Running through live explosions, ducking tanks, hanging from helicopters and brandishing weapons is all in a day’s work for Tiger Shroff
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 15, 2020)

On March 2, Tiger Shroff will turn 30. Four days later, he will storm the theatres with the third instalment of the Baaghi franchise, produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. The actor, who has grown up on Superman and Spider-Man, had once aspired to play a superhero on screen. Today, he admits, his character in this action-packed series, Ranveer Pratap Singh aka Ronnie is, in a way, a superhero too. “He is physically gifted and does a lot of things that would be termed over-the-top… unheard of feats. So, even though I am not flying, I’m close to doing it,” Tiger smiles.

At a time when sequels are coming and tumbling like nine pins every other week, what keeps the excitement alive in this franchise is that the actor has been upping the ante with each new film. One still remembers the climax of the first part wherein Ronnie scales up, a la Spider-Man, to the top of a building where his lady love is being held captive. On each floor, he encounters baddies from a different nationality, and takes them all down, before finally coming up against Villain No. 1 and martial arts champ Sudheer Babu, who confesses to having murdered Ronnie’s guru, and is subsequently decimated with the same signature moves. “Back then, I was restless and eager to show off the years of hard work I’d put into my craft and finally, got a film to showcase my physicality,” recalls the actor. Helmed by Sabbir Khan, Baaghi was a hit in the single screens and wowed the masses.

With Ahmed Khan, who stepped in as director of Part 2 and takes it forward this time as well, and Sajid’s creative inputs and financial backing, Tiger reinvented himself as a new-age Rambo in Baaghi 2. He took the action into the jungles of Krabi, to single-handedly rescue an abducted child, Arravya, who he later learns is his daughter, and in the process, extending the franchise’s box-office reach. Part 3 coming close on the heels of last year’s biggest grosser War, has raised the stakes by shooting all the action scenes live, rather than relying on visual effects. So, Tiger had to run through live explosions, had real tanks coming at him, hung from helicopters and even used actual weapons. “The weapons were a challenge because it’s not easy to leap through the air, holding a 5-10 kg gun in each hand. But with everyone, from the director and the ADs to the actors and the action team giving their 100 per cent, I had to give at least my 1000 per cent. Ahmed sir had designed all the money shots, all I had to do was rehearse them and give a take,” says Tiger, making light of daily daredevilry and dangers.

After such superhuman feats what is it like to go home to a normal life? “While I love to lose myself in such characters, it’s important to take a break from them too, else I might not value the super powers enough,” he signs off with a smile.