Nishikant Kamat on putting John Abraham through the paces for Rocky Handsome
Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; September 17, 2015)


John who’s busy shooting for Force 2 already, tells us from Budapest, “Rocky Handsome is one film I’m extremely proud of and I am going to show the world how action is done.” Says Nishikant of RH, “We’ve just wrapped the film. The action sequences are world-class and everyone will see what I mean once the promos are out.”

First reactions
For Nishikant, the sequences had to look believable. “See, I made John pick up an entire bike in Force because he can do it in real life too. Had I filmed the same scene with Dhanush, it would have looked stupid. For RH too, the scenes had to look believable. So John prepared himself that way. I wanted him to do some Oriental action like Kung Fu. John was like, ‘Yeh sab karna hai?’ (Laughs) I told him, ‘Yeh toh karna padega’. He went to Bangkok and trained for a month. When he came back, he looked like a martial artist.”

8 ka dum
Nishikant reveals, “Rocky Handsome will feature eight major action sequences, that will go through the roof, for sure.

10 kilo kam
Believability being key, John underwent weight reduction for the role. Says Kamat, “He’s actually gone leaner — from 100 kg to 90 and the difference will be visible. When we thought of doing this film, I was very clear that felt John was slightly stiff.” John adds, “I just wanted to look lean and ripped. With this one, we wanted to go 10 kilos lesser but we wanted every muscle defined. I think the character’s body in the film is probably the most well-defined and the most articulate structure the industry is going to see. I had to look like a lethal killing machine. We wanted to create an impact such that when the audiences walk out during the intermission, I want them to feel, ‘What has he done?’ I want them to feel amazed.”

Training right
And while the actor worked rigorously to perfect the look, the next hurdle was the martial arts training. It was then that Nishikant spearheaded the entire process. He reveals, “We had to do a lot of training. I got fight masters from Hong Kong. I got their action sequences. We designed eight action sequences and they shot it in Hong Kong with dummies for reference. Then they came to Mumbai and showed it to me. And I told them what I wanted in the film. I am very anal about it.”

John says, “We went to Bangkok and we trained there for over a month. I trained in different art forms. I trained in Aikido, Hapkido which involve a lot of hand-to-hand combat. I also trained in Krav Maga.”