Mumbai, Mar 16 (IANS): Actor Rana Daggubati says it was challenging to shoot in the dense forests of Kerala for his new film Haathi Mere Saathi.

The team had to travel six hours from Kochi airport to reach the town that was close to a forest where the shoot had been planned. Once they reached there, they had to undertake an uphill off-road journey, till they reached the location.

The team was travelling by forest jeeps. Also, since they could only shoot till 5pm, the schedule had to start as early as 5am.

"We shot in some of the toughest locations -- two to three dense forests in Kerala. The forest near Shanthanpara where we first shot had been destroyed by floods. So, we had to relocate our shoot location to another forest. Getting to those locations was a challenge," says Rana.

However, the actor adds that it was a "thrilling experience" to shoot in these locations.

"Apart from the challenging locations, shooting with 30-plus elephants in three different languages was a thrilling experience," he says.

The trilingual film also stars Pulkit Samrat, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Zoya Hussain and is all set to hit theatres on March 26.