Cheap Thrills?

While flipping the channels, came across this one on Discovery.
The lives of stunstmen in Indian Cinema.
Most of them were so much like.. us! I mean no hunky figures, no flashy gears, no fans, no media, no camera clicks swarming them.
Many made almost the same picture: boot cuts/ acid washed/ monkey washed pants of some non-brand brand, latest fashioned, but cheaper versions of shirts / Tees , few had gutkha stained teeth, few younger ones had highlighted hair, pierced ears, many had an assortment of dhagas on their wrists;black,red,yellow,saffron, some junk jewels around the neck.. that forced hep look one can say.
The documentary said there were no safety measures/ insurances or other securities in place for these ppl.If somebody was injured, or worse, dead, the family recieved one-time compensation,and the one-time dare devil would be lost in anonimity.

One Mr. Shetty [ i forgot the 1st name..] was being interviewed.
He has been paralysed waist-down, at an active age of 30 smthing.
He met with a fatal accident while rehearsing for a free fall from a helicopter for some movie.
And since it wasn't during the actual shoot, he was denied the liable compensation.
Help was offered for initial rounds of treatment, but now he is on his own. He spoke bitterly about the fame and fortune the actual actors [ lets say heroes ] earned at his cost.

The documentary also showed an action scene being shot, down south. They were using a crude pulley to catapult one of the goons, when the hero hits out at him. As exagerrated as it may sound, the stuntsman was supposed to be lifted off the scene almost 15 feet above the ground, and hurled outside the frame.
The pulley misfuntioned and the stunt went horribly wrong. The stuntsman landed on his back with a thud. He winced in pain, and few of the crew rushed to help. The fall was nasty, but damage wasn't much. Once again the fellow was ready for the shot. This time all went well. There was visible relief on his face.
"darr toh lagta hain, but jaab saab theek hota hain, to majaa ata hain! ", he grinned at the camera.
One reporter who has covered shoots in Hollywood commented that there are safety analysts and stunt experts present at the shoot. Stuntsmen are provided with maximum safety gears and are well covered for injuries and damages incurred during the stunts.
There is a special training school for "risky driving" required for chase sequences or car-actions.
Why don't we have that, I thought. After all, we too have a huge film industry, and all the workers, big or small are entitled to proper training and compensation. This too has something to do with the mass production I guess. "yeh nahin karega toh koi doosra jaroor karega.."

There are a few heroes who do their own action scenes, and earn a full fledged applause for it.
Any mishap during their shoots, big or small, becomes a news and clippings of a wheelchaired hero with his limbs in the cast splash on our TV screens. But a stuntsman, even if he loses his life, never features anywhere.Guess these kinda news don't sell.

While watching the documentary, images of "thrilling" scenes were flashing in my mind.
For us, its a scene that stays in our mind for some time, and vaporises away soon after. Its not even 1/10th of the movie. During a fight scene we hardly bother to give a look or a second thought for the gunda/goon/the likes / or the body double been flug across the screen, crashed into the glass, pushed down a plane,thrown out of a moving train, trampled by a horse, dashed by a car.

Spectators are lost in cheering the hero and are carried away by his antics.
Some of us trash the action scenes for being too much. Too much of blood shed, too much of voilence, "how a movie goer enjoys all this ? All for the masses..Cheap Thrills.." we say.