Raw Power: Ajay builds his body leaner and meaner

By Subhash K Jha

Now it can be told. Ajay has set up a makeshift gym in far-off Karaikudi for more than just recreation. For his role in Priyadarshan's hard-hitting tale of honour killing in Bihar Ajay Devgan needs to have a specially toned-up physique.

Priyan tells us why. "I've turned the horrific tale of an actual incident in Bihar of an inter-caste romance into a full-on actioner. See, I wanted to keep it real. At the same time I wanted to make it riveting for the audience.

So while shooting on an authentic location (Karaikudi is like a small town in Bihar) I've made my two heroes Ajay and Akshaye Khanna into full-on action heroes. This film has the kind of real stunts never seen in Hindi cinema."

Priyan has roped in his old action director B Thyagarajan and a stunt director from South Africa, Frances to devise action scenes which would take the director's Bihari drama into the region of riveting realism.

Says Priyan, "When I say real action I mean fight scenes that are the opposite of cable-wired flips somersaults jumps and leaps. This time Ajay has gone as raw as it can get."

The action sequences have both Devgan and Khanna locked in hand-to-hand combats, and other very basic forms of physical aggression that went out of vogue with the old Kung Fu films.

For this Devgan needed to get into a different shape, And so did Akshaye.

In fact Akshaye is a new convert to the gym. Till this schedule in Karaikudi started. And Ajay persuaded Akshaye to head for the gym.

"Yes we've a set up a terrific gym in this wilderness. It's been set up in an under-construction building. It has all the equipment, " says Bipasha.

"We all work out in it. Ajay and I of course. Paresh Rawal also works out. Akshaye Khanna only used to play squash for exercize. Now he's started going to the gym. They need to get into a specific shape for this film."

Before producer Arbaaz Khan can shift Bihar to Vai near Mumbai for the shooting of Abhinav Kashyap's Dabangg, Priyadrashan has relocated a village of Bihar in Karaikudi, a Tamilian small-town 80 kilometers away from Madurai to shoot for his very real headline-derived intercaste love story that shook rural Bihar some time ago.

Doesn't the film take Priyan intoa space completely different from his award-winning Kanchivaram?

"Not at all. That was a different kind of reality. This is different, " says Priyan.

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