Sanjay Dutt’s special martial arts class

When Sanjay Dutt came face-to-face for a deadly combat with the internationally-celebrated action director Joey Ansah, the 51-year-old Bollywood star didn't know what he had bargained for.

Joey, who; is best known for his stunts alongside Matt Damon in the Hollywood flick Bourne Ultimatum, was brought down on director Mani Shankar's insistence for the climax fight in Knock  Out, with Dutt's consent, of course.

Mani wanted Dutt and Joey in a hand-to-hand martial ; combat. Although Joey is a karate expert, Dutt was game for the combat since he had learnt a strain of martial arts called Chow Lin Foot, 15 years ago.

Says Joey, “We worked on reviving Sanjay's skills at martial arts. He trained with me on two exotic martial arts forms — Jiu Jitsu and Chow Lin Foot. For the climax fight, we used conflicting techniques. I used Karate, Dutt used Jiu Jitsu and Chow Lin Foot. We used no wires, no gimmicks, no special effects. The fight is stunningly real and chilling.”

The fight was devised planned and detailed on the story board down to the minutest detail. Sanjay trained for three weeks. By the time he finished training and got down to shooting the fight, he was so skilled at the martial arts that he could match Joey fist for fist.

Says Ansah, “We took ; our time getting it right. We couldn't have jaded and gimmicky special-effects fights any more. Audiences are bored of the usual somersaults and kicks. We broke six glass bottles on Sanjay Dutt's head, no fakes, all real bottles. Dutt took it like a champ.”

Sanjay says, “There is no point in making an ; action film unless you have world-class stunts in them. Spiderman got dubbed in even Bhojpuri. We need to do action of a world-class order. Or not  do it at all.”