Madhuri Dixit's husband Dr Nene rolls his eyes as Rani Mukerji sucks snake venom in Raja Ki Aayegi Baaraat: ‘This scene is pure…'

Indian Express

17-05-2025

Rani Mukerji, who gained recognition for her roles in films like Ghulam (1998) and Saathiya (2002), started off her Bollywood career with the film Raja Ki Aayegi Baaraat. In the film, she plays a survivor of sexual assault who marries her attacker as per the court's order. Aside from the film's problematic depiction of domestic violence, it also included a scene in which Rani's character sucks snake venom out of her husband to save his life. They fall in love. The movie was criticised for its plot, and is now the source of memes. One such scene from the film was recently viewed by Madhuri Dixit's husband Dr Sriram Nene, who couldn't help but roll his eyes.
In his latest YouTube video, Dr Nene was seen reviewing a couple of medical memes, sharing what's real and what's dangerous about them. Among the many memes that he watched, Rani Mukerji's snake venom scene from Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat stood out. Watching it, Dr Nene rolled his eyes and said, 'I don't know the context of this but I think what we are looking at is the old wives tell that if a snake bites you, you suck out the venom and the patient does fine.'
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Dismissing such misconceptions, Dr Nene clarified, 'Listen, by the time you start to exhibit neurologic effects and other effects, he's already got a systematic dose of the venom. So, I don't know that this is going to change anything. What you can do, though, if you are at the scene, is you can put a tourniquet on and then get the patient to help where they can give them an antivenom.'
He then recalled the time when his own family once kept mongoose and dogs to protect them from snakes as it was a common affair back then. 'In many parts of India… remember India is not one India. It is 30% metro, 70% rural. And in the rural areas like Konkan where my family was from two generations ago, they did have cobras and other snakes and they didn't always have antivenoms readily available. People did die of these bites. They would keep mongoose and dogs to to kind of protect you.'
Getting back to the film's scene, Dr Nene said, 'This scene is pure cinema for the most part. Not sure that it's realistic and wouldn't give you the best results. But I have seen it before in western films as well as eastern films so not a big surprise, just that it doesn't work.'