David Dhawan On Varun’s Stunt Gone Wrong

 It literally became  a cliff-hanger  for  Varun Dhawan when a  car  perched precariously on  a cliff  for  a stunt in  Coolie No 1  went  horribly wrong.

Recounting the experience with a  shudder Varun’s  dad director David Dhawan  says, “It was finally  ok  . Nothing untoward happened.  But  it could’ve turned  ugly. You see, the door of the car in which Varun was shooting got stuck. When we saw  what was happening we froze. But Varun remained  totally calm.He was  extricated  from the car  before any mishap.”

As a father shouldn’t David   dissuade  Varun from doing such  dangerous stunts?

David  who has been  directing films for the last  45  years, shoots back, “Why only Varun? I  recommend  full safety for all my heroes when they do  action scenes. In fact we had taken safety measures for  the stunt  with Varun also. But these young actors want to push the action into the daring zone. Varun belongs to that enthusiastic generations which would do anything to ensure   optimum authenticity on  screen.”

 However as a concerned  filmmaker and father, David Dhawan  would  not allow actors to take  risks in the future. “My  films usually don’t have complicated action. In the  remake of  Coolie No 1  we decided to incorporate  a  couple  of such  scenes. But  from now on I won’t allow anything dangerous.Audiences come to my films for laughter,not thrills.”

Coolie No 1 is almost complete. “We’ve two songs only , one  of them to be shot in Mauritius. Then we are done. After that we will prepare for our May release.”

So how does David compare the new avatar of  Coolie No 1 with the old? “They are two separate  beasts. They can’t be compared.  Varun’s version is the  Coolie No 1  for  this millennium. We’ve incorporated  two songs  from the original Husn hai suhana and Main toh raste pe jaa raha ttha.Why hunt for new hits when I already  have them?”

Varun Dhawan confirms he is fine. “It is true that  the action scene went  awry. But I am fine.”