He is the action king of Bollywood. Meet the adventurous Ajay Devgn as he talks about his nail-biting experiences in reel and real life.
Ajay Devgn prefers not to talk rather he prefers that his actions talk more than his words. We caught up with Ajay on the Into the wild with Bear Grylls’, a discovery+ show. And indeed it’s a double whammy – what with world renowned adventurist Bear Grylls and India’s evergreen action hero, Ajay Devgn together on an adventure packed journey. So here’s presenting Ajay Devgn on his action hero journey and more…
On his journey as an action hero: Ajay says, “Yeah, I’ve done a lot of stunts because when we started doing stunts in films, there were no harnesses. So, we had to jump from 30 or 40 feet. You had to land on boxes and most of the time you used to break our ankles or something or the other. No crash mats when you used to fall on the ground. So, we used to do the real stuff.”
Ajay’s Dad Veeru Devgn was an ace ‘stunt and action’ director and losing him must have been terrible… Ajay: “It is tough losing your parents. …Because in the first 20 years of your life, you don’t care for them. You think they are stupid. They don’t know anything. You know everything. And by the time you have children, you start realizing what a parent actually is or what they must have done. And sometimes it gets too late also. He was suffering from Alzheimer’s and a lot of injuries because of the stunts. He had to go through glass once when he was young, and he had 45 stitches on his head because during that time glass break was real glass break.”
Working with adventurist Bear Grylls: Ajay Devgn narrates how Bear Grylls taught him a survival technique. After a tiring journey crossing the ocean to reach the island, Bear and Ajay set out to find some much-needed nutrition for themselves. They find a scrap plastic container on the island with which Bear as always has an ingenious idea to catch fish with, Ajay narrates, “So the whole point of this is like we make a hole for the fish to go into. Then we’ll stuff it full of palm fronds and branches. So… It’s like a funnel so that the fish can go into it, but then it kinda gets stuck in it. So as long as there’s a whole bunch of the leaves and ferns inside there, if we can get a fish to go in, they then won’t be able to get out. So, you want it easy for them to go in and hard to get out. It’s almost like a funnel for it to go in the middle there. I think maine kabhi socha bhi nahi tha ki main aisa kuch karunga life mein survival ke bhi kaafi cheezein seekhain ki agar aap kahin fas jaate ho yah na bhi phaste ho toh kisi bhi cheez ko uthakar kaise use kiya ja sakta hai. So, I think I’m very, very happy that I’m here.”
So what do his loved ones and close friends think of Ajay Devgn going on real life adventure with Bear: Ajay’s favourite director Rohit Shetty sys, “Yeh theek nahi kiya boss aapne. Mere ko chhod ke aap Bear ke saath chale gaye! Huh? Ab logon ne itna sara stunt karte hue aapko dekha hai itne saalon se aur wo bhi uss jamane se jab special effects nahi tha. (This is not right, boss. You left me to do stunts with Bear. People have seen you doing so many stunts even from the time there weren’t any special effects.”
Actor Anil Kapoor said, “Ajay, mere dost, I know jo tu karta hai usme tu apna 100 percent deta hai. And I know you’ll ace this experience too. Meri ek baat yaad rakhna mere dost jahan Bear tumhe le ja raha hai waha na koi Golmaal chalega na Bol Bachchan, sirf tera survival.”
Wife Kajol, never one to mince her words, quips, “Let me start by saying that there are a few secrets that not everybody may know about Ajay. One of them being that he is a fabulous cook. And number two is that he is borderline OCD about touching anything with his fingers. According to him, it’s because he just can’t get the smell out of his fingers. Whatever that means! Anyway, so… My challenge to him is that he has to be made to touch and eat the smelliest, grossest, slimiest thing and let me see if he lives up to it.”
