Freddy Daruwala's daredevilry gone wrong

Nearly escaping death after falling 35 feet into ice-cold water, Freddy Daruwala on playing it safe going forward

Injuries are a given when shooting for any action-packed project, but Freddy Daruwala didn’t expect the situation to get out of hand as he canned a crucial stunt for the second season of Crackdown on JioCinemas. The actor had to do pull-ups under a bridge while a drone was set to capture his movements. At sub-zero temperature in Kashmir, a bare-chested Daruwala finished the shot with ease, but by the end of the shoot, his hands were frozen. Before he could be pulled up, the actor fell into the freezing water from a height of 35 feet.

Originally, director Apoorva Lakhia had decided to shoot the sequence in a studio, keeping in mind Daruwala’s safety, but the actor insisted on doing his stunts in real time and on location. “I should have been more careful. Apoorva informed me about the possibilities of [accidents and wanted to use] a safety harness to execute the scene. But I insisted on doing it on my own,” said the actor, who sustained injuries to his back, legs, and shoulders.

While his injuries were not life-threatening, Lakhia immediately called off the shoot. After a day’s rest, Daruwala resumed the shoot. “Since it wasn’t the last day of the shoot, had I been hurt, the shoot would have stalled. The next day, I faced a lot of difficulties due to severe back injuries,” he said, adding that he regrets his impulsive decision to shoot the scene himself. “Sometimes, an actor gets carried away in the name of realism. We forget that there are a lot of people associated with a project, and if any unfortunate incident were to happen on the set, the shoot could get hampered. Going ahead, I will ensure that I play it safe so that I don’t hurt myself or others.”

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