Action director Sham Kaushal talks about work challenges, how he navigates them, and the experience of working with his son Vicky Kaushal in Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Taapsee Pannu in lead roles…
On how much an actor’s co-operation plays a role
Actors believe in you and that’s why they work with you. The trust needs to be maintained.
They’re trusting me with the action, so I must do it safely. Whether it is an actor or a stuntman, they’re humans only, no? Whether it was Vicky’s scene of setting himself on fire in Dunki, or the tanker blast scene in Gadar 2, it is never easy.
On safety measures
Whether it is in India or internationally, safety measures are undertaken everywhere. Doing stunts is a physical job.
On son Vicky Kaushal’s self immolation scene in Dunki
I am an action director as well as a father. My concern is the same for a stuntman, my son, or any actor. My responsibility is to direct the action sequence with safety. The Dunki scene with Vicky was very difficult because we had never seen a scene like that before. Raju sir (director Rajkumar Hirani) has never seen me so tense, as I was during that scene. I had to execute the director’s vision.
Raju Sir and me had visualised that, after knowing about his girlfriend’s suicide, Vicky is walking like a dead man, so even after his body is on fire so, he should not run. When you run, the flames go backwards. Walking with flames was the most difficult part to achieve, as flames go upwards. We did not want it to look like a stunt. If Vicky would have run or taken circles with fire, the emotions would have gone. People should feel his pain. For me as father, and action director those were the most tense moments, but by God’s grace, everything went smoothly and we were able to achieve what we visualised in one take. It is teamwork and equal credit goes to my stunt team.
Vicky Kaushal’s intense recovery amidst extreme cold after getting injured on Chhava sets
On the famous war sequence in Bajirao Mastani
I was not scared of doing a war sequence. But when we used to let those 400 horses run, and they would collide with each other, my heart would be in my mouth, because there were 200-250 amateur actors with horses from Jaipur. We briefed them thoroughly and made dummy weapons because of safety.
There are so many elements in such sequences. No matter how good a rider is, the horse can stumble and collapse because of a pothole or something. Also, horses can get feisty with each other. Or even, the saddle can break or slip. To control all these things, you need a mix of naturalism and professionalism.
Fire sequences
In fire sequences, you have to be extremely professional. You need to have the judgment of friction of seconds – you can hold for a few seconds, for these many seconds you won’t feel the heat, but you have to extinguish the fire quickly.
When you give body fire to someone, the ones who have to extinguish the fire, have more responsibility than the ones who light the fire. They have to extinguish the fire in a fraction of a second. Otherwise, it will become dangerous. The stuntman doing the body fire sequence is not that worried, but the safety team is more committed.
As an action director, I am never stressed no matter how big or complicated an action sequence is. I find solutions by doing a shot breakdown. But whenever there’s a safety issue, I do worry that nobody should get injured.