The recent tragedy of two Kannada actors drowning while performing a stunt during the climax shooting of the film “Masthigudi” has raised serious questions on the safety arrangements in film sets.
A police investigation is underway to find out who is responsible behind the tragic incident, but this is just one of the many such incidents that have happened in recent years.
During the shooting of a car chase sequence of the movie Dhoom3, two stuntmen were injured but rescued in time out of a severely damaged car in Chicago.
We spoke to two well-known stunt artist and coordinator of Bollywood over phone and here’s what they have to say.
Geeta Tandon
Geeta Tandon, who has worked in the film industry as a stunt artist for more than 10 years, blames producers who force the stunt artists and actors to do risky stunts with minimal arrangements only to save money.
Talking about the tragedy that unfolded in Karnataka, she says that lack of safety equipment and delay in the boat reaching the spot, just went on to prove how negligent producers can be when it comes to these things.
“The producers take vital decisions on movie sets, manipulate the stunt-directors to conduct risky stunts with less arrangements. That’s primarily a reason behind the accidents,” said Tandon.
Apart from Bollywood movies, Tandon has also worked in reality shows like ‘ Khatron Ke Khiladi’, ‘India ke jaanbaaz’ and ‘India’s got talent’.
Sham Kaushal
Sham Kaushal, a stunt coordinator, who has 26 years of experience in the film industry, says that when it comes to shooting such risky scenes, there are different norms followed on the film sets according to the budget of the movie.
” Both human and mechanical element is involved in the tragedy. The boats should have been kept on before the beginning of the scene so that the actors could have rescued in time.”
Talking about the safety norms on film sets, Kaushal said,” There are dedicated teams with life jackets, fire dousing devises, blankets at the location. An ambulance is also kept near the spot. The arrangements are done based on the risks involved during the scene.”
Kaushal has worked in movies like Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Slumdog millionaire and Singham. He says that he has never witnessed any major accident during his working period till date and that there is very less risk involved for stunt artists in the industry.