Sharad risks his life for a scene

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Gone are the days when an actor called for stunt-men to do the dangerous scenes for him. Actors today prefer to do all the action filled scenes themselves. Bollywood witnessed it first and now we have this trend creeping into Tellywood too. Call it the style, fashion or 'flash-a-daring-attitude', the fact is that in the bargain, lot of actors, especially those who are not trained into action are risking their lives.

Sharad Malhotra aka Sagar Pratap Singh of 'Banoo Mein Teri Dulhan' on Zee had a narrow escape while enacting a fight sequence, recently. Sharad was shooting the sequence at a waterfall in Thane and slipped from a 150-feet high cliff and bruised himself. Sharad said that, "I had to climb this 150-feet high cliff and shoot like a real hero. It was a slippery surface and I simply lost my balance. But thankfully, I managed to get hold of a rock. I could hardly breathe and was almost on the verge of collapsing. My director suspended a rope for me and I managed to climb up. I was badly hurt in the process," admits the actor.

But what Sharad did not admit was the fact that he was offered a harness by the action director to carry out the stunt which he declined. "It is very seldom that a television actor gets to do such scenes. It was a golden opportunity for me and I took the advantage, daring to go for the up-ward climb to the water-fall without any safety gear," said Sharad, a little proudly.

The production house seemed to have forgotten about the first-aid kit. It took a good few hours before the actor could nurse his wounds. "I scratched my arms and had open wounds on my leg. I was feeling unwell as they were taking time to arrange for a first-aid. But then these things keep happening on outdoor schedules. Thankfully, it turned out to be a beautiful shot," points out Sharad.

Pawan Kumar, the director of the show is all praise for the actor. He says, "I had suggested hiring a duplicate for the sequence but Sharad refused to do so. He wanted to do the stunts all by himself and ended up rolling down the cliff. In fact, I too ended up hurting myself while saving him."

Hats off to Sharad for his enthusiasm and dedication. Just a little concern for the makers for they are the one who are left with sleepless nights in such scenarios.