Ajay, Akshaye tone up for caste war in Priyan's film

Sep 17, 2009 Subhash K Jha

Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) Ajay Devgan and Akshaye Khanna will be seen in dramatic fight scenes in Priyadarshan's hard-hitting tale of honour killing set in Bihar. And to tone their bodies for the gruelling actions, the actors have got a makeshift gym in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, where the film is being shot.

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

The filmmaker has relocated a village of Bihar to Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga district to shoot his inter-caste love story.

"While shooting on location (Karaikudi) 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," the director said.

The two heroes have also started working out to get into right shape at a makeshift gym set up in Karaikudi itself.

"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. We all work out in it. Ajay and I of course. Paresh Rawal also works out," Bipasha Basu, who will also feature in the movie, told IANS.

"Akshaye only used to play squash for exercise. Now he's started going to the gym. They need to get into a specific shape for this film," she added.

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

"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 filmmaker said.

The action sequences have both Ajay and Akshaye 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.

Doesn't the film take Priyadarshan into a space completely different from his National Award winning "Kanchivaram"?

"Not at all. That was a different kind of reality. This is different," the director said.