He is the best action hero. He has good dialogue delivery, screen presence and style. He is arguably India’s answer to Tony Jaa and Scott Adkins.
The only guy in Bollywood apart from Tiger Shroff who can put up a show even if he is pitted against quality international action stars. He burst into the scene with his debut movie Force in Hindi starring John Abraham and completely overshadowed him. He also won the Best Actor Debut that year for his performance. This is what he can do on a live stage performance:
This one was for force:
He is an undeniable talent. Talk about wall flips, back flip, back handspring, front handspring, 720 Kick, 360 Kick, Tornado Kick, Parkour, Taekwondo, Kalaripayattu – there is nothing he cant do that Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais or Scott Adkins can do. Still he has done only a handful of films in the last 4 years.
Are our heroes scared to cast him? Forget lead roles, our superstars think twice even before casting him as a villain or a side actor where he doesn’t even have an author backed role. Why? Are they afraid that they wont look convincing beating him up even if the script backs them?
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This is about the stupid action scenes in Hindi/South Indian cinema (mostly South Indian) and how they have insulted the talent of Vidyut’s action skills. Its hilarious in some scenes and annoying in some.
One thing I dont understand is Vidyut is a South Indian and then why South Indian film Industry is treating him this way. I am not blaming only the South here, even Hindi film Industry is ignoring him as he is an outsider, but at least the industry has not insulted him using slow-mo shots and WTF shots. He has got at least a good film in Hindi – where his skills were shown in right way (comparatively).
Jr NTR kills Vidyut. Hilarious as well as annoying.
Gross injustice to Vidyut here. As usual in South Indian films, the focus is more here on glass breaking or people flying etc.
First of all they insult Vidyut by giving him a gun against Vijay, handcuffing Vijay. And then Vijay beats him in the most hilarious way. The only time the scene works is when Vijay is being owned by Vidyut. The moment Vijay fights back (after his hilarious “break dance cum self medication”), the scene becomes unintentionally funny. Vijay punches him after every bone of his body is fractured(!) and Vidyut flies in the air (by some cheap wire work) and falls at least 5 feet back! Now this may appeal to Vijay’s Nariyalpaani Waala fans but for action lovers, it is sacrilege.
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Exception(s)
There are exceptions where people have used him in the right way, like in Force, Commando or Billa. I think when he is used in the right way our leading stars are scared that he might overshadow them. Akshay Kumar dropping him out in Holiday – a Thuppaki remake is the prime example. At the time of casting , Vipul shah said “I wanted to bring complete freshness to the film and hence we didn’t repeat anyone from the original”. I want to ask Vipul why did you even repeat Murugadoss then? Prabhu Deva se direct kara lete 😉 These are silly excuses. The villain of holiday was a newcomer Freddy Daruwala. He was alright for his first movie but everyone knows with Vidyut as the villian, Akshay would have had quite a task opposite him.
Watch this scene from Billa 2.
The only thing vidyut doesn’t seem to have probably is good contacts. I mean how on earth does talentless Sushant Singh Rajput get plum projects and not him? It stumps me.
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This post is Co Authored by Ritz and Baba.
Tags: Akshay Kumar Commando Exclusive Force Holiday Iko Uwais Scott Adkins Thupakki Tony Jaa Vidyut Jamwal
Thanks Baba, Amazing post and thatks a lot on helping me and prviding additional info.
One thing to note though….(I may be wrong on this note)
I dont want to sound regional…but Force ( John Abraham) as well as Billa2 Hero ( Ajith) are both Malyalease .. as Vidyut is!!
Thanks to you! I think the main content of the post is written by you and its a brilliant observation.All these scenes are great and i wanted to add bullet raja scene but its not anywhere.
I recently saw the scene you posted from anjaan and was so disappointed. The moment where vidyut jumps on the three people , i was so excited because he was using the Ninjustsu “three-men take down ” technique and wanted to see how he would finish the fight,the director did a anti climax with a stereotypcial ending to his character.
Excellent Post @ritz and @baba-ji and good teamwork 🙂
Agree that there has been gross injustice to Vidyut Jamwal by the film industry.
If Vidyut Jamwal was a star son then every top Bollywood producer/director would have lined up to sign him for their upcoming movie. Instead he has to play sidekick or villain in movies and then they try to make sure that he does not overshadow them.
Vidyut as the villain in the original of Holiday and Vipul Shah who made Force and Commando was remaking it. So it beats me as to why they would cast someone else for the remake.
