Hindi film action is coming of age. The stunts are getting bigger and so are the budgets. Regional heavyweights such as Baahubali, KGF and Saaho have upped the game. Add to that the constant threat of Hollywood. Audiences are clearly not risking their weekends on sheer star power anymore. For Bollywood bigwigs, the time has come to go all guns blazing.
The race to the top begins with Siddharth Anand’s War, which releases on October 2. The film pits Hrithik Roshan against Tiger Shroff in a globe-trotting adventure. The YRF production was shot in 15 cities across seven countries. From a car chase in the Arctic, a showdown on Bondi Beach, to a faceoff in Portugal and a dance number in Italy, the action is set to wow. Four renowned action directors have worked on the project: Paul Jennings (The Dark Knight, Jack Reacher), SeaYoung Oh (Snowpiercer, Avengers: Age of Ultron), Franz Spilhaus (Death Race 3: Inferno) and Parvez Shaikh (Tiger Zinda Hai, Bang Bang).
Parvez started out as an assistant stunt coordinator in Mumbai. One of his early gigs was on the action blockbuster Dhoom. He landed his big break with Ra. One and says Bang Bang was his turning point. “Up until then, it was a bad time for action directors. Budgets were low.” War’s action scenes alone took a year to design. Parvez’s team included 15-16 stuntmen, body doubles and action assistants. Safety is top priority for Parvez. He recalls a time when there were hardly any paramedics on set. Today, he has a dedicated medical and physiotherapy team with him. “I’m presently shooting in Ladakh for Shamshera,”
Parvez says. “We have two in-house doctors and two local doctors. A van is equipped with oxygen supplies. There are horses in the film, so we have two veterinarians.”
This year already had two standout pieces of action cinema. First came Aditya Dhar’s Uri: The Surgical Strike, based on the 2016 operation conducted by the Indian Army in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It featured realistic military action. Actors were trained in tactical warfare techniques and the snowy hillsides of Serbia were used to mirror the rugged landscape of Kashmir.
The second film was Vasan Bala’s Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota. Compared to Uri, Mard rode on a miniscule budget. Yet the film shone out as the first authentic martial arts movie. Prateek Parmar, who designed the fight sequences with Eric Jacobus and Dennis Reul, says, “The jumps and kicks we see in Hindi films are highly commercialised,” he says, “Often, they are lifted from classic Hong Kong movies. There’s a lot of rope work and fake furniture breaking.” With Mard, Prateek wanted to change all that. He rues the absence of indigenous action in movies. He notes the exceptions—actor Vidyut Jammwal is trained in Kalaripayattu, the martial art of Kerala. The form was featured in the Tamil science-fiction film, 7aum Arivu, and several Malayalam movies. Gatka, the Sikh martial art, made an appearance in Kesari. Kushti has been a winning ingredient in Dangal and Sultan. Varmakkalai, the ancient Tamil art of vital points, was popularised by Kamal Haasan in Indian. “I hope more filmmakers start exploring these styles,” he says.
But the future looks bright for Bollywood action. Tiger has Baaghi 3 and the Rambo remake. Akshay Kumar and Rohit Shetty are squaring off with Sooryavanshi. Salman Khan has Kick 2 and the next Tiger entry. Vidyut has Commando 3. Besides, there are a hos
t of period films (Panipat, Laal Kaptaan, Tanaji: The Unsung Warrior) and war movies (Bhuj: The Pride of India, the Sam Manekshaw biopic and Navy Day). John Abraham’s Attack, an action thriller, also goes on floors in December.
We will also see India’s first female-led action film—Kangana Ranaut’s Dhaakad—directed by Razneesh Ghai. It follows a female spy named Agni. Kangana will train in Krav Maga and Gun Fu (a mix of guns and martial arts) for the role. The action will be directed by Thai stunt coordinator Seng Kawee (Ong-Bak, Triple Threat). “I think the action revolution in India has barely begun,” says Razneesh, a former adman and music video director. “Today, with big money pouring in and films such as Saaho and War being made, there’s a more hands-on approach.”