls ill on the sets of Naagin

Mallika Sherawat has been shooting non-stop for Jennifer Lynch's Naagin The Snake Woman and fell ill last week as a result. Govind Menon and Mallika's brother Vikram are co-producing the film along with Ratan Jain of Venus Records and Tapes. Irrfan Khan co-stars. Says a source on the sets of Filmistan where Naagin is currently being shot, "Mallika has been shooting round the clock for the last week when she fell ill due to exhaustion and fever.

Though it's a normal shift, it sometimes stretches from 9 am to 9 pm. The strain proved to be too much for Mallika. She is working very hard on her role. Her make-up alone takes four hours! Last Friday, the actress was in no condition to shoot. Her physician Dr Agarwal had to be called in to give her shots to help her get through the day." The actress is a strict vegetarian and believes in eating only natural foods, so her protein intake isn't high, which could have been a cause of her collapse.

The source adds that Mallika is a strong woman and recovered fast. "We have put up a huge workshop in the studio where special effects creator Robert Kurtzman (Vanilla Sky, Evil Dead and Quentin Tarantino's films) is actually creating a 12-feet long huge snake which Mallika transforms into. The film which was to be shot in Chennai originally was delayed of lightmen's strike there, so the unit is working against time to complete the film, which they want to release in May 2009. So Mallika has been shooting without any complains about the long hours."