EXCLUSIVE: Ajith Kumar's Thunivu 360-degree fight scene making - stunt master 'Supreme' Sundar explains! WATCH VIDEO!

Ajith Kumar's Thunivu has taken a sensational start at the box office and is turning out to be yet another massive box office success for the actor and the film's director H. Vinoth and producer Boney Kapoor after their Nerkonda Paarvai (2019) and Valimai (2022). The mass heist action entertainer released as a grand Pongal treat has been the talk of the town and many aspects of the film continue to be debated to a great extent, including the 360° fight scene, which has been receiving tremendous appreciation from fans and critics. Popular stunt choreographer 'Supreme' Sundar, who has been a part of several big blockbuster films over the years, sat down for an exclusive interview with Galatta to share his views about the 360° fight scene in Thunivu, including his experiences alongside Ajith. 

Speaking about how he conceived the 360° stunt scene for the 2022 Malayalam film Thallumaala starring Tovino Thomas, 'Supreme' Sundar explained he was the first to introduce it in India and revealed the process behind getting a rig done for the sequence. He further revealed how he initially had an apprehension to do it in Thunivu with a big star like Ajith and said, "When I told about this to the director (H. Vinoth), Thallumaala had not yet released and nobody knew a reference for that shot. But, I had a making video and showed it to the director. He explained to me about sir's (Ajith) injuries and I too had some fear about it. We then decided to start shooting, but I was a little worried. He has done everything for his fans and there's no new risk that he needs to take unless he's doing something along the lines of a Hollywood film. That is when I thought about why we needed to do such a risky sequence and instead decided to proceed with a simple fight scene. On the first day, I was introduced to sir, and he told me not to think of him as 'Ajith the star'. This is the first time we're meeting and doing a film. He told me to treat him like a newcomer and get the best work output since he liked my style a lot and told me not to compromise on anything." 

'Supreme' Sundar elaborated saying the initial plan was to use the 360° stunt scene in the Thunivu climax fight. He said, "Around 200 people on both sides of the bank would fight each other among whom included the bank staff and the opponent team. Only after that would the military step into the picture, use the bazooka and the bank would go kaboom. This was how the climax was written. As we began to film, the director felt the audience's interest may begin to wane since the sequence was being shot in the same place and informed me that we should try something new. We then began pushing the climax to different locations. In that fight scene, there are no fighters and only character artistes. When I began to think about how to make this happen, I decided to choreograph with my fighters first and showed it to the director. After watching it, he said it was nice, but he expressed difficulty in making it happen with sir in view of the risks involved. At the time, sir entered the place, called up all the fighters, and asked them if this can be done and he agreed to it. I became very happy hearing this from him and told him that we'll do this once and in case there's any difficulty, we'll drop it altogether. He said if fifty percent output is achieved for what I wanted, we'll proceed ahead or there's no issue if there are any mistakes. When we went for a rehearsal, he did it exceptionally well. During the take, there would be one mistake after another like the focus getting missed, the camera shaking, character artistes making mistakes, etc. Prem sir was also a part of the sequence and he too helped out a lot. As we began, there were more and more issues. At one point, sir went and sat down and we too felt a little beaten about it. I asked one of the fighters to go ask sir if he wanted to go ahead and he said that since everybody had it fixed in their minds that this is nice, we have to complete it. Despite so much physical pain and a loss of energy after each take, he would tell us to go for another take. That scene was finally okay-ed in the 13th take." 

Watch 'Supreme' Sundar explain the 360° fight scene making in Ajith Kumar's Thunivu in the video below: