“I’m covered with welters,wounds & bruises on Lafangey Parindey sets” – Neil

By Shyam Kaushal -

April 23, 2010 - 12:00 AM IST

“I’m covered with welters,wounds & bruises on Lafangey Parindey sets” – Neil

Neil Nitin Mukesh is injured from head to toe. And it's not faked for the camera. He has raw wounds and bruises all over. Neil can barely talk.

Doing traumatic parts has become a part of Neil Nitin Mukesh's acting karma. Just when he thought he had gotten over the ordeal of being strip-searched and jailed in Madhur Bhandarkar's Jail, Neil is now in the thick of the worst possible physical and emotional trauma.

For his role in Lafangey Parindey which he is currently shooting from 11 in the morning past-midnight at Yashraj Studios , Neil is required to get out on the streets and fight man to man with his adversaries, a la Vinod Khanna in Gulzar's Apne and Nagarjuna in Ram Gopal Varma's Shiva.

"Except for one detail," Neil corrects, as he winces in real pain. "There's nothing fake about the fists of fury that fly in Pradeep Sarkar's film. It requires the rawest of physical violence and it can't be faked. So if you see me now I'm covered with welters, wounds and bruises all gifted to me every day while shooting this, the most dangerous film of my career."

Luckily Neil has moved out of his South Mumbai home to Powai for the duration of the shooting of Lafangey Parindey. "Otherwise if my mother saw what I look like she would have freaked out. I'm getting physically hurt every day. I'm covered in bruises. Because I am light-skinned the hurt marks show up bright red on me within seconds. I look... alarming!! Even to myself in the mirror!"

Neil has temporarily packed off his makeup man. "I don't need Aseembhai to paint on fake blood. My stunt director Shyam Kaushalji is doing a very good job of making my bruises and lacerations look real...because they are real."

This isn't Neil's first tryst with danger. "Shyam Kaushalji is someone I really respect. I touch his feet every morning although he really puts me through the most dangerous situations. In New York, he made me run across a street with speeding cars. In Aa Dekhen Zara he had thrown me off the 18th floor. But nothing had prepared me for what Shyamji has in store for me in Lafangey Parindey."

Though Neil is unwilling to reveal the plot, Lafangey Parindey is about rivalry among bike gangs of Mumbai. It requires Neil engage in serious and authentic fights on the streets. Says Neil, "Fortunately I'm not a stranger to these kind of raw gutter-level combats. I may come across as soft spoken now. But I've gone through my share of campus fights during my college days. In fact I've a fierce temper problem. So far I had kept it in check. But now in Lafangey Parindey I'm disturbed to see the violent ill-tempered side of me emerging effortlessly."

Then Neil adds, "What surprises me is the deep dark angry side to Dada's (director Pradeep Sarkar) personality. Who would have thought the man who made Parineeta and Laaga Chunari Mein Daag had so much anger and violence in him?"