What’s common to Amitabh Bachchan’s film Te3n, Dev’s film Shudhu Tomari Jonyo, Oscar-nominated film Lion and the 2016 hit M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story? All these films featured “animal-actors” and they were all facilitated by Sankha Mukherjee.

Mukherjee, a resident of Barrackpore, is a dog breeder and a regular with his dogs at shows (The Telegraph Salt Lake met him at the Kankurgachhi Dog Lovers show), but it is his side business of providing animals for film shoots that raises curiosity.

“It all started when a friend, who works in the film industry, asked if I could provide a Lhasa Apso for the 2013 film Shesher Kobita. “I was just about to adopt a Lhasa pup at the time and so things fell into place. I took the pup Sheroo to Shillong for the shoot and she shot happily with Swastika (Mukherjee) and company,” says Sankha.

Sheroo has thereafter acted in several feature and ad films and Sankha too has picked up the tricks of the trade.

A Rottie for Bachchan

Sankha recalls how the shoot of Lion required three street dogs on Howrah Bridge while a child actor wandered about. “I got the dogs but they wouldn’t sit still. So I smeared boiled liver on the bridge and the dogs got busy sniffing or licking it. The shot got okayed,” smiles Shanka.

Then for a horror film they needed to show that a street dog had eaten up a man. “For such scenes we put ketchup, alta or red iron tonic on their mouths to depict blood,” he says.

There was a scene in Te3n where Bachchan tries to enter a house that has a fierce Rottweiler on guard. “But the Rottie refused to bark. So I had to bring in street dogs to incite him,” laughs Sankha, adding that the scene didn’t make it to the final cut of the film.

Sankha does not own all the animals he supplies. “That’s just not possible. One film could need a Boxer with a black patch on his left eye while another could need a Dalmatian with a patch on his right eye. How many dogs would I keep? Instead, have a huge network of pet owners and tap them as per requirement.” The animals usually get paid upwards of Rs 8,000 for their role.

Before shooting with “performing animals” filmmakers have to write to the Animal Welfare Board of India for permission. For the shoot, dogs have to travel by AC cars and shoot for no more than six to eight hours a day. A vet has to check the dog pre and post- shoot to ensure he’s fine.

Star-struck stars

Sankha says he doesn’t get star-struck after having worked with the greatest of them all: Amitabh Bachchan. Rather it’s the stars who fall in love with his animals. “Swastika would spend all her time on the sets with Sheroo and Dev would even give interviews for Shudhu Tomari Jonyo with the Pug Buchi on his lap.

Sankha has worked with Aparna Sen in Arshinagar and Goynar Baksho and with Rituparno Ghosh in Satyanweshi. “Parineeti Chopra was initially scared to hold the Golden Retriever puppy in Meri Pyaari Bindu but then they hit it off. In fact, the owners of the pup requested her to name the dog and she named him Bindu.”

Sankha asks the directors to narrate the story line and shot to him in advance so he can prepare the animal accordingly.

The tantrik’s black cat

While dogs are the most commonly required animals, Sankha has also supplied horses, snakes, frogs, rats, hens, cows, ants and cockroaches. “I get rats and roaches from people who supply them to medical colleges for dissection. Bees and ants come from the Sundarbans in jars. If the script requires a row of walking ants we make a hole in the jar and spill some jaggery at a distance. They make a beeline for it.”

The most reluctant actors — hands down — are cats and Sankha’s most memorable shooting experience was with a black cat for a National Award-winning Kurukh language film Edpa Kana.

“Cats aren’t obedient like dogs. I’ve spent hours searching for cat-actors that had leapt out of the window during shoots. But I was all the more tense about finding a black cat. Our society thinks black cats bring bad luck so even most cat lovers don’t keep them,” grimaces Sankha.

A wild goose chase later he realised that the only known black cat belonged to a tantrik in Kanchrapara. He mustered his courage and approached the tantrik who wore red robes, dreadlocks and a necklace of pig teeth and monkey bones. “I felt awkward asking a person of such a background for his cat for a film shoot, but such is the reach of cinema that he agreed! He said he would be happy to see his cat on screen.”

The tantrik accompanied his cat for the shoot, that required the feline to walk across a bed. “The tantrik hid under the bed, the cat ran to him and the shoot was okayed,” recalls Sankha.

Working with performing animals is exciting but Sankha says there aren’t enough roles for them in Tollywood. “Else I would have shifted to this profession full-time,” he says.