At last, a safety net for Bollywood stuntmen

With hardly any safety measures in place, accidents happen, and when they do, injured stuntmen and are left penniless because they work without insurance.

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has launched the first insurance scheme in India. He is pictured here promoting his film, Baby on December 3, 2014, ahead of its release on January 23, 2015. Divyakant Solanki /EPA
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DELHI // Life as a stuntman in Bollywood is a risky business. They leap from great heights with only a lumpy mattress to break their fall, ride motorbikes over chasms, and jump out of a car just a millisecond before it goes over a cliff.

Often all they can rely on to save them from disaster is an appeal to the gods and lady luck.

With hardly any safety measures in place on sets in an industry which churns out 1,000 films every year — many of them action movies — accidents happen. When they do, the injured stuntman and the family he supports are left penniless because they work without insurance.

Top actor Akshay Kumar has decided to put an end to this madness. Known for doing many of his stunts himself, he has launched an insurance scheme as a mark of respect for stuntmen’s contribution to the industry.

With his good friend, Dr Ramakanta Panda at the Asian Heart Institute, he approached ICICI Lombard insurance company to devise an accident and life insurance scheme for stuntmen. Mr Kumar has put in 10 million rupees (Dh573,042) towards the scheme which will provide one million rupees worth of cover to each of the 370 stuntmen working in Mumbai.

“Akshay Kumar has done what nobody else ever thought of doing for us. We are all very grateful and now our families can sleep peacefully at night,” said Aejaz Gulab, general secretary of the Movie Stunt Artistes Association in the city.

A year ago, Mr Kumar wrote an open letter to stuntmen which was published in the press. “My children still have their father in one piece because there is always someone prepared to take the fall that I may not be able to,” he wrote.

Ever since it was set up 57 years ago, the Association’s members have risked their lives performing daredevil feats with no insurance and mostly without even basic safety measures or protective equipment.

Last November, an accident involving two actors — not stuntmen — exposed the huge risks that are often taken on Indian film sets without due consideration. Actors Anil Kumar, 30, and Raghav Uday, 32, were acting in a Kannada-language film titled Mastigudi, and were meant to jump into a lake from a low-flying helicopter. They jumped but never re-emerged. Their drowning attracted condemnation for the carelessness shown by the stunt director and the rest of the crew. A third actor, who survived, was the only one given a life jacket. No motor boat was hired that could have saved the actors. The film crew was later charged with culpable homicide.

The tragedy could have happened anywhere on any film set in India.

“We routinely jump from great heights or crash cars through walls and often there isn’t even a doctor or ambulance on the set,” said 47 year old stuntman Habib Haji. “We realise it’s our choice and it’s our bread and butter but our work serves to glorify an actor’s image so there should be mutual consideration.”

Given the broken bones and burns they have suffered over the years, it is hardly surprising that one wall of the Association’s office is lined with pictures of gods and goddesses.

When foreign actors come to work in Bollywood, they are horrified at the casual approach to dangerous stunts and the lack of adequate preparation.

In his 35 years in films, stunt director Allan Amin has been doing his bit to make life safer for stuntmen, spending his own money on providing air bags, fire-retardant gels, sugar glass, and fan descenders, which allow the stunt person to fall at a controlled speed.

“Things are improving,” he said. “People don’t take so many chances now. But we still don’t follow the international practice of having a safety officer on the set who won’t let a scene be shot until he’s satisfied it’s safe for everyone.”

Mr Gulab says that safety attitudes vary enormously from producers who couldn’t care less about safety for stuntmen, to actors such as Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar who know the dangers all too well.

“When I broke my left leg in 1995, I was out of work for ages. Salman Khan helped me financially otherwise I could not have survived without an income,” said Mr Gulab who has worked with most of the top actors.

In recent years, his Association has tried to insist on the presence of a doctor and ambulance for high risk stunts but the response to this demand is often “it’s a waste of time”.

Producers know that if a particular stuntman holds out for safety measures, there are others who, desperate for work, are more than happy to take his place.

It is also true that a homicidal disregard for safety is a national characteristic. Indian drivers are notoriously reckless and it is common to see construction workers laying concrete or welding several storeys up with no safety gear.

Mr Gulab hopes that senior people in the regional film industries — Tamil, Telugu and Kannada — will also launch a similar scheme for their stuntmen. “Akshay Kumar has shown the way. It’s for others to follow his example,” he said.