Vic Armstrong (right) receiving yet another Lifetime Achievement Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger; (extreme right) Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom:2

lThe Oscar, the Bafta, the Guinness Book of Records... Do you think you have been able to single-handedly change action stunts in movies?

I have been involved in stunt work for 42 years now (Arabesque in 1965 was my first). I do like to think I have made a contribution to the way stuntwork is received and the way stunt people are perceived. I am more involved (and stunt people that have followed) in the whole creation of the action sequences in movies nowadays whereas when I started, stunt people were usually just brought in for the job. They were not such an integral part of the creativity.

The reason I got my Academy award was for inventing the Fan Descender which is and has been an integral part of stunt safety and equipment for 20-odd years... I also think I have left a style of action which is reasonably recognisable in the movies I have choreographed, from Indiana Jones to Charlie’s Angels.

lYour stunts have always been so safe and secure. Is that the priority more than the visual flair?

Whenever I am creating a stunt I am automatically working out how it can be achieved. Therefore the safety aspect is already dialled in. In some cases where it is not apparent how the stunt can be achieved because it is too far out, I start to explore whether visual effects (VFX) can help. I never suggest a sequence without having a good plan in my mind as to how it can be shot spectacularly and safely. I only like to use VFX as my “get out of jail free card” (as in the Monopoly game) — to remove some safety equipment or remove wires or some such thing. I hate to see VFX used as a sequence creator. The sequence becomes a cartoon then, in my opinion.

lYou have been a stunt double for many screen legends. They must make for great memories…

I am so proud of my career highlights such as doubling for iconic heroes like Indiana Jones, Superman and James Bond. As for memories, I have millions. Mostly great ones of old friends, exotic locations, moments when the adrenaline was pumping. When I did War of the Worlds recently, Steven Spielberg and I relived some of those memories. They were special times.

lYou have worked with everyone from Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Do different directors bring different sensibilities to your stunts?

Absolutely. They are all such different characters in their own right. At the end of the day it is all down to trying to translate their storytelling technique into the visual moment that must match exactly the style and emotion of the movie it is meant for. That is why I am the first to play a stunt down and make it smaller if it is what the story calls for. It is all about the story and getting the emotion to fit.

lYou have worked in some of the best Bond films till Die Another Day. What do you think was the essence of the 007 action?

I think Bond was everything the audience secretly desired to be and probably knew they could never achieve. Lusting after the freedom to do whatever the situation called for, lusting after beautiful women, endless resources of money, travelling the world in style. The action is done in the same way.

Everybody would like to punch out (and win!) some bully, drive a car on two wheels past a traffic jam, jump a speed boat through a wall to chase a beautiful girl and at the end of it never be troubled by the police. I think people’s tastes have changed and the new Bond reflects that very well and it has got more realistic and a touch more basic, a little like Mission Impossible 3, but still very entertaining.

lSo, you are happy with the action in Casino Royale…

I think the action was very good. I did think the Aston Martin turned over a little easy for such a high-class speedster. And I prefer a slightly less cutty feel to the action.

lStanley Kubrick said: “real is boring”. Do you think when it comes to action people out there would rather see something spectacular than something real?

The movie camera is a strange machine, when you think how it puts 20 pounds onto someone visually and things do have to be done differently to achieve a “film normal” feel. Real fights for instance are nothing like film fights but if we shot film fights for real the audience would see nothing of the action. I also think if we shot car crashes for real without the extra angles, people would feel cheated. So yes, I do think real is boring (most of the time). The secret is to try and make film action appear real.

lHow acquainted were you about Indian cinema before being offered Dhoom:2?

I had worked in an advisory capacity on Ram Balram with Amitabh Bachchan 25 years ago and I have lots of friends who have worked in India. I have also been offered lots of Indian films to work on but have never had the time. But I did watch the movies that were sent to me for reference for those other movies, so I had a pretty good sense of the “style” needed.

lWhy did you accept an Indian film in the first place?

Sanjay (Gadhvi) made a good case for me going out there and my wife Wendy had never been to India. She really wanted to see the country.

lWe hear that you were impressed with the animated storyboards for D:2...

I was very impressed with the whole process of film-making in India (especially the animated story boards or “previz” as we call them). I have worked in 60 or 70 countries around the world, so I am used to different methods of film-making. The Indian way is unique to India but very effective and is really the only way to work there, I think.

I was thinking of taking advantage of the industry there and bringing a European-Indian action film there to shoot. I would have to work in your style which would be a challenge but I would also try and import a little of our methodology into it.

lHow different were the action stunts in Dhoom:2 as opposed to the best in foreign cinema? How would you rate the Indian scene?

I think the basis of the stunts are reasonably similar to what we shoot elsewhere with the exception that Indian films can push the realms of credibility a little more than we can or that we can and have it accepted. Once more modern equipment is available in India, things like stabilised camera heads, etc, the action will be actually shot in a different way which technology now allows.

In Allan Amin you have a first-rate action director and stunt co-ordinator. He is very inventive and has the right approach to the safety side of the business. The storylines are an important part of stunts and until the basic Indian film story starts to change, the basic action is going to be fitting.

lHow would you rate Hrithik Roshan as an action hero?

Hrithik is as good as any actor I have had the pleasure to work with. He is athletic, talented, brave and enthusiastic. I would rate him on a par with Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, etc, and he was one of the pleasures of working on Dhoom:2.

lSo you are coming back to shoot an Indian film…

I have been offered another movie to work on and also the possibility of directing a Bollywood movie after that. So, yes, I would be keen to return and I would love to work with all or some of the actors on Dhoom:2.

lWhat are the projects you are working on?

I am working on a Will Smith movie about the last man left alive on earth apart from some crazy zombies that only come out at night and try to kill him. It is a remake of The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston. Tom Cruise’s new company United Artists called me to check my availability after that and there is strong talk of Indiana Jones 4 being shot in 2007.