John Abraham being the ultimate name in action is a fact well known, but what very few know is that the actor pushed himself to the extreme while shooting a fight scene with professional South Indian fighter and former Mr. Universe Andrew in Race 2, despite being injured with a deep gash in his back that required up to 14 stitches.
Talking about the scene, director Abbas says: “It’s a unique action sequence that hasn’t been seen in any film so far. John’s physique is such that it was necessary to get a competitor as good as him. When we did a research we found Andrew, who is a former Mr. Universe. Both of them were trained for the sequence before they shot. When the action starts, a huge cage comes down that is made of iron bars. John was injured several times, but we would never realize that till the days’ shoot was over. Even when John got a 14 inch cut, we did not know it. Later, we thought we won’t be able to shoot for at least four-five days, but John continued despite the injury”.
If that wasn’t all, to further paramount the challenge, the action sequence was filmed for over 14 days at Mumbai’s Filmistan Studios, sometimes even wrapping up at 2 in the morning.
All praise for the actor, the director added: “John worked out for three months for the perfect body. He wanted to match up to Andrew, working on a physique that was leaner than what he sported in Force and at the same time a little beefed up,”.
Produced by Tips, the action-thriller Race 2, starring Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anil Kapoor and Ameesha Patel is scheduled to release in the UK on 25th January 2013.
