“My father used to come home bleeding…”: Rohit Shetty recalls MB Shetty’s iconic stunt work in Hindi cinema

New Delhi [India], January 20 (ANI): Nicknamed ‘Fighter Shetty,’ legendary stuntman and actor MB Shetty, who could instil fear in his audience as also his reel enemies, went through an interesting transformation journey to action direction, according to his son and popular movie director Rohit Shetty.

In an exclusive interview with ANI, Rohit said the late Muddu Babu Shetty “was tall, 6’3 feet and people used to get scared of him.

“When he used to come to my school, the students would get scared. It was fun for me. The.(Parent Teacher Meeting) PTMs were my days…,” the junior Shetty said.

“There was an era where the image used to work more than anything else. No social media, you can’t see actor or character actor. He was a very soft-spoken guy and very humble and down to earth as he came from a very humble background and was very emotional.”

Born in Udupi, MB Shetty was 13 when he arrived in Mumbai and picked up the job of a waiter in Cotton Green, a restaurant.

“He was huge and tall, so he started doing boxing and there one-day action director Azim bhai. during the black and white cinema time, he saw him and then he asked my dad will you do action?. So, then he started working as an action guy, the duplicates he did. Then he became an action director. Nasir Hussain sir gave him a break, ‘Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai,” said Rohit.

The ‘Golmaal’ series director said his father was “more than a character actor.”

“He was an action director. He was quite a famous action director. ……Obviously, no social media people were not aware of that. In film ‘Deewar’, the action you see in a godown fight scene, it’s him, he is not there in the film but he had directed that sequence.

He is the action director of that film. ‘Yaadon Ki baaraat’, ‘Don’, ‘Great Gambler’.. you name all big films… ‘An Evening in Paris’…’Trishul’. In ‘Trishul’ film, bringing that ambulance in the fight, he did that.

“He invented glass break, going through the glass, he invented that. Before that, it used to not happen. Obviously, he used to get cuts and all. He got a lot of cuts. I remember he used to come home with blood and stitches,” said Rohit.

Rohit said that his dad had inspired him to enter the action industry.

“Looking at him… I thought this is my life… this is what I have to do,” he said.

Not only his dad but his mother Ratna Shetty, was a stunt woman. Action, said Rohit Shetty, is in his family’s DNA.