Hollywood action director doubted Akshay Kumar's stunt abilities

Mumbai, Jan 15 (IANS) Hollywood-based action choreographer Huan-Chiu Ku was doubtful about Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar's ability to perform the gravity-defying stunts in the forthcoming action-comedy 'Chandni Chowk To China'.

'I had doubts if Akshay could do the stunts, but he did it very well. Whatever stunts I asked him to do, he agreed to do it without any hesitations - be it sky diving from the platform of the building or any other stunt,' Huan, who is also known as Dee Dee Ku, said in an email interview with IANS.

'When I asked him (Akshay) whether he had done this kind of stunts earlier, he said no. I think he is very good,' he added.

Throwing light on a scene that he found it difficult to put together in the film, Huan said: 'The hardest part in the film was when Akshay had to fight with a seven-foot-tall guy who was very strong and weighed somewhere around 200 pounds. When a huge guy tries to punch you, you try to get back to avoid the punch and Akshay would react very fast - I had to tell him to move slow.'

Co-produced by Ramesh Sippy Entertainment, People Tree Films and Hollywood studio Warner Bros, 'Chandni Chowk To China' is an action-comedy helmed by Nikhil Advani and is releasing Friday.

Rubbing shoulders with Akshay as his lady love in the movie is Deepika Padukone. Huan has also trained Deepika, who is already being touted as the 'Catwoman' of India for her fearless wielding of the nan chaku and agile movements in the film.

'We started training her in the beginning of the film. We trained Deepika for two weeks and she was very good at the fight scenes. I have seen some rushes and she has done a good job. She had tried hard for it and the sequences look very powerful,' said Huan.

'After two days of doing the stunts, I saw her (Deepika) walking very slowly. She was hurt, but still she was too graceful while doing the scenes,' he added.

Huan also shared that though scheming action sequences for an Indian film was 'not much of a difference' for him, he was left bamboozled by certain aspect of Bollywood filmmaking.

'There was singing and dancing in the film, which was very different for me. For me, an action film has only actions and they (the producers) have incorporated comedy in the action film, which is rarely seen,' he said.

Huan has been in the stunt business for almost 27 years and has worked as part of acclaimed Chinese martial arts choreographer and film director Yuen Woo Ping's team since 1991.

He has choreographed action sequences for films like 'Iron Monkey', 'Fist of Fury', 'Romeo Must Die', 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' and Stepen Chow's latest film 'CJ7'.