The Stunts Squad

With Bollywood heroes taking on daredevil avatars in sync with the current trend of action films,their leading ladies are hardly far behind. Rai-Bachchan has had action scenes in Jodhaa Akbar,Dhoom 2 and Raavan; Priyanka Chopra shot for some action-packed scenes in Don 2; and Bipasha Basu learnt some basics for Players. Kaif was recently seen performing stunts in Ek Tha Tiger while Jacqueline Fernandez and Deepika Padukone have been training for their respective parts in Race 2. These actresses have been performing most of the scenes on their own,but stunt doubles come in handy for the more dangerous sequences. “While shooting for Ram Gopal Varma’s film based on the 26/11 attacks,I performed a scene that required me to jump from the second floor,” says Geeta Tandon,a 28-year-old stunt artiste.

Still,female stunt artistes remain few in number and largely unnoticed. The reason,explains action director Allan Amin,is that most of them are untrained. “So they are relegated to small parts,such as running fast or falling down.” The ones to venture into this profession were mostly junior artistes who grabbed the opportunity that came their way. Tandon is one such example. She started as a background dancer,but taught herself bike and car stunts.

Rukhsar Mehboon Abdul Hakeem used to ride a bike at a ‘Well of Death’ in and around Mumbai,until a friend introduced her to action director Darshan Singh’s assistant. Singh was looking for a girl who was both confident and skilled with a two-wheeler. He was tired of dressing his men in wigs and women’s clothing for scenes that needed a film’s leading lady to perform stunts—a trend that was common back in the days. “It helped that I was fit and had a fair complexion to match that of the heroines,” recollects 36-year-old Rukhsar.

The stunt artiste chose her career at a time when the industry had only a handful of them. Over the years,Rukhsar has filled in for Shilpa Shetty in Lal Badshah,Urmila Matondkar in Jungle and recently,Anjana Sukhani in Department.

Action director Ejaz Gulab,of Javed-Ejaz duo and the president of Movie Stunt Artists Association,insists that not much has changed. “When filmmakers shoot big-budget action films at international locales,they prefer trained foreign female stunts artistes to add to the scene’s credibility. It does not help that actresses want to do their own action scenes these days,” he says. Others,adds Amin,still dress their male staff as a woman for the scenes. Therefore,most of these stunts artistes don’t mind doing bit roles in films. Pardiwala,too,doubles as a fitness and nutrition expert.

However,Tandon adds that it is important to update oneself. Selected for the stunt show Jaanbaaz (it was shelved),she trained under an Australian stunt expert for 20 days. Adds Pardiwala,“I was a black belt in karate at the age of 12. I have since learned bike and car stunts,mixed martial arts,underwater stunts and so on to stay on par with my male counterparts.”

School of action

THE return of action movies’ popularity has boosted business for the industry. It has also alongside lent prominence to action and stunts. Taking this trend forward is filmmaker Subhash Ghai who has introduced a diploma course in stunt acting at his film school,Whistling Woods International,Mumbai. With this acting programme,the school aims at nurturing actors who can perform stunts; and also stunts performers who can consider acting. The course,a one year diploma,is divided into three levels — freshman,sophomore and senior. During these first few weeks,the students will gain a basic knowledge about the different disciplines involved in performing stunts. Skills that are taught include martial arts,car hits,bicycle stunts,fire,stage and screen fighting,weapons and rope and wire work. Subsequently,the levels will get challenging,and ultimately,students will be asked to put together a show reel. The first batch commences on September 15.