I started out fighting some six foot goons - Vidyut Jammwal

As told to Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 10, 2019)
I had recorded my stunts and instead of handing out portfolio pictures, I’d hand over this DVD to filmmakers. One day, my director-friend Deepak Shivdasani asked me to meet Nishikant Kamat who was casting for his directorial. When I met Nishi at the coffee shop below his house, I handed him the DVD. He liked what he saw, but insisted I audition for the role of the main villain in Force as he wanted a strong, fit guy to play Vishnu Reddy. The audition scene was a conversation with my brother in the film during which we are plotting revenge. Nishi shot me on a handy-cam, producer Vipul Shah gave me the thumbs-up and when we met, told me, “We will give you an action scene.” I didn’t understand what he meant. For me, it was just about breaking into Bollywood then.

We were supposed to do some readings before the shoot, but that didn’t happen because I had fallen ill. So, I turned up directly on the sets. On the first day, we filmed my introduction which had me fighting some six-foot goons in a godown. We were supposed to shoot in Africa, but eventually, canned the scene on a set in Mumbai. After seeing me fight, Vipul Shah promised to launch me as a hero if he ever made an action film. After a year and a half, he came to me with Commando, so my first shot did help me bag a solo hero action film.

Since we had started off with action, my confidence was up and I wanted to do good work. Overall, it was a smooth journey and for me, the nicest person on the set was Genelia D’souza. She was a big star and I loved chatting with her. We bonded over Kalaripayattu, as she had used the technique in one of her South Indian films, Urumi. One of my most difficult scenes was dragging Genelia by the hair. I was terrified because she looks so fragile. She kept telling me to do it, but I was skeptical as I had never treated a girl that way. I did it eventually.