Condoms, a huge hit with action directors

Condoms are used in large quantities while shooting action scenes that portray the villain or the hero with blood oozing out of their ���wounds.��� .
While canning such scenes, ���blood��� filled condoms are strapped around the bodies of the stuntmen with tiny crackers attached to them through invisible wires.
When the hero ���fires��� at the villain, the action director���s assistants who follow the performers from the periphery press a remote control button.The crackers burst, the condoms tear and the ���blood��� comes spilling out.
The scene may last only a few seconds on the screen, but prior to shooting, the stuntmen have to rehearse it many times to ensure proper synchronisation between firing and the pressing the remote.
Most Bollywood action coordinators prefer imported condoms because they do not rupture, when the individual being shot has to jump or roll down.
According to Gurbachan Singh, who assisted much sought after action director Veeru Devgan in the 1980s-90s, villains carried switches in their pockets before the advent of remotes and manually handled them during ���firing.���
���It was a clumsy affair, and most often, the desired effect wouldn���t be achieved. So, the audiences could detect how fake the scenes were,��� Singh said. He revealed that before condoms came on the scene, tiny balloons were used during action sequences.
���But the balloons used to burst at unlikely moments, calling for re-takes. I don���t know who introduced condoms for action scenes, but they have proved to be good substitutes for balloons,��� Singh said.
Mohan Baggad, who began his career as Devgan���s assistant and later became an independent action director, says, ���Though the technology in Bollywood is far improved from what it was a decade ago, make-shift devices innovated by action directors still come in handy while shooting fights and other thriller scenes.���
Computer graphics cannot replicate everything. Of course, blood oozing out of an injured hero can be projected through computer graphics, but the end result looks artificial.
The use of condoms in such scenes is a tested practice. Again, only an expert cinematographer and editor can make such scenes look real on screen,��� Baggad said.
So don���t stuntmen get injured when the crackers burst on their bodies?
���Only small crackers are used, so nobody gets seriously injured. There may be abrasions, but those are tolerable. But these are the hazards of our trade. And it is a minor problem when compared to other consequences stuntmen face while shooting,��� Singh said.
���Yes, sometime accidents do occur. In such cases, apart from the producers, the association of the stuntmen bear the medical expenses,��� he added.