'In almost every film, Shah Rukhbhai has done a lot of his own stunts.'
There's nothing Shah Rukh Khan can't do.
Whether it's romance, drama or plain old maaramari, King Khan does it like a superstar.
Action Director Parvez Shaikh has known the actor through decades, first as a stuntman (Baazigar, Darr, Chaahat, Dil Se..., Trimurti and Dil To Pagal Hai) and then as an action director (Ra.One, Fan).
We continue celebrating SRK, 60, as Parvez tells Ronjita Kulkarni/Rediff, "He has this amazing energy. People get goosebumps when he walks onto set."
Shah Rukh Khan was the one who gave your career a big boost.
I started working in 1992. At that time, payments were small.
I became an action director quite suddenly, with no support, and no film to my name.
Actors like Shah Rukhbhai and Akshay Kumar knew me at the time because I worked with them on stunts and also as fight assistants.
One day, I met Shah Rukhbhai unexpectedly on an ad shoot. His bodyguard told me that I must inform him that I had become a stunt director.
So I went up and told Shah Rukhbhai.
He called Bobby Chawla (Juhi Chawla's late brother, who was the manager of Red Chillies at the time) and told him, 'Whatever projects come out of our company, whether it's a small ad film or a feature film, give them to him.'
Now, that's a huge thing!
I got all the IPL ads, Billu Barber was my first feature film with them.
I got awards for Ra.One.
My life completely changed.
I reached the position I'm at today because of Shah Rukhbhai's help.
Which were your earliest films with Shah Rukh?
My first few movies with him were Baazigar, Darr, Chaahat, Dil Se..., Trimurti and Dil To Pagal Hai.
When you keep working together, a relationship is built and you help each other out.
It's the same with actors, like Akshay sir (Akshay Kumar), Suniel Shetty... we have done many films together, so a relationship has been built.
Our bond is very good, there's no tension. When they come on set, there's familiarity.
That fear of working with a big star isn't there.
It's not easy for new people to work comfortably with senior actors -- there's always some nervousness or fear.
But the senior actors, especially those from the '90s, are really good people.
For example, I worked with Hrithik Roshan on Mission Kashmir. When we were shooting, Kaho Na... Pyaar Hai hadn't released yet.
No one used to pay much attention to him on set, no one gave him bhao, even though they knew he was Rakesh Roshan's son.
But when Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai released and became a superhit, everything changed.
The whole unit -- the way people spoke to him, treated him -- all of it changed overnight.
I'd worked with Hrithik since the beginning, so I maintained that relationship till today. That bond is still there.
That's how it was with Shah Rukhbhai -- because he worked well, helped people, and valued relationships, that's why the bond lasts for years.
The way he interacts with people wins people over.
He comes on set and meets people, bowing slightly, saying 'Salaam' or Namaste or hugging them... he has this amazing energy.
People literally get goosebumps when he walks onto set.
When people meet him for the first time, they go crazy with happiness!
It's not just his work that made him a star. His work, of course, speaks for itself, but his nature, that's what really matters.
What is the most difficult action sequence you've done with him?
He played a double role in Duplicate. We shot one of the most difficult scenes was at Mukesh Mills (in Mumbai).
In that scene, Shah Rukhbhai had to jump from the second floor.
There were no cables or airbags then. We used to have boxes and mattresses.
Since it was a double role, he had to play both characters -- so he was fighting himself! Plus, he had to fight in the mud and grime.
So imagine, from about 30-40 feet high, Shah Rukh Khan fighting Shah Rukh Khan, falling, tumbling, and doing all of it himself.
Even in those days, he used to do dangerous shots himself.
Actually, in almost every film, Shah Rukhbhai has done a lot of his own stunts.
Like in Ra.One, there was that whole train action sequence.
That train action sequence was quite a long one. How many days did that shoot take?
We did a lot of rehearsals, around 15 to 20 days of practice before the actual shoot.
The filming itself happened in three parts.
One part was shot with real trains in Khandala, inside the compartments and on the station.
Then we did shoots on a running train: Trom Kandivili to Borivili (northwest Mumbai).
And the third part -- the set work -- was done in Film City.
That set had two-three train coaches built for the shoot.
That's where Kareena (Kapoor) ma'am's portions were done -- all the scenes with the kids inside the train, the running and stunts, the fire shots -- all that was filmed in Film City.
The whole sequence took about two months to shoot. And it was very expensive too.
When I had met Shah Rukhbhai, he had said that he's making a 'small' film for his son because his son loved superheroes. But the 'small' film turned out to become a Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) movie! The day he says he's making a big film, it will probably be a Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) film!
You worked with him in Fan as well.
Yes. In Fan, there's a jump scene from the building.
Shah Rukhbhai performed that entire sequence himself -- the jump through a rusted structure, the landing on the ground, the whole climax scene.
All of that was performed by him, not by a double.
Today, his body double is a foreigner; as his look and body type match more with foreign stuntmen. The stuntman is from South Africa.
Doesn't Shah Rukh get afraid of doing the stunts?
If you explain to him that the shot is safe, he won't be.
The stunt director always performs the stunt multiple times first and shows the actor.
No actor does the stunt first.
Only when the actor is confident of the stunt will he do it.
Actors like Shah Rukh and Akshay prefer to do the stunts themselves while for many other actors, we use body doubles.
Shah Rukh has gotten injured also.
During the climax scene on the bridge in Main Hoon Na, Shah Rukhbhai got injured in the fight scene with Suniel Shetty.
He was supposed to break the glass and land on the roof. He broke the glass and got injured.
The shoot stopped for a bit while he got treated. Then, he continued.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
