My film is based on 'grooms for sale' : Tinnu Verma

Mumbai, Sep 10: Action director Tinnu Verma, who has directed many Bollywood stars - from Amitabh Bachchan to Shahrukh Khan, and winner of seven Filmfare awards for best action in his long career in Bollywood, says his latest Bhojpuri venture 'Raja Thakur' is based on the theme of 'grooms for sale' in Bihar.

Speaking to UNI, Tinnu Verma said,'' Parents of the groom carry his qualifications and name a price on the boy. Eventually the boy gets married to the highest bidder amongst the girls.'' Verma, who has produced, directed and acted in the film, has a conflict in the film with Shatrughan Sinha - one of the other principle characters. Apart from the two, the film boasts a star cast of top stars of Bhojpuri films like Manoj Tiwari, Nagma, Meghna Patel and Saundarya, among others.

Tinnu Verma, who has been doing stunts in the Indian film industry for the past 25 years, has come up the hard way. He started in the industry in 1977 as a stuntman. From 1977 to 1985, he did stunts in 100-200 films where he was a movie action double for stars from Amitabh Bachchan to Chimpu Kapoor. From 1985 to 1990, he was Assistant Action Director with Pappu Verma, his elder brother.

From Assistant Director, he graduated to be an Action Director and since then there has been no looking back. He has worked with the who's who and the creme' de la creme' of the film industry where he did 80-90 films for production houses like the Yashraj banner where he did 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge', 'Darr', 'Chandni' and 'Parampara'. Some of his other films are Govinda starrer 'Shola Aur Shabnam', Hrithik Roshan's smash hit debut film 'Kaho Na Pyar Hai', 'Raja Hindustani', 'Barsaat', 'Border' and 'Gadar' where he won an award for best action , 'Ziddi', the Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit starrer ''Pukar''for which he won an award.

Some of his other films are 'Ghayal', 'Khuda Gawah', 'Betaab', 'Ghatak', Rajkumar Santoshi's 'China Gate', 'Khakee',' Ab Tumhare Vatan Saathiyo' , 'Deewar' ,'Kacche Dhaage', 'Hamesha', 'Musafir' and 'Zinda' just to name a few.

Verma, who has done some dangerous stunts in films says that no star has ever been injured on the sets but accidents have happened to him and his people. He talks of the film 'Avinash' which was a Mithun Chakravorty and the late Parveen Babi starrer where his whole face got burnt while doing the stunt. ''I did not go out in the sun for 40 to 50 days. I had to take care of myself. I guess my blood was healthy which lead to my early recovery,'' he says.

He narrates two other incidents where in a film produced by N Chandra (Tezaab fame) starring Anil Kapoor, two of his stuntmen died and in another film called 'Jaanwar', a stuntman Raju died.

''The Stunt Men Association paid for the dead and I too contributed in whatever way I could,'' says Verma.

Speaking on the current trend where leading actors and actresses do their own stunts, Verma clarifies,''Why should that make us insecure? After all we are only directing them. It is a good trend.''

Verma is the first action director who has got equipment from London to improve the quality of stunts. He got equipments worth Rs 35-40 lakh including the air balloon, air ram, gas body effect and motorcycle rig many years ago. The one thing Tinnu is averse to is working with foreign stunt men. He says,''We don't use our brains while working. They ruled over us before independence and I don't want that to continue even now.'' He has also produced, directed other Hindi films like 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' and 'Baaz'. He has made Bhojpuri films like 'Dhartiputra' and 'Pandit' besides 'Raja Thakur'.

His forthcoming under-production project is Vidhu Vinod Chopra's film 'Eklavya' starring superstar Amitabh Bachchan. The other projects which are in the infancy stage are 'Yoddha' and 'Saaza'.

UNI