Amitabh Bachchan, whose grievous injury while shooting Coolie in 1982 brought the whole film industry to its knees, made a pertinent point recently.“The accident that happened in Coolie changed my life. When I saw a repeat of that incident on the sets of Khakee, I relived my horrid experiences. I also wondered if the film industry will ever learn from its past experiences!”
With Aamir Khan getting injured on the sets of Ghajini last week, one thing is clear – the lessons have not been learnt. Before that, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi have hurt themselves while shooting for stunts. What ails Bollywood’s stunt record – is it the actors’ insistence to do their own stunts or is it the lack of a safe set-up?
No safety concerns
Director Vivek Agnihotri, whose forte has been action films, says, “We still approach action sequences like any other sequence, ie without much safety. Accidents happen when enough safety measures are not taken. Also, not enough time is given to prepare these shots. Third, there are no contractual obligations. Once you have, like Hollywood, enough penalties and insurance-based health and safety regulations, things will change.”
Filmmaker Prabhakar Shukla half-agrees with Vivek. “Actors shouldn’t be insistent about doing their own stunts. In more than one case, they have ended up hurting themselves and shooting has been stalled. They should realise that there is a lot of money riding on them and that one stunt gone wrong can affect an entire film,” he says.
Fight finish
Fight choreographer Kanishk Sharma of Don and Goal fame feels the attitude of stars is not right. “Actors don’t warm up before an action scene. They just want to get over with it. The way you can’t play cricket after sprinting for 100 or 200 metres, you can’t do an action scene safely if you haven’t warmed up.” And who are the actors who get to the stunts straight? “Most of them do. What needs to be popularised is to train before the actual shoot. Shah Rukh trained for two-and-a-half months before he took on the real action scenes in Don. Though there is a lot of padding and a physiotherapist is present on the sets, chances of an accident can’t be averted fully,” he answers.
Stunt director Allan Amin says, “Despite full security et al, actors hurt themselves. Keanu Reeves, who I think does the best stunts, also hurt himself while he was shooting Matrix. All that one can do is take caution.” Is there any way to avoid these incidents? “Yes, many a times. Some times, we just abort the stunt for the day. We tell ourselves that we’ll do it the next day with a fresh mind. That is the only thing that helps!” he answers.
Star speak
But what makes a star do his or her own stunt? Koena Mitra who is training to do her own stunts in a Hollywood flick says, “It is not nice to chicken out. And accidents happen everywhere. All you can do is train properly and take precautions.” Hrithik Roshan, who injured himself on the sets of Krissh, told DT then, “I requested dad for that extra take for my last action scene in Krissh and ended hurting myself. We were fortunate that it was the last scene though otherwise it would have put the entire cast and crew in trouble.” Kamal Haasan was more reasonable after he got hurt on the sets of Mumbai Express. “I realised that I may not have been lucky a second time. After the hospital, it could have been the morgue.”
Stunts gone awry
Aamir Khan injured his adductor muscles while trying to lift a 100 kg man for an action scene in the film Ghajini
During a chase stunt in Khakee , Akshay Kumar’s car got out of control and hit Aishwarya. She was also hurt on the sets of Guru
Akshay banged his head against a wooden cabinet during the shooting of Garam Masala and was also involved in an accident while shooting for a cola commercial
In Apharan , Ajay Devgan dislocated a joint
Hrithik landed in a soup tearing his hamstring during the shooting of Krissh
Vivek Oberoi fractured his leg while shooting for Yuva
While filming Mumbai Express , Kamal Haasan lost control over a motorbike, hurting himself seriously in the process
Amitabh Bachchan was grievously injured during the shooting of Coolie
Jaya Drona
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