Stunt Master Jolly Bastian dies of cardiac arrest

Stunt Master Jolly Bastian, who has worked in over 900 films across South Indian languages, passed away due to cardiac arrest at his residence in Bengaluru on Tuesday. He was 57. A native of Alleppey, Kerala, Jolly was brought up in Bengaluru.

Jolly, like his father and grandfather, was a mechanic and enjoyed performing stunts on heavy bikes and not just on the 100-cc bikes. At 17, Jolly made his debut as a stuntman for Ravichandran in the actor’s debut film, Premaloka, in 1987. For the next 7 years, he performed small stunts in films, and finally, in 1995, he got a big break as the action director in Ravichandran’s film, Putnanja. Jolly often remembered Ravichandran as his ‘Godfather’. He then went on to work across all industries in South India as well as Bollywood. Jolly is also credited with having worked on over 300 high-risk blast sequences. He also made his debut as a director in 2013 with Ninagagi Kadiruve. He also had plans to direct another Kannada film.

Jolly was also the president of the Karnataka Stunt Directors and Professionals Association. Besides, Jolly was a gifted singer. He ran an orchestra group, 24 Events, and was the lead singer of the orchestra. Jolly’s son, Amith, is also a stuntman. His other son, Vihaan, is making his debut as a villain in Prajwal Devraj’s film Mafia.

Some of his memorable works include Ekangi, Super Ranga, Shyloo, Gaalipata, Popcorn Monkey Tiger, Masterpiece (Kannada); Bangalore Days, Operation Java, Angamaly Dairies (Malayalam); Annayya, Nakshatram (Telugu), Natukku Oru Nallavan, Erida (Tamil), The Body (Hindi) and Chachi 420 (Punjabi).


Broken but not defeated
As a stuntman, Jolly had his fair share of accidents. Known for his chilling bike and car stunts, jaw-dropping wheelies, and jumps, he broke his collarbone and ribs while shooting for a bomb blast scene in Shankar Nag’s film Bhale Chatura in 1990. He had damaged his face and knees during Putnanja. Despite suffering multiple injuries, Jolly always walked back to the sets like nothing had happened soon after the recovery.


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