NEW DELHI: ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’, the jungle adventure drama looks magnificent with the cinematic experience it offers given its real locations in the jungles of Kerala and the majestic elephants. But one thing that stands out is the strong women characters, essayed by Shriya Pilgaonkar and Zoya Hussain. Their grit and persistence play an important role in the fight between man versus the wild. Shriya, who is seen playing a young journalist, strives hard to save the elephants and their environment despite many hurdles. Speaking of why the director, Prabu Solomon, chose her to play this coveted part in the trilingual, Shriya says, “Prabu Sir feels incredibly passionate about this subject and that reflects in the kind of films he made in the past. I feel he also cast actors who he knew would want to surrender to the process and rough it out as a film like this demands that. It was incredibly surreal to be shooting in an actual jungle and that made the experience far more authentic s we were living our characters in a natural scene and there was a strong sense of being one with nature which was very important to the film as its subject talks about co-existence. In that sense, it was a unique expe rience ad I ejoyed it.”