Safety in check

Akshay Kumar demonstrating action with fire at a launch

On October 21, on the set of Rust in New Mexico, producer-actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza while rehearsing for a scene. What started out as a practice round ended in tragedy. The actor in a tweet yesterday has urged film and television productions to hire police officers to ensure safety protocols while using weapons on film sets. mid-day reached out to Bollywood's stunt and action directors to gauge the situation on home ground.

A car explosion scene from Singham Returns

Dummy guns and fake bullets

In the business since 1997, gun master Satpal Singh Virdi is always on set with his team during scenes with gunshots. "We usually use 9mm, 8mm, 6mm blank guns for shooting. These are dummy guns with fake bullets," informs Virdi, adding that since the Baldwin incident, actors have been wary of using firearms.

Alec Baldwin

"On the set of Netflix's Rana Naidu, the makers decided to opt to film the reaction of the actors since Venkatesh sir wouldn't use bullets. I shot the gun for the out-of-frame action, while the director canned their reaction to the trigger," explains the gun master. Artistes are made to practice using dummy firearms with real mechanisms using the right technique. "The sound of the bullets can affect eardrums; hence it is advised to put cotton buds," adds Virdi, who supplied around 200 guns for Jannat 2, The Family Man, Gul Makai, and Shahid Kapoor's upcoming series, Sunny.

Also Read: 'Complacency on the set,' infer investigators in Alec Baldwin shooting case

Understanding explosions

No Bollywood action drama, especially a Rohit Shetty directorial film, is complete without blowing up cars. The man behind the masterful work in The Family Man franchise, Baaghi and Baadshaho, Aejaz Gulab Sheikh takes us through a perfectly orchestrated car explosion. "The first step of an explosion is to understand its repercussions. We monitor a car blast to know exactly what pieces will break and how far they will fly to set the radius appropriately," says the expert, who personally prefers to do the wiring and cable work on explosives than relying on automatic explosive devices. "We personally trigger the control once the cameraman gives us a go-ahead. With CG [computer graphics], we can do the blast at a mini scale and jazz it up later. The Sri Lanka sequence [in The Family Man 2] has little CG. You can see the smoke coming out. CG cannot perfectly recreate [smoke]," he adds. Sheikh explains that the material used in explosions is made from "soft board". "The fumes are not harmful to those with allergies. We use LPG gas for small-scale explosions, which combusts on its own."

The camera tricks

Aejaz Gulab Sheikh

Sheikh explains that the camera is placed in a certain way to give the illusion that the bullets or explosion are hitting actors. "If you place a camera at the bottom of a circular railway track, it will appear as though the train is going straight. Camera techniques and stunts are done in tandem."

The attire

Manoj Bajpayee handling a gun in The Family Man franchise

"An actor cannot perform action scenes in one take if it needs to be done with finesse," says Sheikh, who credits showrunners Raj and DK for being patient through the filming of The Family Man 2. "The fighters in a major explosion scene are made to wear clothes made from the same material as that of a fireman, but we make it less bulky. We use materials that don't stick to the body and clothes that are fire or heat-resistant," adds Sheikh.

Though accidents due to explosions are rare on film sets, Sheikh - Movie Stunt Artist Association, general secretary - says film sets are protocol-driven. "Only fighters are allowed on action sequences [because they can gauge] how the explosion will pan out, how to safely land, and how to jump if there is a mishap. Every time a gun is used, we put safety glass on the camera lens so that it is not damaged," concludes the expert.

Also Read: Alec Baldwin: Halyna Hutchins was a friend, we were a well-oiled crew