Five and furious

Crakk director ropes in five ace stunt coordinators from across the globe to bring their A-game for action choreography of Vidyut Jammwal-starrer
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; February 7, 2024)

Crakk: Jeetegaa To Jiyegaa marks the second production venture from Vidyut Jammwal’s stable, and considering that the offering is expected to play to his strength, Jammwal and director Aditya Datt are leaving no stone unturned to make the offering a cinematic delight for fans of actioners.

Strategically on-boarding a team of five action choreographers from Spain, South Africa, Italy, and Germany, the team plans to showcase a spate of action sequences involving slacklining, BMX cycling, rollerblading, and hand-to-hand combat, among others.

Datt wanted to ascertain that he packed in a punch in each frame. “I write my action sequences in detail, including the emotions I want the scenes to convey. In an extreme sports action drama, this becomes all the more crucial. Stunts have the danger of becoming boring, after a point. So, storytelling is important.”

Chronicling the skills of the stunt directors he has roped in, Datt shares, “Federico Cueva from Spain shot a lot of the cycling portions of the film. His last work was Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother, and some of what he has shot is exquisite. Kerry Gregg from South Africa has crafted some flawless car stunts. He was the stunt director on Outlander and has worked on Jackie Chan’s films. Then we had Cyrill Raffaeli. His grasp on parkour is good, and he monitored the flipping, running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, plyometrics, rolling, and quadrupedal movement in the film. Dawid Szatarski from Germany is great with roller blades and action choreography. He has worked on Commando 3, and has done some memorable work in The Kingsman and Black Widow. Finally, Dr K Ravi Varma from Bangalore is someone I trust. I believe he is the best action director in our industry.”

Datt says that as the film’s director, it is on him to appropriately gauge the strength of his action choreographers, and enable them to bring their best foot forward. “With the years of experience they have behind them in dealing with danger, they know how to orchestrate scenes safely and with precision.”