Rohit Shetty on Khatron Ke Khiladi season 8: 'Some stunts were funnier than my film Golmaal'

This year, Arjun Kapoor stepped down as the host of Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi, bringing back director Rohit Shetty for the eighth season of the celebrity reality show. The latter took a break of 40 days from his Golmaal Again schedule to be in Spain for the shoot with 12 contestants. “None of these contestants were trained in stunts and one had to really make them perform. In movies, we have cuts, safety nets, green screen, cables… but here there is nothing. I had to keep motivating them, at times demonstrating for them that it can happen,” says Shetty. [caption id=“attachment_3830689” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Rohit Shetty and team at the Khatron Ke Khiladi season 8 launch.[/caption] According to Shetty, who in the past has hosted two seasons of the adventure show (season 5 and 6), this season is certainly high on entertainment quotient with celebrity contestants like Bigg Boss 10 winner Manveer Gurjar, Shibani Dandekar, Lopamudra Raut, Monica Dogra, Nia Sharma, popular actors Ravi Dubey, Karan Wahi, Rithvik Dhanjani, also television beauties like Hina Khan and Shiny Doshi, and hip-hop king Shantanu Maheshwari. “Every season we try to have lot of entertainment but this bunch was great. On the one hand, viewers will be stunned watching them perform stunts and on the other, they will laugh as well. Some stunts were funnier than my film Golmaal," says Shetty, while narrating an incident: “Lopamudra and Geeta were performing tug of war on two buildings in Ronda city (Malaga, Spain) and lot of people gathered to watch them. Geeta pulled the rope but Lopa refused to fall. Lopa would leave the rope and sit down. Finally Geeta, in her Haryanvi accent, told me to do something. She said, ‘I am giving you the rope, you push Lopa down’. After one-and-a-half hours, Lopa jumped,but only when she was forcibly pushed down.” One of the most difficult tasks was a stunt with a lion and a bear, and it is for the first time that these animals formed a part of the show. “The stunt with the tiger was cool as it was a pet and he prefers staying with the owners rather than in a jungle. We had stunt with the tiger in a big farm. But the lion was scary and he was also quite unpredictable. And even though the bear was trained, it was difficult shooting with him,” says Shetty. A normal day for the Khatron Ke Khiladi team was getting up around 4.30 - 5am, travelling for about two hours to reach the location and then starting to prepare for the stunts. “By the time we packed up it would be post one am and we would sleep for three to four hours. Preparing from one stunt to another takes lot of time and hence we hardly found time to chill with each other,” he informs. Meanwhile, back in films, even though Shetty was in Spain, speculations, rumours and gossip didn’t leave his side. “I was wondering how reports of me signing Prabhas was doing the rounds. I am currently busy with the last schedule of Golmaal Again and I will start my action flick with Ranveer Singh post Diwali. But I am not even thinking about it now as I have to first release Golmaal. I will sit down to think about a film with Prabhas much later,” he said. Further, quashing rumours of approaching Shah Rukh Khan, Shetty said, “I also heard that I met Shah Rukh with a script but it didn’t work out. In 27 years of my career I have never given a script to an actor, asked him or her to read it and get back.  Then, I also heard that an actress rejected my film. I am an open book. Why would I hide if I finalise a heroine for my film?” he laughed. After shooting a huge ad campaign with Ranveer, Rohit’s excited about collaborating with the energetic actor for an action film. Says Rohit, “Ranveer is great energy, everybody is talking about our energy coming together. It’s going to be a typical mass-oriented action film. We have yet to finalise the actress,” he clarifies, adding, " I can’t predict what he will be but he’s definitely super star material. One has to connect with the masses and he can do so."