Nadiadwala ropes in Spiro for Kambakht Ishq

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala has signed on Hollywood's star-stuntman Spiro Razatos to make actor Akshay Kumar's stunts extra special in his forthcoming film Kambakht Ishq even though it has come at an exorbitant price.

Spiro has displayed his action skills in blockbusters like Vantage Point, Bad Boys 2 and 21 Grams. He is also the man behind the pulsating stunts in two of the Star Trek series.

Although Nadiadwala refuses to divulge the price he has paid the stuntman, he said: "He (Spiro) is worth it! Kambhakt Ishq is not about stunts. It is about the life of a stuntman played by Akshay. So, I have brought in Spiro to serve as a model for Akshay's character."

Nadiadwala claims there are many similarities between Spiro and the character that Akshay plays in the $20 million film.

"They are both completely wedded to their work. Though my film is about a stuntman, there are only four major stunts in the plot. And one of them is the climactic chase sequence on the highways of LA (Los Angeles)," Nadiadwala told IANS.

Explaining Spiro's stunts, he said: "He had these little cars, like those model cars from our school days, which he demonstrated in my office to show how the action scenes will look on screen.

He added: "Kareena plays an international super model and the pair is constantly at loggerheads.

"It's my biggest film ever. But then the next one may be even bigger," he said optimistically.

However, Nadiadwala was unnerved when he heard about the massive fire that broke out at Universal Studios in Los Angeles last week.

If it would have been uncontrollable, the fire might have spread to those areas of the studio where the shooting of the film was scheduled to start mid-June.

"Fortunately, the fire did not spread to the floors where we shoot," Nadiadwala said.

"The fire has been devastating. They've lost a lot of films in their archives including the original print of Ben Hur. But the area where we're supposed to shoot remains unaffected. So for now we're proceeding on schedule. Let's see."

The tentative schedule takes the team to Hollywood for 50 days followed by 20 days in Italy.