It’s interesting how we hero-worship Bollywood actors, taking them to be Gods in most cases and condone them of their misdeeds because they’re the stars! What is more interesting is that we know nothing about the men and women who actually pull off the breathtaking stunts, the credits of which are seamlessly given to the Godlike stars of Bollywood. These daredevils of the film industry, are underpaid, never invited to award ceremonies and often find themselves in the most unprofessional, hazardous work environments. Let’s meet some of these super stuntmen and women of Bollywood. Riyaz Shaikh Riyaz Shaikh has been in the business for about 25 years now and he’s still fit as a fiddle. His father’s been a stuntman too and Riyaz, who had started off stunting for actors like Govinda is now body doubling for industry biggies like Hrithik Roshan. Although he has years of experience, Riyaz still felt the jitters when he had to jump off the 32nd floor of a building while body doubling Hrithik Roshan. However, the one thing that worries him the most, like most of his fellow stuntmen, is the lack of insurance plans covered for them in case things go wrong.

Asif Mehta

It has been over seven years for Asif in the business of Bollywood stunts and he has body doubled for major actors like Emraan Hashmi and Manoj Bajpai. Asif’s technique to overcome threatening stunts, for instance, breaking through a glass door is to imagine that the door is made of Polystyrene (Thermocol) and not glass.

An aspiring graphic designer, Asif’s luck ran out while shooting as Manoj Bajpai’s body double in Shootout at Wadala. He was seriously injured on the job and later said he hoped the Association would consider arranging insurance for stuntmen.

Sanober Padiwala

You don’t get to see a lot of stunt-women in Bollywood. However, thanks to brave-hearts like Sanober, our tinsel town divas can pose as the pretty toughies on screen. Sanober has been around in the industry for quite some time now and she has already body doubled for actresses like Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai and Kareena Kapoor.

Working as a stunt-woman in Bollywood since age 12, Sanober has one golden rule – always work with a good action director. Once, upon expressing her apprehension regarding a particular stunt, the action director told her that it was a stuntman’s job to get hurt. Since then, Sanober made up her mind to work only with directors who cared about safety.