Ranbir Kapoor will be seen performing a few Kalaripayattu-inspired fight sequences in Shamshera which is helmed by Karan Malhotra. Ranbir, who is coming to the big screen four years after he delivered the blockbuster 'Sanju', is pitted against Sanjay Dutt who is playing an evil, merciless, cold-hearted brute force of nature, Shuddh Singh. The film has a Kalaripayattu-inspired edgy fight sequence which has been directed by Franz Spilhaus, who has previously choreographed films like the Denzel Washington starrer Safe House and Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff's blockbuster 'War'. For those unversed, Kalaripayattu is one of the oldest martial art forms in India. This energetic form is inspired by the moves of animals like lion, tiger, snake, elephants and cock.
Sharing the thought behind the sequence and how Ranbir executed it, director Karan Malhotra said, "Being set in the 1800's it was important that action set pieces also look from that era and are mounted at a visual scale like never before. We wanted audiences to see something new and we have tried to achieve this.
"Ranbir is playing the Hindi film hero and he has to pull off incredible action scenes. One such scene required him to pull off a Kalaripayattu-inspired fight sequence that we shot on a really dusty field and constructed an arena that resembled the arena of those times!"
Karan added: "As an actor, Ranbir jumps at anything new! So, when we explained the scene to him, he wanted to ace it and I remember he put in many, many days rehearsing the scene with the action director of this sequence, Franz and his team.
"This scene is filmed on Balli, who has to fight the army general, at a hugely critical juncture of the film. It was a challenging shoot sequence."
"It was hot, it was humid and it was really really dusty. To make matters worse, it was also windy. But hats off to Ranbir for pulling this off with elan. This is one of the biggest highlight points of the film."
Shamshera is set in the fictitious city of Kaza, where a warrior tribe is imprisoned, enslaved and tortured by a ruthless authoritarian general Shuddh Singh (played by Sanjay Dutt). This is the story of a man who became a slave, a slave who became a leader and then a legend for his tribe. He relentlessly fights for his tribe's freedom and dignity. His name is Shamshera (essayed by Ranbir).
Produced by Aditya Chopra, 'Shamshera' is set to release in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on July 22, 2022. The film also stars Vaani Kapoor.
