Zayed Khan’s ‘Blue’ stunts scared his parents

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MUMBAI - Actor Zayed Khan says that when his parents Sanjay and Zarine Khan watched his heart-in-the-mouth motorcycle stunts in recently released “Blue”, they threw a fit.

“When I saw their reaction, I had to do some quick thinking or else my parents would freak out and probably order me to give up movies. My helmet, which covered my face through most of the mo’bike racing scenes, saved me. I told them it was a body-double doing those stunts,” Zayed told IANS.

But the fact is Zayed did most of the action scenes.

“I had accepted the role only so I could do these stunts. Except when my bike jumps on to a train, all the other stunts are mine. And that train stunt I didn’t do because my action director said he wanted me to be alive to complete the film,” he said.

Released Friday, the underwater thriller is directed by Anthony D’Souza and also stars Sanjay Dutt and Akshay Kumar.

Ever since Sanjay’s near-fatal fire accident in 1989 in Mysore during the shooting of the serial “The Sword Of Tipu Sultan”, Sanjay and Zarine are paranoid about shooting mishaps. Sanjay suffered extensive burns and almost lost his life.

When their only son Zayed decided to become a movie actor, their first and only pre-condition was, no dangerous stunts.

It was almost like a holy diktat, not to perform anything that would be potentially harmful to me, said Zayed.

Until “Blue”, where on the script level itself Zayed could see that his two lengthy bike chase sequences on the Ducati 999 were potentially more lethal than anything the average action hero performs.

I had two options - either say no to the most exciting role I had been offered so far. Or hide the truth from my parents, he said.

Zayed chose the latter option. And went on to do the stunts with his heart in his mouth. Not because I was scared, but what would my parents think and say when they saw what I had done.

Zayed hopes his parents accept the truth. If you are an actor, you gotta do it all. One can be wounded even while standing under a roof. Jo hona hoga woh hoga (whatever has to happen, will happen), he said.