The movie Warrior was about MMA. They rightly cast Akshay in Joel’s role and Vidyut would have been perfect for Tom Hardy’s role. They had a chance to make the fights better than the original as both Akshay and Vidyut have martial arts training but Vidyut doesn’t get the role. Why? Because he is not a star son or a protege of Karan Johar.
When I read Ritz’s pending post I wanted to mention Sushant Singh Rajput in my comment and Baba already mentioned him in the last line. He is not a star son and doesn’t have the looks, physique, charisma or screen presence but for some inexplicable reason gets all the plum projects.
contacts play a big role in film industry. that is how ppl like ssr (who is yet to give even one solo success) and ranveer singh get films. vidyut has starred in many south films and most of them are hits and he steals the show almost everytime. Force was an average success but he got lot of acclaim/awards. commando was not a big grosser but it was successful film ,opened more than ayushmans film after vicky donor and it was profitable. and again he got a lot of appreciation for his performance. The film was made like a south indian masala which worked agaisnt it. It shoudl have been an out and out action film with no “script” and songs. he needs to do “scriptless” action films to put it bluntly. The script should be there in the action scenes. 400-500 pages of action sequences choreography with no songs , no herione , no melodrama. this is what i want from him.
I had heard/read a rumor of Rajkumar Santoshi directing him. If thats coming then it would be superb. In that case it wont be a scriptless film as you mentioned above – but a fine script. And that will help him a lot.
rajkumar santoshi is not the director he used to be. actually someone like rajamouli or shankar shoudl cast him. they wil make the right film for him. but santoshi may surprise who knows. i hope the choroegrpahy is handled by vidyut himself and not santhoshi. then it wil be good.
I dont agree Rajkumar Santoshi is not the same director. He produces same innocent funny films like AAA as in “Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani”.
Also he has same social relevelance and hard hitting drama as in Halla Bol. It just came in wrong time. You should see Pankaj Kapur’s role in Halla Bol.
he has apparently also signed a film similar to 300 but its a debutant director.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Vidyut-Jamwal-to-star-in-desi-300/articleshow/26074894.cms
I can understand Ranveer Singh getting films. He was excellent in BBB and he has a 100 Cr hit in Ram Leela. But I don’t understand how SSR can get plum projects when he has not given any excellent performance so far and and he has not given any big hit either. I have watched him in a few episodes of the TV serial Pavitra Rishta and I don’t think him much of a actor. Some people think that those TV family audiences who watch those crappy serials will come to watch him in theater but I don’t think that audience goes to movies. Otherwise so many TV serial actors and actresses would have made the transition to movies and become big stars.
i agree on ssr. infact he was not that popular on tv also compared to ronit roy etc. during BBB, it was said that ranveer dad paid to yrf to cast him. its not certain though whether it was true or a rumour
He may not have been famous like Ronit on TV, but he did a family drama and a dance show.
Vidyut has zero presence on TV.
as sputnik said, tv image doesnt mean anything as far as movie going audience is concerned otherwise rajeev khandelwal wuld not be struggling
Vidyut is Brilliant in action, his personality is also a “Herogiri” type and dances well too. Infact I would rate vidyut above Tony Jha because except Tony’s first two films all other movies have been big disappointment, his style of executing action is going from bad to worse, don’t even want to talk about his acting where as Vidhyut has everything what Tony Jha Lacks. I would want Vidyut do more of International stuff than Bollywood because the audience in India is star driven and they hardly give opportunities for a new face. Yes Vidyut is old enough now but he chose a wrong film to get himself launched in Bollywood as the Main Lead.
I think both Scot Adkins and Vidyut are fair enough competition in terms of their personality, stunts they perform and performance onscreen. Both have not been successful in the movies and both tend to do side roles or villainous roles or roles in those films that are not widely marketed. Both Hollywood and Bollywood have their monopolies and casting issues yet they have been appreciated widely for their actions. May be Scot Adkins & Vidyut should loosen up a little bit and do some comic stuff to show their versatility instead of getting labelled as Stunt Actors. The reason is Akshay was not getting enough credit for this roles in action films that he is getting in Comedy genre.
Once they get accepted with family audience then they will be accepted by any director or producer and rewarded by the audience, ex- in case of Sushant Rajput.
Best way for Vidyut is to follow Jason Stathom and see how he progressed, bench-marking his success in bollywood. Once Audience gets crazy they craze for anything and everything from their stars.