A gym where stuntmen sharpen their kicks and punches

At a modest gym in one of the by-lanes of

Basavanagudi

, seven men are practising backflips and somersaults, and fighting with sticks and working on their punches.

Ravi Jamkhandi

, their coach, is busy instructing them. “Be careful of your neck,“ he tells one of them as he prepares for a backflip. “Hit harder on the abdomen, it has to be exaggerated for the camera,“ he tells another. These men are getting ready to fight thieves, chase attackers, and jump walls. The life of a stuntman, or “action heroes“, is never devoid of combat. But that's only for the screen.

In this 350sqft claustrophobic room, the air heavy with the smell of sweat, we watch these men learn their trade. Basic workout amenities ­ three mattresses, a table, and two large worn-out yoga mats ­ are pretty much what they use. We watch, and wonder if any of these men signed up for the film industry to become heroes. This is the `fight class', Jamkhandi tells us, where action heroes mostly in their late 20s come to train. “When a director assigns me a group, I first ask for the concept. How intense is the scene?

What kind of a role is he going to play, and the number of fight sequences? I need these details to plan the fight scene,“ says Jamkhandi, who's been part of the industry for the last 18 years, and has worked on films such as Deadly Soma, Lee and Love in Mandya.

What's ironic is that he'd never planned this life. A yoga master and a gym owner in

Udupi

his father was in the same profession it was his brother who triggered this change in his career. “He saw the shooting of Aathma, and went and spoke to the actor

Kumar Govind

about my interest in martial arts who wanted to meet me immediately. And before I knew it, I was in Bengaluru fine-tuning my skills and training men for fight sequences,“ says Jamkhandi, a black belt holder in karate. His three-month course is intensive, and requires up to two hours every day, sometimes even more. “But then there are times when boys want to come in for a quick lesson,“ he says grudgingly.“It takes at least three months before they can pick up the art.“

Many of these artists have already played side roles before joining his classes. While some like

Prathap R

(27) hold a day job as well, there are also the likes of

Shivu Balaji

(27). Balaji quit his job as the head of housekeeping at a company, after he bagged a small part in Dress Code. The director of the film then suggested Balaji sign up for a fight class.

“As important as it is to learn a particular fight technique, it's equally important to learn facial expressions.A kick in the chest requires a different expression from a kick in the abdomen,“ Balaji says. One of the students, Ajay has been part of four films in the last three months. No one's broken a bone in Jamkhandi's class yet, with the exception of “one overenthusiastic artist who had come to meet me, and decided to give a stunt a shot after a break of at least six months, and ended up with a sprain. But I always keep an eye on the boys,“ he says, before heading back to shouting instructions.

Film schedules often keep Jamkhandi away from the classes. But his instructions are clear; the boys have to practise even if he's not around, or make up for the missing sessions with extra hours later. “His kaiguna (luck of hand) is good,“ says one of the stu dents, which is why he's often the chosen teacher. And it becomes apparent when we learn that he rarely bothers about remuneration. Jamkhandi takes whatever he can get.Some promise to come back after their shoots and pay, and disappear thereafter, one of the stu dents tells us. “Just let it be. It doesn't matter. I do it for the love of it,“ says the trainer.