Actor Aiswarya Raj has revealed her harrowing experience amid escalating India–Pakistan tensions, after witnessing a shelling incident during a film shoot in Rajasthan.

The actor was in Jaisalmer for the filming of Half, a Malayalam-language action fantasy directed by Samjad. While dining at a roadside eatery (dhaba) near her hotel, she reportedly saw a blinding flash in the sky, which she initially mistook for an Indian Army mock drill.

However, the reality proved far more serious.

“It was only when I returned to the hotel and turned on the television that I realised it wasn’t a drill at all—it was an actual cross-border shelling,” she said. “The noise and the lights in the sky were terrifying. That’s when the fear truly sank in.”

The production team, comprising nearly 200 members, had been filming in and around Jaisalmer for the past ten days. Following the incident and the rising tension in the region, the shoot was promptly suspended and the crew returned home.

Half, marketed as Malayalam cinema’s first vampire action film, stars Ranjith Sajeev in the lead role. Shooting had commenced on 28 April, with a 100-day schedule originally planned for Rajasthan’s desert landscapes.

Aiswarya Raj recently came to prominence with her role in the film Officer on Duty, and her candid account of the shelling has drawn wide attention on social media.

The production team has yet to announce when or where filming will resume.