There is only one Tom Cruise. Every other actor wisely leaves the more dangerous stunts (sometimes even a cartwheel or complicated dance routine) to a body double. As Indian films plan bigger, more ambitious action sequences, splurging on foreign locations, prepping for months, and bringing in new tech, where does this leave stunt people? The answers reflect an industry in which, as much as things change, they also sometimes remain the same.
Mansoor Ali Khan, who has served as Hrithik Roshan’s stunt and action stand-in for 16 years, says that action sequences are no longer the ad-hoc operations they used to be a decade ago. For one scene in Vikram Vedha (2022), in which Roshan’s character leaps from the fifth floor of a building, a crew of about two dozen, including Khan, headed to Dubai, built a set and rehearsed for a week. When Roshan joined, he rehearsed as well. He stepped in during all the action scenes, doing some of the technical fighting bits. Only then was the shot filmed. “Action bits include physical work as well as acting,” Khan says. “The actor and the double need to figure out timing and how other people in the shot are moving. It takes a lot of practice before you shoot the actual scene. Something that the public doesn’t see because there are no BTS videos made about it, like in Hollywood.”
Khan, 35, a school dropout from Delhi, got his break as a stuntman in 2007, standing in for Salman Khan in Wanted. The audience didn’t notice him, but directors did, and more offers came rolling in. He could have been a dancer, done bit roles, but he loved the physical challenges. So, he trained in gymnastics, martial arts, learned on set, and took lessons from the 64-year-old Movie Stunt Artiste Association in Andheri, Mumbai.
{{/usCountry}}Khan, 35, a school dropout from Delhi, got his break as a stuntman in 2007, standing in for Salman Khan in Wanted. The audience didn’t notice him, but directors did, and more offers came rolling in. He could have been a dancer, done bit roles, but he loved the physical challenges. So, he trained in gymnastics, martial arts, learned on set, and took lessons from the 64-year-old Movie Stunt Artiste Association in Andheri, Mumbai.
{{/usCountry}}Then, in 2012, he met Roshan on the sets of Agneepath and life changed. “We had a similar physique and worked well together, so Hrithik Bhai asked me if I would work with him in all his movies,” Khan recalls. “It meant having something more permanent in an industry that’s all about networking to bag gigs. Besides, Bhai is an amazing person, who really cares about me.” In addition to doubling on Roshan’s films (Bang Bang, War and Mohenjo Daro, among others), he has also freelanced for Bobby Deol and Mahesh Babu on the odd action scene. Roshan and he share a bond that would have been impossible if he were just a backup dancer or extra. “I refer to Hrithik as Bhai even on sets. No superstar I’ve worked with has ever put up a birthday Instagram post for their stunt double,” Khan says. “So many actors don’t even know who is doing their stunts.”
Over 16 years in the business, Khan has had to jump off buildings and take punches. But he’s earned enough money to buy a house in Delhi and an apartment in Mumbai. “But there is risk in every career path. Sure, this is different, but I knew what I was getting into. There’s no backing down in our line of work.”
Leap of faith
Professional stuntmen have been facing competition from unexpected quarters in recent times. Untrained daredevils with time, money and a taste for fame, record stunts that go viral instantly online. In July, 30-year-old Frenchman Remi Lucidi fell to his death from a 68-storey building in Hong Kong. He was climbing without safety equipment. In May 2022, the Uttar Pradesh police arrested a 21-year-old man from Noida for trying to recreate Ajay Devgn’s SUVs and motorcycle stunt from Phool Aur Kaante (1991). In July 2023, the Delhi Police caught a man riding a bike with two women at the back (no one was wearing a helmet) to recreate the Jaane Nahi Denge Tujhe song from 3 Idiots. During the Kerala floods in August 2022, three men were arrested after performing a stunt from the Mohanlal film Naran (2005), in which the actor swims into a river and catches a floating log.They all uploaded those videos on social media, regardless.
In Mumbai, Geeta Tandon, 38, one of India’s few stuntwomen, says that viral stunts are a waste of time. “Youngsters today are doing it only for fame, without dedicating any time to understand what they are doing,” she says. Reels tend to be heavily edited, content is plagiarised, dangerously misleading viewers to believe they can copy what they see. “Many women have passed off clips of my performances as their own on Reels,” she says.
Tandon picked up her skills from the Fighting Association in Mumbai, and from being an observant spectator on set. She took to the field to support herself and two young children after her divorce in 2002 and her work has appeared in Yuva (2004), Corporate (2006), De Dana Dan (2009) and Raksha Bandhan (2022). Her Instagram @geetastunt serves as a sort of portfolio for viewers and directors. They feature clips of her in fight sequences, jumping across buildings with the aid of ropes and rugs, and being flung onto a wooden table, breaking it.
“I am taking a risk with every job,” she admits. She’s been injured four times. Worse, it’s still seen as a man’s job – men stand in for many of the action scenes for women actors, so Tandon has to hustle doubly hard to land gigs. “But I’m financially independent. I love my job. There’s fame. I get to do unusual things and travel the world for work,” she says. Tandon has seen filmmaking change for the better too. “You no longer have to jump across 20-floor-high buildings because you can tweak that via technology. During fight sequences, you don’t really have to dangle or be flung from dangerous heights. Or, hold your breath and actually venture into a sea to shoot an underwater scene.”
Risk and reward
It’s become safer for Khan too. Special effects are deployed for dangerous moves. A scene requiring fire, for instance, would earlier mean someone was physically monitoring a live flame and stuntpersons would hope their fireproof suits worked. Today, the blaze is just digitally added in. There are safety protocols and weeks of practice for even a single jump.
And for the backups there’s now a financial backup. Insurance companies wouldn’t issue medical coverage policies to stunt artists until 2017, when Akshay Kumar and Dr Ramakanta Panda of The Asian Heart Institute campaigned on behalf of the 400-odd members of the Movie Stunt Association. “The coverage is worth ₹6 lakh each for us for medical expenses. There’s also a death compensation of ₹10 lakh,” says Tandon. The coverage doesn’t extend to those who perform stunts for the Gram. So Khan urges fans and followers to be extra cautious. “Don’t do stunts without safety measures in place. Get trained by a professional if you want to live past the Likes and hearts.”