Khiladi’s Shark Tales

An injured Akshay Kumar saved from deadly sharks by timely intervention from cast and crew

Akshay Kumar is no novice when it comes to flirting with danger. However, a recent underwater stunt almost cost him his life, when the actor accidentally injured himself at a depth of about 75 ft. He was shooting in the Bahamas for Blue — an action adventure set underwater that also stars Sanjay Dutt and Lara Dutta — near a real shipwreck that involved him indulging in underwater action with almost 35 sharks around. Says a unit hand, “Akshay is a certified deep sea-diver. But the stunt went wrong when Akshay hit his head against the shipwreck and started bleeding. We were worried about him fainting and needing immediate medical attention because the metal was rusted, but our main concern were the sharks, since they get attracted to the smell of blood.” However, it was the cast and crew’s timely intervention that the actor was saved at the nick of time. It was difficult to get Akshay out of the water immediately, so the crew just left everything and rushed to Akshay to cover his wound where the blood was oozing out. Though the shark trainers tried to cage the sharks and take them in the opposite direction, there was always the danger of the blood attracting other sharks in the deep sea. “So, our main aim was to keep his wound covered and we later pulled him to safety surrounded by the crew members. Akshay being the daredevil that he is, tried to brush it off as a minor mishap, but the entire unit was left shaken considering it was a very close call. In fact, he even joked about it to all of us, to break the seriousness on the sets,” the source added.