Sunny Deol’s Ghayal Once Again may not have worked with the critics but few denied the action drama credit for its slick stunts and crisp action sequences.
The presence of Hollywood stunt coordinator Dan Bradley, who worked on the film for over six months, obviously showed, although it caused the budget to shoot up by almost 60%.
Even so, Bollywood turns to foreign talent when it comes to conceiving jaw-dropping action sequences, especially for big-ticket films with budgets over Rs.50 crore.
At least three films this year will be high on foreign-style action and incorporate stunt coordinators from abroad—T-Series’s Himesh Reshammiya-starrer Teraa Surroor that releases on 11 March, director Nishikant Kamat’s John Abraham-starrer Rocky Handsome due for release on 25 March and Ajay Devgn’s directorial venture Shivaay scheduled for a Diwali release.
In the past, films like Bang Bang, Krrish3 and D-Day have been noticed for their action sequences designed by foreign coordinators. In some of these films, the action made up around to 25-30% of the total budget, said a trade expert who did not want to be identified.
While Ghayal Once Again, made at Rs.40 crore, spent Rs.11-13 crore on the action sequences, Bang Bang devoted nearly Rs.25 crore of its Rs.90 crore budget to stunts, he added.
There are two ways to hire a foreign action crew. One is to bring them over for a shoot in India, where they can collaborate with an Indian action director, especially because there are restrictions on foreign stuntmen working in the absence of an Indian coordinator.
For instance, for Ghayal Once Again, Bradley was supported by Indian action director Parvez Sheikh, who worked with foreign crew also in Bang Bang.
The Federation of Western India Cine Employees, a film workers’ union located in Mumbai, says that Hindi film units cannot work solely with foreign action directors.
The second option is to recruit the crew in the country where the film will be shot. That makes sense because the producer has to, in any case, hire logistical support like vehicles and props.
While a foreign action crew is easily paid 25% more than local team members, they bring a lot more planning to the process, the trade expert cited above said.
“Foreign action directors are great with pre-production,” said trade analyst Suniel Wadhwa. “They come armed with a storyboard, animated design of how action sequences will look before a shoot and so on. So the real cost of doing action on set can be controlled,” he added.
Be it larger-than-life, grand and stylish action like in James Bond movies or raw, gritty violence like in Salman Khan’s Wanted, foreign action crew can pull both off.
“The practice in Bollywood is to pick from samples of these foreign stunt directors’ Hollywood work,” said director Nikhil Advani, who worked with crew from abroad on films like Hero, D-Day and Chandni Chowk to China that he directed and Airlift that he co-produced. “But it’s great if you can allow them freedom to do something different. For Chandni Chowk, we gave them the script and asked them to get back to us with questions and a possible design.”
To be sure, foreign action coordinators only work on a small portion of the films produced in India.
“Maybe about seven out of the 700-odd a year,” said veteran Indian action director Sham Kaushal, who has been part of Hollywood productions like Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol and Slumdog Millionaire for their India sequences.
“They (the Hollywood action coordinators) could have brought their own crew but they felt I could do justice to the film. I also shot with Tony Ching for the Krrish series because we needed someone who had done that kind of wire-work earlier. If a producer or director feels that there is something they can do for the betterment of the film, or a technician from another country who has done a similar sequence before can help, they are at liberty to hire them because the world is a small place now. This is just one way of sharing your experiences,” Kaushal said.
The one factor keeping these foreign action coordinators to a trickle is the kind of cost escalation they bring to a project. Nishikant Kamat, who hired martial arts experts from Bangkok for Rocky Handsome, is categorical in saying that it will be difficult for low-budget films to ever accommodate such technicians.
“Of course the film’s cost escalates when you have them on board,” said Suniel Saini, co-producer of Ghayal Once Again. The film’s foreign action crew comprised about 12 men along with Bradley who worked over six months and prepared for another 8-10 weeks before the shoot.
“You’re paying for their travel and accommodation besides their weekly remuneration. They work five days a week, and charge one-and-a-half times more for the sixth. The rate doubles if you want them to work on the seventh day. But you do end up with something different,” Saini said.
While industry experts may be divided on whether Bollywood will see the trend of hiring foreign stuntmen catching on, most feel that audiences are ready for action that is stylised yet seems real.
“Youngsters today relate strongly to Hollywood. While I’m sure Indian crew will get more creative and efficient, I think we will continue to see foreign coordinators till that happens,” Saini said.