Thaindian News

July 28, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Priyanka has just returned from shooting stunts in Bangkok, and she’s super-excited. “I rode a dirt bike. I shot with an alligator and a bull. It was fun.”

Now she’s looking forward to providing a huge distraction to the contestants on “Fear Factor’. “That’s what my intention is. To make them so distracted they won’t be able to do their stunts.”

After a rejuvenating birthday holiday in Phuket Priyanka Chopra flew to Bangkok to shoot the promotional video for “Khatron Ke Khiladi’ (Fear Factor).

About the holiday Priyanka says, “Apart from the mishap that happened when I dropped my phone in the water and couldn’t receive any birthday greetings I had a fun time. Like I had told you before I was generally not recognized. But even if I was I didn’t mind. Being recognized is part and parcel of what I do”. Priyanka feels a change within herself. “I feel I’ve become reclusive. I like to be within myself.”

The stunts involved a motorbike race where Priyanka challenged a group of punks to a race through a terrain that would scare even a Grand Prix winner. Priyanka had to ride through some of the most impossibly-rugged terrain. According to crew members who had gathered to shoot the video, the male mo’bike members used for the film were all professional riders used to riding at high speed through the most rugged hinterland.

Priyanka not only had to ride with these experts she had to look better than them on camera. She had been secretly practising for the heart-in-the-mouth mo’bike stunts for weeks. The channel had offered to get a body-double to do the really intricate portions in the shooting. But Priyanka insisted on doing the entire mo’bike stunt-stint on her own.

So excited and charged did she get that she shot for a full twenty hours on the first of the two days of shooting in Bangkok.

Says Priyanka, “There is no challenge in half-measures. You either do the whole thing or don’t do it at all. I’ve always been fascinated by mo’bikes. I love mo’bike stunts. When I had seen Tom Cruise do the mo’bike stunts first thought was, “Gawd if only I could get to do that’. I guess my wish came true”.

The ride was not all fun and games. Priyanka has returned to Mumbai with quite a number of bruises. “But the pain was worth it. You can’t be one of the boys on the bike and not get your share of bruises”.

She intends to wrap up all her assignments by October before heading for the shooting of Don 2 in Berlin.

– Subhash K. Jha/Sampurn Wire