Filmmaker Rohit Shetty says his experience as a stunt double in his early days helped him a lot in his journey as a filmmaker.
“I have done car stunts like whatever people see now... there is a lot of hard work gone behind it. I have been a stunt double, I have been a stunt artist and I think that’s what helped me, that madness helped me,” said Shetty, who is known for his stunt-packed action movies.
“Like today I do action myself for my films, I don’t need to call a technician from abroad... and I have my own team working with me now,” he added.
Shetty was a stunt double for Akshay Kumar for a movie and has now directed the actor in his upcoming action film ‘Sooryavanshi’.
“I did one film, ‘Suhaag’, I was an assistant director on that film. That was a time when actors used to do [multiple] films sometimes, so you know, sometimes it used to happen [the actor] is not there... so I used to do double for him. But it’s like when he is not available. I showed it to my ADs also, the clips, this is me, they all were shocked,” Shetty said.
When asked who forgets his or her lines most while shooting, Shetty responded: “Akshay Kumar.”
“Akshay Kumar forgets his name. Now when we are doing the last schedule in Hyderabad, he will be ‘naam kya hai mera? [what’s my name?] Sooryavanshi’. He forgets everything,” Shetty said.
The director also got candid about his views on actors’ entourages.
“I don’t want to name but few actors’ entourage’s payment is equal to writers’ payment. It is very sad... we make big films, we have big budget films, we can handle all that. But, for small budget films, entourage becomes a lot of a problem nowadays,” he said. “They are not trained, and they don’t have that kind of emotion for a producer. They look after the actors, nothing wrong in it but for them it’s only the actors. It is not what the producer is going through. It has never happened with us but let me tell you I have heard a lot of stories. With me, they are scared to come on my sets. I tell them that you are not supposed to come. If you enter and try to act smart, I will throw your actor out.”
Shetty believes actors have a key role in deciding their entourage.
“There has to be a system... most of the times, the actor also does not know that this is what is happening outside. That whole ecosystem needs to change, they need to get trained. With me or my set it does not happen because they know that he is a mad guy he will throw the actor out. But, with others they try to pressurise. Because they think it is a part of their job. It’s not actually. You will not believe they charge Rs1-1.5 lakh [Rs100,000-150,000, Dh5,148-7,722] for a make-up artist for promotion and the producer is paying. That’s not done,” he added.
