Kochi (PTI): Ace director Mani Ratnam's film production company Madras Talkies has been issued a show cause notice by the Animal Welfare Board for not taking permission to use elephants in his film Ravan starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

One of the two elephants brought for the shoot had turned amok, killing its mahout on Wednesday. Police said there was no shooting on Thursday and the unit had informed them that they were shifting to Udhagamandalam.

The film was being shot with the lead pair in the forests near Athirampally waterfalls in Thrissur district when the mahout was trampled to death by the elephant after the shoot was over. Aishwarya, Abhishek and Mani Ratnam were at the shooting site when the incident took place.

Board secretary D. Rajasekar told PTI from Chennai that no permission had been obtained by Mani Ratnam, producer and director of the bilingual film Ravan, for using elephants.

The Board has asked the company to submit its reply in seven days and the Chief Wildlife Warden to give a report about the incident.

Mr. Rajasekar said a No-objection certificate has to be obtained from the Board for shooting films, TV serials and commercials in which animals are used.

The elephant, which stood in the middle of the road blocking the way of the star pair, who were staying at a resort, was brought under control late Wednesday night and taken away from the spot at 2 am on Thursday, police said.

Abhishek and Aishwarya had to take a different route to their resort on Wednesday.

Last year, the shooting of the film was stopped for a few days after the Kerala Forest Department found that Mani Ratnam had violated an agreement and constructed temporary huts in prohibited forest areas.

Meanwhile, the Elephant Lovers Association also protested against the use of animals in film shooting.

The Kerala Forest Department has registered a case against the owner of the elephant.

According to Divisional Forest Officer (Vazhachal), A. Ranjan, the investigation would look into whether the film production unit had taken necessary precautions to ensure the safety of the artistes and the film crew.

The case would be booked under the Kerala Captive Elephant Maintenance rules, which laid down a set of guidelines to be followed by elephant owners for the upkeep and use of elephants for various purposes, Mr. Ranjan told PTI.

No artiste or film crew was injured as they were at a safe distance from the violent tusker. The elephant was contained by administering a tranquiliser shot.

Ravan is being shot in Hindi and Tamil. Abhishek is playing the lead role in the Hindi version and Vikram in Tamil version. Aishwarya is the heroine in both the versions.