Jodhaa Akbar is one of the biggest films of 2008, releasing next week, with stars like Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. The period film involved a lot of action and fight scenes that took a lot out of the actor as well as the stunt director Ravi Dewan.

“Initially we started off with just storyboards for every scene in the film and we put up storyboards for about a month. We sat with the production team and Ashutosh Gowariker too joined us” says Ravi Diwan.

“I was training about 15 to 17 actors in Jodhaa Akbar for these fight sequences. I had to teach Hrithik, Ash, Sonu Sood and the main villain Nikitin Dheer both horse riding and sword-fighting. And each of these action sequences took about a month and a half to complete. Firstly I had to train them in horse riding for which we had to book the Mahalaxmi Race Course for about a month. It was a lot of effort but in the end I am sure it will be worth it.”

Apart from horse-riding, Jodhaa Akbar also witnessed Hrithik and Aishwarya learning the art of sword-fighting. Ravi Dewan says, “The training for sword-fighting took place at Mehboob studios and we shot for about 45 days at a stretch. Both actors were very professional about learning sword-fighting.”

Ravi Dewan is one of the oldest action directors in business, who has been around Bollywood for a long time. But it was the first time that he was working with Hrithik Roshan. “Yes, after being around for so many years I worked with Hrithik for the first time. I have worked with the best of the lot right from Raj Kumar to all the Khans. And let me tell you that training Hrithik wasn’t too much of a labour for me. He never threw any tantrums and the same was with Aishwarya as well.”

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