From Ravichandran to Rajnikanth: Jolly Bastian

Rising from a mechanic to a macho man on the silver screen, presenting moments where you skip your heartbeats, he is the most sought after Action Director. Over 580 movies to his credits, he has made his road to stardom from a very humble childhood. A peculiar mix of humility and knowledge, presenting you the man who is a stunt master, an action director, a singer, a producer, a director and the president of the Karnataka Stunt Union, Mr. Jolly Bastian. (Read Jolly Bastian Biography)

Colourful Journey

I started my career at the age of 17 in the movie ‘Premaloka’, directed by Ravichandran, as a stuntman. Murthy, the physical trainer, saw me doing wheelies on bikes like Bullet and Yezdi. When he asked me to do stunts for Ravichandran, I readily agreed, because it was a question of survival. Incidentally, I started as an independent stunt master from ‘Putnanja‘ of V . Ravichandran, the dream merchant of Kannada cinema. This came after 8 years of being a stuntman, during which I proved my mettle.Jolly Batian

I have performed in movies in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. I’ve worked with most of our well-known stars including Ravichandran, Vishnuvardhan, Shankar Nag, Ananth Nag, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Shruthi, Roja, Meena, Vijayashanthi, Mammooty, Srinivasan, Rajnikanth, Pruthviraj, Shivraj Kumar, Puneet and the list goes on. Directors like Dinesh Babu, Muthyala Subbaiah, Krishna Vamsi, Jairaj, Guruprasad, Ramgopal Verma and others. Presently I’m doing a Srilankan movie.

Gaana Taranga

I belong to Gaana Taranga Melodies, a professional music troupe started in the year 2000. I’m the singer of the troupe. We perform on songs from several languages. I also write the lyrics. I like to believe that it’s God’s gift for me.

Storyboard planning

Practise makes a man perfect. I engineer a sequence in my mind depending on the budget and the concept of the movie and I work on precise calculations. Once the narration and approval are over, my team plans the scenes in detail and then we prepare a storyboard for all scenes.

Holding on to the roots

Back then, I didn’t have enough money to even travel between stations. My garage is responsible for whatever I am today. I have kept my old garage running. I can’t forget the old trade, can’t forget the way I came up in life. Coming from a mechanical background has always helped me to plan an action sequence better. It’s a plus point!

Stuntman as a Profession

A profession as a stuntman has become much simpler now with the advent of ropes, proper security measures and modern technology- graphics. It’s much safer now. I have faced injuries more than 3 to 4 times. My collar bone and ribs were damaged and my knees were dislocated.

My parents were not aware that I had started my career as a stuntman! My wife Lovely, is not even aware what it is exactly, to be a stuntmaster. I have taken my son Amith, who is studying in 12th class, to a couple of movie shoots recently. I wanted to give him a glimpse of our hard work and suffering. I have a daughter studying in 7th class, Nidhi. I am leading a life with utmost peace and contentment!

Ideas: Ideals: India

I want to do a short film to create awareness against chain snatchers. These culprits have become really smart. I wish to train the police so that they can hold an edge against these scoundrels.

My directorial venture- ‘Ninagagi Kaadiruve‘, a romantic thriller, wasn’t a bad movie. I had to suffer a lot due to a wrong partner. It was a tough phase in my life. I am doing another movie shortly, which is in the writing phase. Another original story like my debut work. I’ll continue to make original movies instead of remakes. I want to show that creativity can mint money and not pose financial loss to a producer. I want to break that barrier!

I appeal to people to not go just by the word spread by the media critics. They could have directed the movie themselves if they really knew the perfect success formula. Not all are genuine either. So, watch out for yourself.

Finally, Jolly signed off by saying

I was an ordinary mechanic of vehicles in a service station. Today I’m recognized as one of the best stunt directors in South India. I have a magic sutra- Do it neatly, no matter what you do!

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