Asin Thottumkal In 2004 Asin Thottumkal was shooting for the Telugu film ‘Gharshana’ at a lake in Nuwara Eliya, a popular hill station in Sri Lanka. Shooting was proceeding on two boats. When pack-up time was announced, Asin was sitting in one corner of the boat and she suddenly saw water pouring in. “I am thinking, ‘Hey, this is slightly odd but maybe it is no big deal ’,” she says. The next moment Asin, who does not know swimming, found herself in the water, along with 17 other people, as the boat sank. The lake has a depth of 60 feet. “It was a Titanic moment,” she says. “I remember an assistant director shouting, ‘Somebody please save Asin.’” As Asin sank she held her nerve, flailed her arms and legs and managed to come up for breath. It was when she sputtered for breath for the third time that she began to feel traumatised. “I felt I had reached the limit,” she says. “Suddenly I felt a tug. Somebody was pulling my shirt collar.” The person dragged Asin towards the back of the uptu...