Lights, camera, fire: Meet Sanober Pardiwalla, Bollywood’s action lady

“Today, if I am the highest paid stuntwoman in Bollywood, it’s not because I am a woman. It’s because my skill sets are equivalent to or even better than most men,” said Pardiwalla

When girls of her age displayed a flair for singing and dancing in school, Sanober Pardiwalla’s talent was daredevilry.  She could jump off heights  and perform dangerous acrobatics, as people watched in awe.

“My first stunt was at the age of 12. It was a commercial where I was standing in for Aishwarya Rai. I was asked to do a somersault from a height of 30 feet, wearing a cable,” said Pardiwalla, Bollywood’s most sought-after stunt woman.

“My parents were horrified when I told them I wanted to become a stuntwoman when I grew up. They initially thought my interest would just be a passing phase,” recalled Pardiwalla, who has been part of the industry for close to 20 years and  performed as a stunt double for almost all top actresses, from Alia Bhatt to Dimple Kapadia.

A few months after the commercial with Aishwarya Rai came filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma’s  Bhoot, a supernatural thriller set in a high-rise building, starring actors Ajay Devgn and Urmila Matondkar.  “I was offered the role of a ghost that gets thrown out of a 16-storey building.  After I did the scene, my mother realised I was serious about being a stuntwoman.”

Today, Bollywood stunt doubles have their own association, the Movie Stunt Artists Association. Among other things, the association provides them with medical insurance.

They say a cat has nine lives. I've been a stuntwoman in over 200 films. How many lives do you think I have got?’’ Pardiwalla asks

But things were very different when Pardiwalla started out. There was no concept of a ‘stuntwoman.’ Even on sets, stuntman was the preferred nomenclature. “I was quite used to hearing ‘stuntman ko bulao’ (call the stuntman). It took a while for acceptance to come,” said Pardiwalla.

She now claims to be the highest-paid stuntwoman in Bollywood, in a fraternity of about 1,000 stunt artistes. But she is reluctant to disclose her remuneration, saying that doing so would embarrass many of her fellow stunt artistes, owing to the higher rates she commands.

“Whenever people ask me about the gender-gap in the industry in terms of pay, I tell them to take it with a pinch of salt and a pound of positivity,” she added.

“Today, if I am the highest paid stuntwoman in Bollywood, it’s not because I am a woman. It’s because my skill sets are equivalent to or even better than most men,” said Pardiwalla.

In a career spanning over two decades, Pardiwalla has done almost everything a male stunt artiste would — jumping off 25-storey buildings, underwater fights, car crashes, going through fire, you name it.

“Every time I do a stunt, my life is at risk.  Filmmakers are not going to say, 'oh, she is a woman, let’s give her less risky action scenes’,” she said. “I don’t have a fear of heights or camera phobia. I can drive at 150 km/hr with the camera an inch away from me. They say a cat has nine lives. I've been a stuntwoman in over 200 films. How many lives do you think I have got?’’ Pardiwalla said.

How did she strengthen herself mentally and physically? “I owe everything to my rigorous training in karate from a very young age. I became a black belt at 12. Over the years, I have also learnt skydiving, mixed-martial arts, kung fu, and deep-sea diving,” said the 35-year-old.

According to her, it’s the reflexes she developed at a young age that have helped her in her journey as a stuntwoman. “Even at a very young age I knew intuitively that I was good at stunts,”  she says.

With age-catching up, Pardiwalla has already begun preparing for the next stage of her career. “I will soon be directing and choreographing stunts. That’s what I will be doing 10 years from now.”