Last October, Neil Nitin Mukesh was driving down Marine Drive when he was spotted by an excited fan on a bike who screamed out his name. He started driving in circles around Neil’s Audi Q7. The actor waved to him and told him to drive safely.
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The biker boy zoomed past, then, as Neil was waiting at a red light, caught up with him and attempted a quick spin on his hot wheels. He lost control and the bike skidded straight into Neil’s precious car, denting it badly.
Recalling the incident, Neil remembers how frustrated he felt watching someone risk his life to prove his machismo. “It was a stupid thing to do,” says the star, who was back on Marine Drive the next evening in his car. “These things happen, thank God no one was hurt.”
Nine months later, you see Neil pulling the same stunt in the promos of the soon-to-release Yashraj film,
Lafangey Parindey. He admits that his character, One-shot Nandu, has the same free spirit and careless daredevilry of that biker boy. And to play this
sadak chaap Rambo convincingly, it’s Neil and not his double, who you see dirty fighting in the ring or balancing atop a bike.
Death-defying stuntsThe actor admits that he was covered in bruises for a major part of the shoot but insists that before he attempted the death-defying action sequences, he was properly trained by action director Sham Kaushal. Kaushal had earlier thrown him off the 18th floor of a building in
Aa Dekhen Zara and pushed him into a busy street in front of speeding cars in New York.
“We took all precautions but even then, I knew that an accident could happen anytime because the bike is just a machine” Neil points out. The mishap occurred when he was imitating Leonardo DiCaprio’s
Titanic-like pose atop a speeding bike with another bike racing parallel.
“My bike went over a manhole we hadn’t seen and I lost my balance. Fortunately, I quickly managed to jump back on and wasn’t seriously hurt. But it was a heart-stopping moment. And I would advise young boys not to try these stunts that have been professionally executed for your entertainment alone.”
Neil’s co-actor, Deepika Padukone, has also done her share of action in the film. He’s all praise for her: “She has a dancer’s flexible body, a strong mind and plenty of willpower. Hats off to this gutsy girl who will take you by surprise!”