How Dare They: Ganga - Article

How dare they!

The young crop of TV actors will go to any length to perform difficult stunts, refusing the service of body doubles. What drives them to do so? Renu Bhatnagar finds out Back to Section Stories Posted On Sunday, October 14, 2007

Manasi Deshmukh (Suhana of Meri Doli Tere Angana on Zee TV) We shot this rain sequence for 12 hours. In this scene I'm shown sitting on a bench when some goons start acting fresh with me. Scared, I start running with rain pouring down. While running, I dash into a car coming from the opposite direction. We took more than 10 retakes and at the end of the day, my body couldn't take it any more. I was drenched to the bone, my body went numb and I blacked out. After that I fell seriously ill but I shot the next day because I had to complete the sequence. Of course, the unit guys helped me to the vanity van and tried to revive me by massaging my feet and hands, and they also gave me hot coffee. "Why did I do it? Initially I thought, 'At most I'll feel a bit cold, so big deal!' I didn't think I'd fall ill. I have never backed out from doing difficult stuff and never thought of a dummy. I'll never say no unless it's beyond my capacity. I would like to stretch myself to the maximum." Neha Bamb (Mahi of Maayaka) In Maayaka, to show a house on fire, the director decided to use plastic, paper, cloth… anything the unit guys could lay their hands on. Recalls Neha, "I was in the middle of the half-burnt stuff, with the fire raging all around me. I inhaled a lot of smoke. We were shooting from 9 am to 6 am, the next morning. I choked and was breathless and the next morning I was down with high fever. I was in this miserable state for four days. When shooting for television, we have no option of resting because we are always chasing deadlines. But I don't say 'no' to anything. Right now I'm at the peak of my career and I'd like to stretch myself." Karan Grover (Raj of Meri Aawaz ko Mil Gayi Roshni on STAR Plus) In this fight sequence I am supposed to save the heroine from the goons. The scene was shot on a tarapa (it is 40 feet above the ground, where the light men sit). In this tussle with the goons I ended up with a muscle injury. I was supposed to fight four burly men and at one point they have to pick me up and throw me down. I had some original screaming and yelling. They are supposed to throw me on soft board and exert light pressure on my shoulder. But in my enthusiasm to give a powerful shot I missed the soft board and landed on hard ground. I bruised my arm and then the goons chose my neck instead of my shoulder. I ended up with a muscle pull. "I do these stunts because I don't want to miss an opportunity to display my skills. And if I don't do them now, when I am young and strong, when will I do them?" Jennifer Winget (Ganga of Sangam on STAR Plus) Ihad to hang from a railing, over a dam. The distance between the railing from which I was hanging and the dam was more than 150 feet. I was expected to do the scene without a harness but they tied a thick rope around my waist. Yes my heart was in my mouth, I was really nervous initially but managed to go through with it. After the scene was shot they started calling me 'stuntwoman'. We started the shot around 9 am and finished shooting only at 4 pm. "When you are dedicated and passionate about your work you will push yourself to do the impossible. All professions have their own hazards." Rati Pandey (Prarthana Thakral of Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta Hai) So what's a coy bahu material Prarthana aka Rati Pandey doing on a road bursting at the seams with traffic? Rati recently had to put her life at risk for a scene which was being shot on the arterial road of Powai. She had to run through the traffic and she shudders when she thinks of how she did it. "This was shot at 9.30 pm in Powai. The scene required me to run on the road, amidst the traffic. In the scene, I catch my father-in-law kissing his girlfriend in a disco. So I start running away in a shocked state like a zombie and that too in a sari. It was a risky shot, but I decided to go ahead with it. Also this was an important turn-around in my character - initially Prarthana is supposed to be a cry-baby and this is the turning point in her life. I don't like to play a typical bahu and my dream role would be to play cop. Perhaps I'll get to do more stunts then." Ashima Bhalla (Sudha of Meri Aawaz ko Mil Gayi Roshni on STAR Plus) Though Ashima loves adventure sports and has done bungee jumping, her heart was in her mouth when she had to jump down 40 feet from the tarapa. "Initially I was scared because I was supposed to jump from a seemingly impossible height like 40 feet. As I fall, Karan Grover was supposed to place an 8X10 feet bean bed below. My heart was in my mouth when I jumped, I hoped that Karan would place the bean bed at the right spot! He did. https://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&am p;am p;sectid=12&contentid=200710142007101403294621824e4186a

wow nice article thx for sharing 👏

Awww...Shes soo daring !!Thnx for the article

Maa sweet jennifer 😳

hehe..its pretty funny actually, like the the rain sequesnce one, you'd expect serial peoples to have hose water in stuff like that..& in the one Jenni did, you'd expect the whole dam thing to be a piece of cardboard & everything else to be computerized to proprtion..but no, they choose the hard way out!😆