These guys take the fall

Insta daredevils have nothing on Bollywood stunt doubles. See what it takes to risk it all

- Karishma Kuenzang

There is only one Tom Cruise. Every other actor wisely leaves dangerous stunts (sometimes even a cartwheel or complicated dance routine) to a body double. As Indian films plan bigger, more ambitious action sequences, splurging on foreign locations, prepping for months, and bringing in new tech, where does this leave stunt people? The answers reflect an industry in which, as much as things change, they also sometimes remain the same.

Mansoor Ali Khan, who has served as Hrithik Roshan's action stand-in for 16 years, says that action sequences are no longer the ad-hoc operations they used to be a decade ago. For one scene in Vikram Vedha (2022), in which Roshan's character leaps from the fifth floor of a building, a crew of about two dozen headed to Dubai, built a set and rehearsed for a week. When Roshan joined, he rehearsed as well. Only then was the shot filmed. "Action bits include physical work as well as acting," Khan says. "It takes a lot of practice before you shoot the actual scene. Something that the public doesn't see." Khan, 35, got his break as a stuntman in 2007, standing in for Salman Khan in Wanted. He trained in gymnastics, martial arts, learned on set, and took lessons from the 64-yearold Movie Stunt Artiste Association in Andheri, Mumbai.