Shahid pays tribute to stunt director

Shahid Kapoor is taking no chances this time. He wants Rambo Rajkumar to be even more mass-oriented than Prabhudheva’s Rowdy Rathore. Says a source, “The title was actually suggested by Shahid to Prabhu. The name Rambo Rajkumar comes from a famous stunt director, who was a legend in Tamil cinema. He died performing one of his dangerous stunts.” In the film Shahid will be performing stunts that Rambo had patented in Tamil cinema before his untimely death in 2009.

 Says the source, “While taking the film out of the raw arthouse realistic space where it originally was, Shahid suggested to Prabhudheva that the masala action scenes should be done the way they were performed by Rambo in his Tamil films. Shahid doesn’t want his stunts in the film to duplicate the ones that Prabhu attempted with Salman Khan in Wanted and Akshay Kumar in Rowdy Rathore. He wants the maara-maari to be ekdum different.

Prabhudheva has given Shahid  DVDs of Rambo’s films to watch. He used to perform the most daring and audacious stunts. Says the source, “Shahid is aware of the risks. In fact Rambo Rajkumar died while performing one of his impossible stunts. But Shahid is in a do-or-die action mode now.” Says Prabhudheva, “What audiences will see Shahid do in Rambo Rakjumar has never been seen in Hindi cinema. We’re working on his character, body language and action. We’ll be shooting in rugged rural Gujarat where the terrain is tough. Shahid will have to toughen himself for the challenge. I know he is up to it.”