Suneil Shetty injured while shooting for De Dana Dan

January 22, 2009

A serious chest injury for Suneil Shetty, a wracking fever cold-cough and a septic leg wound for Katrina Kaif...all this and much more happened while shooting prolonged underwater sequences for Priyadarshan's De Dana Dan last month.

The most hard hit is Suneil Shetty. Our first action hero to get healthily muscular, he has never gone without the gym in the past ten years...

Except now. A serious chest injury last month on the sets of Priyadarshan's comedy De Dana Dan had the Blast Action Hero laid up for the past six weeks...without exercise. This has automatically generated unwanted avoid-dupois in Suneil.

"But there's nothing I can do about it," shrugs Suneil Shetty helplessly as he finally gets permission to move out of bed, but not to exercise. "For six weeks, I've been a lying around at home doing practically nothing except watching television reading books and scripts and bonding with my kids. But for how long? They've a life of their own. The worst blow was the fact that I couldn't exercise, something unthinkable for me. But then you know how it is. Destiny has all kinds of plans for you when you are busy looking elsewhere."

So what happened? "All of us Akshay Kumar, Katrina, Sameera and I were shooting underwater for De Dana Dan. In water your body just floats. I don't know what hit me down there. But I felt something hit my chest. When I came out of the water I couldn't move my left arm. I couldn't breathe. For the next six weeks I was prescribed complete bed rest. Any movement would and did cause a spasm of pain in my chest. And since I'm in the habit of sleeping on my side, I'd often go to sleep on the hurt hand and get up numb and scared," says Suneil Shetty, shuddering at the recollection of the ordeal .

"I haven't become fat or flabby. But I've put on weight. That really worries me because I've never put on an ounce before. I'm still not allowed to work out."

It will take Suneil time to recover fully. But he gives the makers of De Dana Dan a clean chit. "The water was changed every day and disinfected properly. All safety precautions were taken. And yes the entire cast was ensured. Such things happen. Ironically I've done all kinds of stunts for my films without a single injury so far. And I got injured when we weren't really doing any stunts."

One of Suneil's first outings after the mishap would be to Delhi for the opening of Milind Soman and Rahul Dev's gym.

"Like me they believe in staying fit. In 19 years in the industry I never had to cancel a single shoot....until now."

Suniel Shetty says I'm India's Goldie Hawn: Sophie Chaudhary

New Delhi, Jan 3 (IANS) Singer-actress Sophie Chaudhary is working with Suniel Shetty in Inder Kumar's comic caper "Daddy Cool" and says her co-star feels she is like Oscar award-winning actress Goldie Hawn."Suniel calls me the Goldie Hawn of India. He says, like her, even I am very sexy, cute and funny," Sophie told IANS in an interview.

Sophie, who was recently in the capital to perform at a New Year's Eve function, started her career as a pop singer with the girl band "Sansara", but gained popularity as an MTV VJ.

After her stint on television, Sophie moved to the big screen and featured in films like Pyaar Ke Side Effects & Aggar.

"Singing is my biggest passion, but being a VJ gave me a big name in India when I shifted base to Mumbai from London. Being a VJ is great fun. It's a wonderful job for youngsters. It gives you exposure - when you travel, you gain confidence and you also earn a fan following. But it's not a career you can have for life," said Sophie.

"I enjoy singing and acting, so I took it up. As a singer I enjoy my stage shows, acting is a new challenge for me. It's exciting, great fun and you wake up as a different person every day," she added.

Sophie, who is trying to get a foothold in the film industry, was recently seen in an item number in Sanjay Dutt starrer Kidnap. But she is not afraid of being typecast as an item girl.

"The song I did in Kidnap was my first item number, so I've no fear of being typecast. I did that because I can't say no to either Sanjay Dutt or Sanjay Gadhvi (director of Kidnap). I guess my biggest gain from the song was a compliment from Farah Khan. She doesn't compliment anyone, but she came up to me and said that I look insanely hot in the film," said Sophie.

Speaking on the year gone by, Sophie says the highlight was her shoot with her idol, Rishi Kapoor.

"I got an opportunity to do a song and a few scenes with him in a Bobby Bedi film, which is slated to release in 2009. The whole experience was wonderful," said a delighted Sophie.

The singer-VJ-actress is looking forward to a brighter New Year with her upcoming projects that include "Daddy Cool", "Aa Dekhein Zara" with Neil Nitin Mukesh and Bipasha Basu and Sanjay Gupta's multi-starrer "Alibaug".