Foraying into Hindi cinema with War, Hollywood biggie and Game Of Thrones' stunt director Paul Jennings on designing Hrithik Roshan-Tiger Shroff's actioner
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; September 16, 2019)

The star cast is arguably the biggest USP of War — the October 2 release sees the coming together of Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. Knowing that the union of two of Bollywood's biggest action heroes will be surrounded by high expectations, director Siddharth Anand wanted to have a reputed action director helm the face-off sequences between the two on-screen rivals. Enter Paul Jennings, one of the biggest action directors of Hollywood. The stunt director has previously lent his expertise to Hollywood action spectacles like The Dark Knight (2008), San Andreas (2015), Jack Reacher (2012), Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Game Of Thrones, among others.

"What I love about Bollywood is that you can push the action a little bit further," says Jennings, who forays into Hindi cinema with War. "You can do things that push the boundaries of believability right to the edge. As a result, you can end up with more spectacular sequences. In Hindi movies, you can sometimes be limited by the budget. But on this film, Adi [Aditya Chopra, producer] wanted to have the best action sequences possible. So, we had a big budget and were able to [give shape to] any grand sequence we envisioned. So, I would say there is no difference between the sequences in War and say, Mission Impossible or The Fast and Furious! The film is at par with them."

If it is the stunt choreographer's job to visualise never-seen-before sequences, it is up to the actors to breathe life into them on celluloid. He applauds Roshan and Shroff for bringing their own to the scenes. "They are both dedicated actors who worked hard at different facets of their craft, including physical training, fighting and dancing. We would choreograph fight sequences during rehearsals and then show them to Hrithik and Tiger, who would then inject their individuality to the moves. It is because of them that we could take the fights to a whole new level."

DNA (August 20, 2019)

After showing glimpses of high-octane action sequences between Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in the teaser of their upcoming film, War, director Siddharth Anand reveals that it took one year to choreograph all the stunts. “I don’t think any movie in India has spent over a year to design action sequences. I wanted to create a non-stop adrenaline-pumping visual extravaganza for the Indian audiences and for that, all of us had to give over a year to choreograph the sequences. We had four action directors living and working in different parts of the world, and it was important to jam with them on how to make War the biggest action film. We want the audiences to be proud that an Indian movie can do what a big-budget Hollywood actioner delivers.”

Like we informed you earlier, four of the top action directors — Paul Jennings (The Dark Knight, Game of Thrones), Franz Spilhaus (Safe House, Eye in the Sky), SeaYoung Oh (Age of Ultron, Snowpiercer) and Parvez Shaikh (Tiger Zinda Hai, Kesari, Mary Kom) — all specialists in creating a different type of spectacle — have designed the stunts.

Siddharth adds that the biggest Hollywood action films have, at the most, four action sequences, while he will have seven such set pieces. “We had two of the biggest action superstars in our film and we wanted to deliver to the expectations of the people. The response to the teaser has validated our effort and we are hoping that audiences will love the film as well.”

Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; July 31, 2019)

Touted to be a mega action-entertainer, the makers of Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff’s War have gone all out to up the scale of stunts in the film. After roping in four top big action directors — Paul Jennings, Franz Spilhaus, SeaYoung Oh and Parvez Shaikh — all specialists in creating a different type of spectacle, we have learnt that Tiger will be seen wielding the Gatling gun. The weapon is used by elite military forces, especially in the US. It is said that the kill-machine can fire around 2,000 rounds of bullets in a minute. Mobile and lightweight, it can be used for fighting on foot or mounted to improve precision. Incidentally, it is being used for the first time in a Bollywood film.

“While making War, we kept one thing in mind constantly — what will make this film the biggest action-entertainer that India has seen. All our effort has been in making this film a visual spectacle for audiences, especially action genre lovers. Both, Hrithik and Tiger, have already wowed people with their action avatars in their previous films, so we wanted to push the boundaries more. For one scene, we got the world’s most powerful machine gun — Gatling — and choreographed an action sequence featuring Tiger. It is a sight to see him tear down a city with this insanely powerful piece of a military weapon. He is an incredible action hero and we wanted him to show people something that he has never done before,” discloses director Siddharth Anand.

Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; July 19, 2019)

The makers of the Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff-starrer recently unveiled the teaser and title of the film —War, where the two action heroes are seen pitted against each other. We hear, there are massive fight sequences in the movie for which the makers have roped in big action directors from across the globe.

“When we have Hrithik taking on Tiger, the promise of the film to audiences becomes huge and we wanted to deliver the action experience for people to feel the adrenaline rush. We have four of the top action directors from different parts of the world like Paul Jennings, Franz Spilhaus, SeaYoung Oh and Parvez Shaikh — all specialists in creating a different type of spectacle, choreographing breath-taking, never-seen-before action stunts. The two actors will be seen fighting each other on land, ocean, ice and even air! We will be disclosing all these big action moments strategically to audiences,” says director, Siddharth Anand.

Paul Jennings has worked in Hollywood action spectacles like The Dark Knight starring Christian Bale, San Andreas starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Reacher starring Tom Cruise and the series Game of Thrones. South Korean master action director SeaYoung Oh is known for designing brilliant hand-to-hand combat sequences. He has worked in films like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Pokemon XY and Snowpiercer among others. Franz Spilhaus has designed spectacular action sequences in films like Safe House starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, Eye in the Sky, Death Race, etc. Parvez Shaikh has previously designed action in big-ticket Bollywood films like Tiger Zinda Hai, Junglee, Kesari and Mary Kom among others.

The film has been shot in 15 cities, including India, Finland, Australia, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden.

For War, Hrithik Roshan-Tiger Shroff shoot chase sequence in Arctic Circle in Finland with Dark Knight stunt director Paul Jennings
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; July 17, 2019)

With two alpha males — Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff — for leading men, director Siddharth Anand knew he would have to up the ante for action in War. Pulling out all stops, the filmmaker shot an elaborate car chase sequence featuring the two in Finland, thus making the Vaani Kapoor-starrer the first Bollywood movie to be filmed in the Arctic Circle.

Knowing that few would be able to do justice to the larger-than-life sequence that he had in mind, Anand roped in Hollywood stunt director Paul Jennings, whose resume includes prestigious projects like The Dark Knight (2008), Jack Reacher (2012), San Andreas (2015) and Game Of Thrones, among others.

A source tells mid-day, "Paul is the architect of this action segment. The crew had done a recce of the location six months before the sequence was shot there. Aware that performing stunts on ice can be tricky, Jennings and his team choreographed the stunts in a way that they were high on adrenaline while using the surroundings to create a visual spectacle. It was shot over a couple of days in the biting cold last year. Hrithik and Tiger practised for weeks before canning the shot."

Proud of how the idea has translated from the storyboard to reel, Anand says, "We were clear that we wanted to give Indian audiences action that they have never seen before. The car sequence sees Hrithik and Tiger perform an adrenaline-pumping stunt that has been shot on ice. We were informed by our production team that we were the first film in the world to shoot an action scene of this scale in the Arctic! Though the sequence was risky, it was so stunning visually that we went for it."