Arya spent close to two hours at a stretch submerged 20 feet underwater in near-freezing conditions for Mr X, and he did it bare-bodied. The sequence, which opens the film, was shot in a specialised diving pool in Mumbai and stands as one of the most physically demanding feats an actor has undertaken in recent Tamil cinema.
Most underwater sequences in Indian films are staged at depths of around six feet, using shallow submerged platforms that allow actors to surface quickly between takes. Director Manu Anand wanted something different for Mr X. The spy action thriller, which releases on April 17, needed an opening shot that would immediately signal this was not business as usual. So the production moved to a professional diving pool with a genuine 20-foot depth, and Arya went in.
The water temperature at that depth hovered between 15 and 16 degrees Celsius. For someone performing shirtless, that is punishing cold. Arya described the challenge in detail: “As we go deeper, the temperature drops to 15-16 degrees, ice-cold water. Performing bare-bodied, the body shouldn’t shiver. Controlling the shivering while holding my breath for 30 to 40 seconds was an immense task.”
What makes the shoot even more remarkable is the logistics. Rather than surfacing after every take and losing precious time ascending and descending, Arya and the entire underwater camera crew stayed submerged for marathon stretches. “Once we went underwater, the camera team and everyone stayed there. We could only come back out after one and a half to two hours,” Arya said. Underwater speakers and microphones were rigged so that Manu Anand could relay instructions to Arya in real-time between takes, eliminating the need for constant resurfacing.
That kind of sustained physical endurance goes well beyond what is typically asked of actors even in action-heavy films. Holding your breath for 30 to 40 seconds while suppressing the body’s involuntary shivering response, maintaining a performance, and doing it repeatedly over two-hour windows requires serious conditioning. Arya has spoken in the past about his fitness regimen, and his physique in the stills from Mr X makes it clear the preparation was extensive. But preparation and execution are different things. Cold water saps energy fast, and the deeper you go, the more the pressure compounds every physical discomfort.
Manu Anand, who clearly understood what he was asking of his lead, put it simply: “Arya has done something Tamil cinema has never attempted before.” Whether or not that claim holds up against every underwater sequence ever filmed in the industry, the specifics here are hard to argue with. Twenty feet is not a shallow pool. Fifteen degrees is not a heated tank. And staying down for two hours straight is not a quick dip.
Mr X marks an interesting phase in Arya’s career. The actor, who built his early reputation on romantic and coming-of-age films, has been steadily shifting toward physically intense roles. This project takes that trajectory to its logical extreme. The film is a spy action thriller based on seven real incidents that took place in India between 1965 and 2023. The story follows a captured Indian spy whose execution is ordered after a missing nuclear device resurfaces in enemy hands, only for a rogue agent to defy the command and begin unravelling a conspiracy with far wider implications.
It is a pan-India release, going out simultaneously in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. The cast is stacked. Gautham Karthik shares the screen with Arya, while Manju Warrier and Sarathkumar anchor the supporting lineup alongside Anagha, Athulya Ravi, Raiza Wilson, and Kaali Venkat. Music comes from Dhibu Ninan Thomas. Maverik Movies and Prince Pictures are jointly producing.
For Arya, the personal payoff outweighs the punishment. “At the end of the day, when you see it on screen, I am very happy about the output. When people watch the film, they will understand the significance of this sequence,” he said. That confidence is telling. Actors rarely volunteer for the kind of sustained discomfort this shoot involved unless they believe the footage justifies it. If the opening shot of Mr X delivers what Arya and Manu Anand clearly think it does, audiences will be watching something Tamil cinema has not shown them before.
The film arrives in theatres on April 17, and based on what went into making just its first shot, the rest of Mr X should be worth paying attention to.