Kareena and Saif on AV sets (New page 9) - Page 11

Visits Ho Chi Minh City to learn martial arts for his next

Saif Ali Khan has been packed off to Vietnam to learn the country's martial arts ( viet vo thuat and vovinam) by his Agent Vinod action director Peter Heinz. The actor will train there for a week.

Says an insider, " Agent Vinod features some of the most stylised hand- to- hand combats seen in Indian cinema. And since Saif will be performing the stunts himself, Peter felt the actor needed to go to the South- East Asian country to learn the martial arts to receive first- hand training." Khan and Heinz left for Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon, Vietnam's largest city, last week to begin training. " The place boasts some of the best martial arts centres in the world. The actor could well have learned the disciplines in India, but his action director insisted that some of the best schools are in Hanoi and Saigon and Peter insisted they go there as it would be the best place to learn these martial arts."

WHAT IT IS?

Viet vo thuat deals with specialised close combat techniques — taking an opponent by surprise, using illusion and sidestep movement without resistance — it's all there in the film. Vovinam is practised with and without weapons and includes hand, elbow, kicks, escape and levering techniques, attack and defence techniques as well as various forms of wrestling.