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Time to swing into action

As "Fight Club" readies to operate, director Vikram Chopra gives us a peek into his side of the story

ALL BRAWN A scene from Vikram Chopra's "Fight Club"

It is raining action in Tinselville this winter. After Sanjay Gupta's chilly Zinda, it's time for some fistfights in Vikram Chopra's Fight Club. Based on the fictional concept of fight clubs where you have to fight it out to the finish, the film was launched with baseball bats as invitation cards. Today the film is being promoted with Amrita Arora dancing on the beach. "The baseball bats symbolise action so we used them to make people understand the concept. Then we introduced a teaser, which concentrated only on the punches. Now we want to say the film is not just action and has a whole lot of other emotions including glamour," says Vikram.

He says though the basic idea is fictional, the plots are all real. "Like how you feel when your sister falls in love with your friend. If somebody gets beaten in a rival college, it becomes difficult to take revenge. Here we have tried to offer a solution. Come to the fight club, where there are certain rules, and go for a one-to-one fight." Vikram promises to show some catfights as well. "There is a longish fight sequence between Mumait Khan and newcomer Rachna."

`Just characters'

Talking about his ensemble cast, which includes Sohail Khan, Zayed Khan, Suniel Shetty, Dino Morea, Ashish Chaudhary, Ashmit Patel and many more, Vikram says there is no hero or heroine in his film. "Just 12 characters. Some have more scenes than others, but all of them carry the storyline forward. I have tried so that youngsters identify with each of the characters and have not gone by the set image of the actors. Riteish, for instance, is not doing comedy here." Agrees an excited Riteish, "It is for the first time I am doing an action film, a welcome break from repeating similar comic situations."

Amrita adds, "This is one film where the fight is not over girls. I am playing a dancer in the fight club and my romantic interest is Dino Morea."

Vikram, nephew of Vidhu Vinod Chopra, started his career as an actor with small but sensitive roles in films like Mission Kashmir and Sangharsh. "That was just to learn the actor's point of view. It helps in directing. I know why an actor feels uncomfortable portraying a particular situation." Vikram maintains that sensitivity runs in the family and that violence in the film will not look "gaudy". Vikram promises he has taken care that children don't get shocked after seeing any fight sequence. "Going by the popularity of the action cartoon series, it is a fact that kids love violence. But we have taken care that there is not too much of blood and fights should not look filthy."

Of the film's three action directors, Abbas Ali Moghul, Vikram Dharma and Mahendra Verma, Vikram says, "I briefed them to keep things real and simple but capture the raw emotions involved during fights. There is only one gunshot in the film. "

Ask them if they have picked a fight in real life, and the troika says, "Not really, we are sensitive people."

ANUJ KUMAR

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