When Kannada actor Dhruva Sarja hit Nathan Jones, Rubiel Mosquera for real!
I wanted to teach them in their own language. So, I asked the stunt masters when it would be my turn to hit them back and at one point, they said, ‘It will be your turn next.’
Kannada actor Dhruva Sarja, who sports a menacing look and a beefed up body in his upcoming action entertainer ‘Martin’, says working with two world renowned champions — Nathan Jones and Rubiel Mosquera — in the film was nothing less than challenging.
Responding to a question from Cineobserver.in during the question and answer session that followed the launch of the film’s teaser in Bangalore, Dhruva Sarja said, “Nathan Jones is a former UFC Champion and he was in WWE as well.
“Rubiel Mosquera has got the biggest neck in the world and therefore called Neckzila. They both looked very, very huge when I first saw them.
“Initially, I didn’t know I was supposed to work with them. So, when my director A P Arjun and my uncle Arjun Sarja insisted that I should put on weight, I was like, ‘Why should I put on weight unnecessarily? ‘However, after I looked at a picture of Rubiel, things changed.
“I took a break of one month and wanted to train myself and match their physique. I wanted to look like a beast.
“Working with them was very, very difficult. At this moment, I want to thank stunt masters Ram Lakshman sirs.”
Going on to explain how the fighters fought for real during the initial filming sequences, Dhruv said, “They would throw me like a peanut. While fighting them, I received two blows. It was then that I made a request to them. I told them, ‘Sir, this is not WWE, nor is it UFC. This is acting.’
“There were two incidents. In both cases, I wanted to teach them in their own language. So, I asked the stunt masters when it would be my turn to hit them back and at one point, they said, ‘It will be your turn next.’
“However, when my turn came, I did not hit them. They asked me why I had not hit them and I replied, ‘If I hit you, I think you will collapse sir. So, I don’t want to hit you. This is a film. Please understand. If you still want me to hit you, I can.
“They were unwilling to relent and said, ‘Go on, hit me.’ So, I hit them and it was then that they understood that they mustn’t hit others hard. That was how we began filming the stunt sequences. It is actually a long story but it is too early to disclose all those details now.”
Watch the teaser of Martin here
The film, which features Vaibhavi Shandilya, Anveshi Jain, Chikkanna, Malavika Avinash, Achyuth Kumar, Nikitin Dheer, Nawab Shah and Rohit Pathak among others, is being made into a pan Indian film by producer Uday K Mehta.
While the story of the film has been penned by actor Arjun, it has music by two music directors.
“The film has songs by Mani Sharma while its background score is by Ravi Basrur. I wanted both top quality musicians to work in my film. We first approached Mani Sharma for the songs in the film and he did not take exception when we said that we would be approaching Ravi Basrur for the film’s background score.”
The film, which is to release in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi, has cinematography by Sathya Hegde.
