No stunt double for Salman

Salman Khan recently shot for a major pre-climax action sequence for Ali Abbas Zafar's Sultan. It features a kite-running sequence which involves parkour and Salman will be seen running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping and rolling on the streets and from terrace to terrace " all by himself without a stunt double as the scene had to look authentic and raw.

Says a source close to the film, "Salman plays a wrestler from Haryana. All the action sequences are very stylised, yet raw and real. While Salman had learned parkour earlier for Ek Tha Tiger, the one in Sultan is more realistic and complicated. It's centred around a kite-running event and Salman not only trained for it but also lost 12 kgs for the scene. Kite-running or patang baazi is a common sport in India where people compete with each other about how high their kites can go till they get cut. Ali Abbas has incorprated a stylised parkour sequence in the chase scene."

Parkour requires a certain atheletic body type and weight balance and Salman had to leap from one terrace to another without the help of any cables, which is dangerous. There were medics on the sets, 24-hour ambulances and a crew on wheels with multi-camera setups to ensure that everything went off smoothly."

Salman and his action team rehearsed for two days before they started shooting. The source adds, "The kite-running sequence in the heartland of Haryana, is something Salman has never done before and was very tough because he did it himself. While Salman is physically fit as he's an action hero, for the sequence, he had to shed his weight by 12 kgs and went on a special diet as he had to be leaner."

Three action coordinators have designed the actions sequences in Sultan " Ali Abbas and his team, Hollywood stunt co-ordinator Larnell Stovall and Parvez Sheikh.