Vidyut Jammwal has a simple answer for why big Hollywood action films often look the way they do. It is not, he argues, that Indian technicians are less skilled — the crews, he says, are largely the same. It is that Hollywood productions give themselves far more room to shoot.
Same crews, different clocks
Speaking to PTI ahead of his Hollywood debut, the Force and Commando star said Indian and Hollywood action films share technicians. “What we shoot in 10 days, they shoot in four months,” he said, describing the gap as “the luxury of spending too much time to create something.”
He pointed to S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali films as Indian examples of what happens when that time is granted: because the films took a while, he said, the results are visible.
- Indian and Hollywood action productions already share world-class technicians, says Jammwal.
- The difference is production time: 10 days on one side, four months on the other.
- Baahubali shows what a longer Indian schedule can deliver.
Playing Dhalsim on a global stage
Jammwal plays Dhalsim in Street Fighter, the live-action adaptation of the long-running Capcom video game. The film is set in 1993 and follows estranged fighters Ryu and Ken as Chun-Li brings them into the World Warrior Tournament, where a dangerous conspiracy surfaces. He joins a cast that includes Jason Momoa, Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
He said he never played the game after its 1987 debut, so he relied on director Kitao Sakurai’s direction. The actor said Sakurai wanted him to “just play myself”; as a trained Kalaripayattu practitioner, Jammwal found the martial-arts dimension of the peace-loving, fire-spitting yogi ready-made.
Why it matters for Indian action cinema
The point is bigger than one film. It reframes the Indian action conversation away from talent and toward production investment. Longer schedules, like the one behind Baahubali, are becoming more common, and the screen payoff is already there.
Jammwal also confirmed he and Tiger Shroff are developing an action film, and that they are looking for a director who can “raise the bar.”
Street Fighter opens in Indian cinemas on October 16 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Source: Hindustan Times