“Breaking bones is in our DNA…”: Rohit Shetty on how his mother Ratna performed stunts for Hema Malini in ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 20 (ANI): Filmmaker Rohit Shetty, unquestionably among the country’s most successful commercial directors, however, is not an outsider in the film industry. While his father M B Shetty was a renowned stuntman, his mother Ratna Shetty too was in the industry acting as a stunt double for stars like Hema Malini and Vyjayanthimala.

In an interview with ANI, Shetty said both his parents were an inspiration for him.

“My mom was a stuntwoman. All the ‘Seeta aur Geeta’ stunts you see and Vyjayanthimala rolling from the staircase, it’s her. Her physique was such that,” Shetty said.

The 1972 film written by Salim-Javed and directed by Ramesh Sippy has an ensemble cast of Hema Malini (in a double role), Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Roopesh Kumar, Manorama, Satyen Kappu, Honey Irani and Pratima Devi.

Rohit Shetty recalled how his mother did a sequence in the film in which Geeta, the character played by Hema Malini, was seen sitting on a ceiling fan in the police station. “The fan sequence in ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ or in ‘Andaz”s song ‘Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana’ the top angle shots you saw… on the bike of Rajesh Khanna, that’s my mom.”

“So, it’s our family business. It’s in our DNA — breaking bones … breaking our own bones than the others,” said the 49-year-old director, whose film ‘Singham 3’ is slated for release later this year.

MB Shetty, a famous stunt director and actor of his time and Rekha Shetty had both met on the sets.

Talking about his father, he said, “He was not just a character actor, but also an action director. There was no social media… People were unaware of that. In ‘Deewaar’, the action in the godown scene, he directed that sequence. He was the one who invented the glass break…going through the glass. He used to get a lot of cuts. He was a very soft-spoken guy and very humble and down to earth as he came from a very humble background and very emotional”

As an action director he did films including ‘Don’, ‘The Great Gambler’, ‘Trishul’, ‘Deewaar’ and ‘Shalimar’. Meanwhile, Ratna Shetty also acted in films like ‘Darar’, ‘Bade Ghar Ki Beti’ and ‘Yaar Gaddaar’.

Rohit began his career as an assistant director in Ajay Devgn’s first film, ‘Phool Aur Kaante’ and debuted as an independent director in 2003 with ‘Zameen’ and in 2006 he struck fame with ‘Golmaal’series.