The tragic case of the alleged negligence which led to the death of two innocent actors during the shooting of Maasthi Gudi is still pending before courts. And the few instances of near-death or fatal accidents during filming is still a worrying concern for Kannada film fraternity. Bengaluru Chronicle reports on the risk factors involved.
It was a black day when Uday and Anil, two promising actors drowned to death even as the crew watched on helplessly when an action sequence went awry. It took days to fish out their body from the TG Halli Reservoir. Soon, the film body blamed the team, and suspended them from taking part in film-related activities, which was later revoked. At times, when experts are stressing for mandatory safety measures to be in place while shooting, instances like the Kempegowda-2 film shoot come to mind — actor Komal and Yogish sustained injuries and Ninasam Satish also hurt while shooting for the Godhra film. All this has further raised alarm bells.
“It is unfortunate that such incidents are being reported even after the entire film industry has been stressing for proper safety mechanisms while shooting risky sequences. No one can guarantee 100 per cent safety, but there should be 100 per cent effort to minimise such risky incidents. It is even more disheartening to learn that these incidents are occurring when technology can easily solve such problem by minimising risks taken. It is understandable that many film makers thrive on reality sequences but doing do so by risking lives is not the right thing to do,” says Venkatesh, director.
A leading stunt choreographer who do not wish to be named revealed that such incidents are rare, and it is always negligence on the part of the producers. “As a fight master, when a shot for an action sequence is set up as per the director’s requirement, safety is always the topmost priority. A list of requirements are sent to producers, and many a times the stunt choreographers are pushed to take needless risks. However, things have changed and many insist on complete safety measures now,” he adds.
In a tragic turn of events, Uday and Anil died after a stunt went horribly wrong at Tippagondanahalli Lake in November 2016. While filming the scene, Vijay and the two actors, Anil and Uday, had jumped into the lake from a helicopter. As the lead actor swam ashore, the other two didn’t surface for a long time, and later their bodies were recovered after an extensive search which took more than two days.
Recently, Komal and Yogish sustained minor injuries when they fell off a bike during the chase scene in Kempegowda-2. A section of fight masters’ believed that the stunt was not properly choreographed, and hence led to the mishap.
Satish Ninasam also sustained injuries while shooting for Godhra near Kukke Subramanya. It was bomb blast sequence, and it is alleged that the team forgot to replace the windshield of the car used for the shooting with a proper one used for such sequences. As the bomb exploded near the windshield, Satish got hurt and explosives sprayed his chest. However, the actor soon tweeted clarifying that it was his own sole decision to be part of the film and the shoot, and no one else was responsible for the mishap. What ever be the case, it is time to have proper security measures in place so that such instances do not occur frequently.
