The trend of hiring foreign stunt choreographers is sweeping Tollywood these days. While Baahubali team had several foreign stuntmen onboard to execute some of the most complicated action sequences in the two films, a slew of other filmmakers like Vikram Kumar, Hanu Raghavapudi and Praveen Sattaru are working with foreign action directors for some of the key elements in their respective films.

While every filmmaker has his own reasons why they want to go with a foreign stunt team, the local stuntmen are feeling the heat of this new form of outsourcing. One of the key allegations is that Telugu filmmakers rarely given them the time, budget and equipment to execute the stunts; however, despite all these lack of resources, they are expected to come up with thrilling stunts every time.

“Our filmmakers have always looked down upon us. They neither give us equipment, nor budget or time but demand quality nevertheless. So many times I’ve been asked to design and execute a major fight sequence within just two or three days. But when foreign technicians go over the budget or demand expensive equipment, our filmmakers are only too happy to oblige. What we are lacking in is encouragement, not quality,” Dragon Prakash, a stunt master, told a leading newspaper.

It remains to be seen what measures are the local stuntmen going to take to safeguard their interests in the wake of this new form of outsourcing in the industry.

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