Vidyut Jammwal: Fear is a great friend to have on action film

Vidyut Jammwal in Crakk—Jeetegaa Toh Jiyegaa

Action is at the heart of Vidyut Jammwal's films. But with Crakk - Jeetegaa Toh Jiyegaa, the actor-producer saw an opportunity to introduce the Indian audience to an extreme sports action movie. For an industry that is quite prolific, one wonders why Bollywood hasn't attempted the genre before. Jammwal reasons, "Not everyone can pull this off. Such a movie requires serious training. Across the globe, the genre of action gets so much love and respect. In India, it's catching on."

Aditya Datt's directorial venture revolves around an underground extreme sports competition where the last man standing walks away with the prize money. Casting for a heavy-duty action fare is not easy. But the actor says he got lucky with Arjun Rampal, Nora Fatehi and Amy Jackson. "When you do a film like this, everyone around also has to be in sync with you physically to make the stunt interesting. Arjun had to train extensively. In a sequence, Arjun and I have done rappelling, and it took us months to get it right. Similarly, Nora had to train in rollerblading. I did rollerblading in London with experts. We all trained for months."

If intense prep is one side of the coin, the other side is safety measures. As an actor-producer, Jammwal asserts that safety was his top priority. "[When performing stunts], you get professionals; they know how to be safe. Before every stunt, I am scared out of my mind. You have to analyse the risks, and calculate everything that can go wrong. Fear is a great friend to have on an action film. You will die if you aren't scared. Fear is a partner that you keep beside you, and then surpass it."

Crakk marks the actor's second production after IB 71 (2023). He says the key to being a good producer is to think like the audience. "I want to tell stories that [captivate] my mind. In Crakk, Arjun and I have a cycling competition. When we wrote the scene, it felt regular. But on the set, [it turned out way better]. So, at every step, the idea was to up the ante and constantly ask ourselves, ‘What would the audience like?'"