Filmworld
Action in southern cinema gets international touch
By
Haricharan Pudipeddi Chennai, July 3
Action in the southern film
industry is no longer about the hero versus an army, or about flying
Sumos. Thanks to foreign stuntmen, southern filmmakers are able to
deliver the international touch to racy action thrills - much to the
delight of audiences.
According to cinematographer-director Vijay
Milton, whose upcoming Tamil thriller "Paththu Enradhukulla" features
action sequences choreographed by Lee Whittaker, action is no longer
about the regular "dishum dishum".
"We hired Lee and his crew for
action sequences involving cars. Our film features car drifting,
chases, spinning and skidding. We don't have professional drivers, hence
we had to hire the services of an international crew," Milton told
IANS.
Whittaker has also worked on recent Tamil films such as
"Lingaa", "Vishwaroopam 2" and "Arrambam", besides being part of
international projects such as "Live Free or Die Hard", "Jurassic Park"
and "Batman".
Filmmaker Mysskin, who has worked with Hong
Kong-based stuntman Tony Leung Siu Hung in his films such as "Mugamoodi"
and "Pisasu", says audiences nowadays prefer realistic action.
"I
think audiences have evolved. Unlike before, they look forward to
realistic action in our cinema. I'm trained in martial arts myself but I
chose to work with Tony because I felt international expertise on some
crucial action blocks could make a lot of difference," Mysskin said.
Telugu
director Sudheer Varma, whose recent outing "Dohchay" featured stuntmen
from Paris, says filmmakers are willing to experiment as well spend
little extra when it comes to action.
"If it's worth it, I don't
think filmmakers mind spending extra. I didn't want to compromise on
action in my film. We had hired Peter Hein for a car chase sequence for
which we need a driver who could do drifts; so we hired one from Paris,"
Sudheer told IANS.
While the services of international stunt
crew may not come cheap, it certainly pays off, says Mysskin, who finds
working with them exhilarating.
"They're highly professional and,
unlike us, they come to the sets with a lot of planning. I remember
when I had brought Tony to shoot the climax of 'Pisasu', he wanted to be
briefed what was expected from him. It took them a few hours to
understand what was required and in the next few hours, they finished
the shot and left," he said.
"I find working with them so inspiring and exciting because they're so motivated all the time," Mysskin added.
Director
Preetham Gubbi, who has hired kick boxers from abroad for his Kannada
film "Boxer", says it's good to have a mix of Indian as well as
international stuntmen on a project.
"Stunt master Ravi Varma is
working on our film, training actor Dhananjay in the lead role of a
boxer. We've also hired a foreign crew of kick boxers. When you have
them work together, I believe it helps in keeping the local
sensibilities intact," he said.
But does hiring international stuntmen upset local stunt choreographers?
"Not
really. It depends on the requirement of a project. There have been
occasions where we've worked together. When we get to work together, we
could learn from each other as I believe each one of us brings something
different to the table. It should happen more often," Stunt Silva, who
has worked in several south Indian films, told IANS.
In the last
couple of years, there has been a considerable rise in the number of
foreign action choreographers in southern filmdom, especially Tamil
cinema.
Some upcoming Tamil films featuring foreign stuntmen
include Kamal Haasan's "Thoongaavanam", which features stunts
choreographed by French stuntman Gilles Conseil, and Dhanush's
yet-untitled film with Prabhu Solomon featuring "Batman Begins" action
choreographer Roger Yuan.
(Haricharan Pudipeddi can be contacted at [email protected])