Shooting at Prague’s Sedlec Ossuary was a nerve-wrecking experience for Chandan Roy Sanyal. He spoke to I KAUR
Actor Chandan Roy Sanyal never believed in spirits or life beyond death. But while shooting for his latest film Prague, he came across many strange incidents which compelled him to re-think on his ideaologies.
One of the scenes was shot at the Sedlec Ossuary, and Sanyal, the lead in this psychological thriller, experienced the weirdest thing of his life. The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Czech Republic. The church contains skeletons of over 70,000 people. The bones have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.
At first it was quite fascinating for Chandan to be shooting at the ossuary. The moment he entered the place, he felt something terribly wrong. “We had to travel at least two hours away from the main city and it was very cold because of the rain. Sedlec in general is a very sleepy town and there was absolutely nobody on the streets. The church was at the end of a deserted street. It was evening by the time we got there and we started shooting. Imagine you are surrounded by skulls and skeletons of people. I think it was the first time in my life I even saw a real skeleton. It was quite an erratic experience at first,” he said.
The story after that becomes more dramatic. “It was 7.30 pm and it was raining nonstop and like you would imagine it in a film — there was hardly any light, the wind was howling and it was extremely scary. I felt nauseated and for a while I felt out of breath. It was a very funny kind of feeling. I felt like something was overpowering me,” he shared.
Not many people have shot at the Sedlec Ossuary before and for the crew of Prague, Sanyal’s experience was a word of caution. However, they managed to finish the shoot on time.
The actor explained, “We somehow got permission to shoot in the church and there was no way we were going to let go of a chance like that. So I had to complete the scene and if you watch the film you will see I was completely spooked out.”
The young actor doesn’t plan to returning to the church ever again. He asserted, “I don’t think I will go back there. I get goosebumps thinking of that day. I don’t believe in such kind of energy and maybe that is because nothing happened to me before. One never believes it till it happens. I now know that these energies exist and I’m not the kind to challenge them.”