Gone are the days when the film fraternity had to run helter skelter looking for artistes who resembled certain actors, because now most actors prefer doing their own stunts. Be it action sequences or dramatic love songs, our stars seem to love the rush that their daredevil stunts are giving them. Aamir and Katrina’s song, "Malang" from 'Dhoom 3', which is mostly an aerial dance sequence has left their fans in awe of them. Meanwhile, Shahid too earned admiration as he finished his action shots in 'R... Rajkumar' despite an injury.
Now while Akshay and Hrithik have proved their mettle by performing spine chilling sequences, our ladies are not far off. Kangana showed off her martial arts skills in 'Krrish 3' and Madhuri Dixit Nene will be seen thrashing the badies with her super high kicks in 'Gulab Gang'. Nargis Fakhri who performed an action sequences underwater for her last film, 'Madras Cafe' says, “I wanted my scenes to be as authentic as possible. Besides, I’m super adventurous and am always up for trying new things.” Nargis says she did a lot of hiking, trekking and intense cardio to build her stamina for the shot. “I think every actor, especially women, should give it (doing their own stunts) a try as long as proper safety measures are taken by the stunt team. We got to show them that girls can kick butt too,” quips the actress.
Dancer Isha Sharvani echoes the same thoughts and adds, “As far as song and dance sequences are concerned, the choreographers need to keep experimenting to keep the audience glued. Akshay has used a lot of physical activities in his songs with stuff like high-jumps and certain martial arts moves.”
Sandalwood actress Ragini Dwivedi, who also did her own stunts for her last film 'IPS Ragini' expresses, “It’s great that actors are doing their own stunts. It shows that they are really getting under the skin of the character. I love doing action stunts because it makes my movies that much more real.” The actress trained for two months in Taekwondo before shooting for the film.
Meanwhile, stuntman Ravi Varma, who designed and directed the action scenes in Prabhu Deva’s upcoming movie 'R... Rajkumar' explains, “If an actor does his own stunts, it makes life easier for us. We do not have to run around looking for body doubles. Another advantage is that the angle is not just limited to a back shot. The director can explore a plethora of different angles to shoot from. Besides, luckily so far, in Bollywood we don’t have issues with insurance policies like Hollywood does.”
