The Stunt Squad

For the ongoing shoot of Krrish 3,Kangna Ranaut trained in mixed martial arts for two months.

For the ongoing shoot of her superhero film Krrish 3,Kangna Ranaut trained in mixed martial arts for two months. The idea was to reach a level of fitness that allows her to perform action scenes on her own. While she has achieved that for most part,there are stunts which director Rakesh Roshan would not risk her safety for. This is where Sanober Pardiwala steps in. The 25-year-old is Bollywoods noted female stunt artiste who has,in the past,shot for several leading ladies including Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan in Dhoom 2 and Bipasha Basu in Race. A filmmaker cannot risk an injury that will delay the films shoot. So action directors hire female stunt artistes for risky scenes, explains Pardiwala.

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 in Don 2 and Bipasha Basu in Players. Katrina 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 women 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 Varmas Chakravyuh,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. For instance,Tandon started as a background dancer but taught herself bike and car stunts.

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Rukhsar Mehboon Abdul Hakeem used to ride a bike at a Well of Death,till a friend introduced her to action director Darshan Singhs 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 womens clothing for scenes that needed a leading lady to perform stunts. It helped that I was fit and had a fair complexion to match that of the heroines, recollects 36-year-old Hakeem. The stunt artiste chose her career at a time when the industry had only a handful like her. Over the years,Hakeem has filled in for Shilpa Shetty in Lal Badshah,Urmila Matondkar in Jungle and recently,Anjana Sukhani in Department.

Action director Ejaz Gulab,who is 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 stunt artistes to add to the scenes credibility. It does not help that leading ladies want to do their own action scenes these days, he says. Others,adds Amin,still dress their male staff as woman for the scenes. Therefore,most of these stunt artistes dont 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.

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