Heart problem, delay, re-shoots, and then some more delay; and now, a death on the sets of Raavan. Mani Ratnam's Raavan is hitting headlines, for all the wrong reasons and bad news, in the middle of its on-going production making it the talk of the town even before its release.

Earlier, it was Mani's declining health, which delayed the shoot and then we heard that the director reshot some portions of the film, this gossip considerably angered the director who vehemently denied the charges. But there is no denying to this horrible and shocking news coming straight from the jungles of God's own country, Kerala.

A gruesome murder was witnessed by the crew of Raavan, as they helplessly watched one from their own crew mercilessly trampled and gored to death by a mad elephant.

As per our sources, "Last evening the cast of Raavan was shooting in the jungles of Trichur in Kerala. Abhishek Bachchan and Ravi Kissan were shooting for a particular scene, which required few shots with elephants. This shoot turned out to be a horrifying ordeal that ended with the death of a crew member."

"While shooting, suddenly one of the domesticated and well-trained elephant had a fit of madness and went wild and out-of-control, it started behaving in a feral manner.

He started running here and there, going berserk and scary, seeing this its mahout Andavan tried to calm it down, but by then the elephant was already out-of-control and highly aggressive, it gored the mahout with its tusks, heaved him with its trunk and threw the poor mahout on the ground with a thud; stomping and crushing him on the spot.

This incident took place around 4:30 pm in the evening. The production unit was shell-shocked, too dumbfounded to witness such a wild massacre. Mani decided to pack up the shoot, as no one was in the slightest mood to stay there, " adds the source.

Aishwarya, who is currently shooting for Raavan was also present; but she had already finished her shoot, and was safely tucked away in her vanity van.

"No actor was hurt in this situation as Ravi and Abhishek were far from this place. After this shocking incident the whole unit packed up and headed towards Ooty. Mani strictly warned his crew to not even breath a word about this incident anywhere, " whispers the close hand from the sets.

Mani was taken aback with this incident and compensated for the death on Raavan's set by giving a handout of Rupees 1 lakh to mahout Andavan's family. "He will be giving a total of Rupees Five lakh to the family, as the death took place during the shoot of his flim, " concludes the source.

It was reported that Mani has also conducted a havan to ward off evil so that things go smoothly with his shoot, but it seems his problem is not ending.

A long list of mishaps are piling up and delaying the shoot of Raavan, which incidentally diverts from the original Ramayana and shows Ash falling in love with her kidnapper. Is it the Raavan's effect on the film or something else...?