Kerala martial art exponent figures in Chan film

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 14 (IANS): A 43-year-old Kerala martial arts expert will be seen matching deft steps and moves with Jackie Chan during a fight sequence in a forthcoming English film.

G.Satyanarayanan, an exponent of 'kalarippayttu' - a vigorous and exacting form of martial arts perfected in Kerala - was in China recently to shoot for Chan's latest film tentatively titled "Project So4". The film is being produced for Chan's company Wonder World Corporation.

Speaking to IANS, Satyanarayanan said that the director of the film, Stanley Tong, along with its producer, Barbie Thung, came calling at his family martial arts institute CVN Kalari in the heart of the capital city.

"They were basically looking for inputs on martial arts from India because the film is set in an imaginary country called 'Sadai', which lies in between China and India. They have already identified 'Hampi' village in Karnataka, which has lots of archaeological ruins, as the location for shooting in October," said Satyanarayanan.

The CVN Kalari institute students demonstrated various martial art forms of Kerala to the two visitors.

"Along with me there were five other people, trained in kalarippayttu, selected from our centres and we reached China on June 24th. We were there till July 21st. I play the role of the Prince of Sadai and a one-to-one fight sequence with Chan which goes on for nearly five minutes was shot," said Satyanarayanan.

Satyanarayanan recalls that his experience was really exhilarating because Chan is an extremely skilled person and unbelievably fast.

"He is of a special breed. Despite differences in our style, I found him to be a very serious student of martial arts wanting to improvise on any technique. He is extremely friendly and has no airs at all and is keen to learn more about our martial arts", said Satyanarayanan.

Though his fight sequence with Chan would last around five minutes, it took one week for the scene to be canned. "That is how I got a lot of time to interact with Chan," recalled Satyanarayanan.

The five others who went with Satyanarayanan acted as temple warriors.

"Remuneration was never on my mind at all. We are really happy because our form of martial arts has got an excellent exposure and what more remuneration do I need to have for our institute set up way back in 1958," said Satyanarayanan.

He said that when the film unit lands in Hampi in October, he has been asked to join the team to give more inputs. "I don't think I would have anymore role to play," said Satyanarayanan.

He is a full time instructor at the institute where his 74-year-old father Govindankutty Nair is the chief instructor.