All the King’s men: Shah Rukh Khan with the foreign technicians on the sets of Don and (below) a scene from the movie

First it was the locales. Then it was the odd firang in movies like Lagaan, Rang De Basanti or Mangal Pandey. Now Bollywood has taken its love affair with all things phoren a step further. Directors like Farhan Akhtar, Vipul Shah and others are turning to foreign technicians to add that extra technical oomph to their films.

It’s all part of the attempt to make Hindi films as good as the best of Hollywood in terms of technical and production values. Take Farhan Akhtar, for instance. He used American cinematographer Christopher Popp in his earlier film Lakshya. In Don, which will hit the theatres this week, he has done one better. He has used Australian stunt director Angelo Sahin and also Joe Jennings, the internationally acclaimed American skydiving cameraman. The latter was roped in to film a scene where Shah Rukh Khan does a dare devil sky dive.

Says Akhtar, “I would have tried directing the stunt myself but I don’t have the experience or the knowledge for the job. It’s very important to have people who know their job well and Joe Jennings is an extremely talented person who has worked with big actors all over the world. He has an amazing track record for safety and accuracy. The sequence that he has shot with Shah Rukh is for approximately a minute and it has been done breathtakingly well.”

If Hindi movie directors are wooing foreign technicians, they too are happy to work here in Bollywood. Stunt ace Sahin says he loved working with Shah Rukh Khan in Don. “All the actors I got to work with on Don were fantastic. SRK is a gentleman and a true professional. The scenes I was involved in were pretty much all the action throughout the film. I worked very closely with Farhan and was the 2nd unit director on the film. If I was not on 2nd unit shooting, I was on Main with Farhan filming. It was truly a wonderful experience,” says Sahin.

Goal scorer: Andy Ansah is a football choreographer

Joe Jennings specialised in filming with his helmet-mounted super 35 mm cameras for films as well as TV shows. “I choreographed skydives for Charlie’s Angels, XXX, Wild California, Last Holiday, and also for Don — The Chase Begins. In the film Airforce One, I was one of the stunt skydivers doubling as a special ops parachutist. In some ways, I wear the hat of aerial second unit director, but I’m not too concerned about that title, nor the title of stunt coordinator. I delegate much of that to others on my team so that I can think creatively about how to film what the director wants. Ultimately, I’m a helmet mounted skydiving cinematographer. I’m in this business because I like flying to get the shot,” says Jennings.

So what did he like about Don? “The budget wasn’t like a Hollywood movie, but the production and coordination were handled professionally,” he replies. He was also impressed with the people he met in connection with the project. “They know their business all right. I could tell Farhan is a pro, mainly because he was relaxed and didn’t seem determined to control our work. He told us clearly what he hoped to see, and then sent us off to do our work. I had the same sort of experience with director McG on Charlie’s Angels. He was clear about what he wanted, and then just sent us off to do the job.”

And how did he find King Khan? “I noticed the buzz around Shah Rukh on the sets and felt star struck even though I hadn’t seen him before,” says Jennings. “I remember that the first thing I did when we met was to flop down on a chair next to him and ask for one of his cigarettes. I don’t credit myself with having much class, but he was quite gracious. He gave me a cigarette and a light. It is a moment I will remember as I was star struck. It is a moment he most likely forgot by the time we finished our cigarettes. He is a very nice guy, no doubt.”

And Don is hardly the only film on the block to bank on foreign expertise. Andy Ansah, the football choreographer from the UK is working on Vivek Agnihotri’s film Goal, which has John Abraham in the lead. Once a football professional, Ansah decided to act and then choreograph football scenes for films and television.

“I had to sign on Andy because we do not have the expertise in India to deal with sports. Andy has already helped shoot commercials and films based on soccer,” says Agnihotri.

Director Shirish Kunder too has enlisted the services of US stunt director Todd Ryan Jones to direct Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan’s action scenes in his film Jaan-e-Mann. Jones is also known for his work in a number of US television series.

Another filmmaker who is looking to bolster his movie with some foreign talent is Vipul Shah. He has signed on British cameraman Jonathan Bloom to film his movie Namaste London. Bloom had earlier shot Shripal Morakhia’s film Naina starring Urmila Matondkar which was also shot in London. “It is not a question of how much money has to be paid. It is about getting a good technician to film the movie — which will set it apart from the rest,” Shah says. Agrees Akhtar, “In any case, the difference in the money — between foreign and Indian technicians — isn’t all that much.”

The foreign technicians are not complaining either. Says Bloom, “It’s an honour to work in the Hindi film industry which has immense talent and scope to grow bigger. Nowadays people get paid well everywhere. So it’s really about working with the right people,” says Bloom.

Seems like a mutual admiration society. But that’s fine as long as we get slick films with state-of-the-art stunts and special effects.