THE ANONYMOUS HEROES OF THE BRANDED LAND
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Either it be Hollywood or Bollywood, every movie has some stunt or
the other. It doesn't matter what the language of the film is, or even its genre, a prescribed amount of stunts are there, nevertheless. With almost every Indian action movie, trying to reach international standards, it's always the action director or the actors pretending to perform stunts who are acknowledged. The unsung heroes, behind the marvelous stunts, the stuntmen, remain hidden in the shadows. |
| With time passing by, cine-goers are not only attracted by the high profile star cast, good music and dance numbers, but also by the adventure, the movie offers. If a movie gets your adrenaline rushing, it's for sure a hit, despite the fact, that it might have a weak story line. And yet, people responsible for it somehow end up unaccredited and with very less money. Low and irregular wages have always been one very important aspect of a stuntman's life. Knowing that he's risking his life for no reason at all and for money that's not worth it, he still takes the risk, similar to a soldier fighting for his motherland. While the movies, the stuntmen are working for, make it to the first page of the newspapers almost everyday even before, its production has started, the injuries they suffer and their sad demise are confined to one small corner of the newspaper that too without, the director and the so called stars of the movies, available for comments. |
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If you go back in time, you will see newspapers flooded with reports of Amitabh Bachan recovering from the injuries of a fatal accident that happened on the sets of his film, Coolie (1983). He hurt himself, not during shooting a stunt, but rather while shooting a fight scene, where he accidentally slipped. During, the same time, 2 stuntmen fell from a height of about 100 feet, and one of them died that very instant and the other is in coma for the past 23 years. The worst part is there is no record what so ever of the names, of these fearless men. |
With many safety harnesses and ropes tied around them, there is no guarantee whether our stuntmen will be able to perform their stunts safely or not. Many have died this way, and many have lost their means of earning their living. Though, it's not a bed of roses, many join this field just to make their lives more adventures. But, only few reach the recognition of a stunt director. The man behind Dhoom 2, Allan Amin, who Sanjay Gandhavi claims has changed the face of action in Bollywood, says "its not very easy to succeed in Bollywood. It's easy to make your debut, but very difficult to kick off after that." A stuntman, before he became a stunt director, it took him about 10 years, to pull off the latter. With his luck and his father's work by his side, who too was a stunt director, he pulled off what many stuntmen can even dream of
With rapid changes coming in both the world and our film industry, stuntwomen are also witnessed in the scenario. Trying to keep up with their male counter parts, a prominence of women doing stunts is seen. So far, lacking behind in number there is hope that with movies like Dhoom 2 and Don, where women were seeing fighting men, shoulder to shoulder, need for women stunt artist might crop up.
But till then, it is our nameless stuntmen who need attention and better treatment from their employers, as without them, heroes wouldn't have been daredevils. They deserve the same status and popularity that the upscale heroes enjoy. The lives of these stuntmen have much more to it than stunts. It's full of hardships that a person in this glamorous field shouldn't face. Since, we can do nothing about it, maybe a prayer or two from the cine-goers for our identified heroes wont hurt
