................................................................................Bollywood Props

  Rent-a-gun -- Rs 250 only 

1.00 a.m. in the morning. A Naka Bandhi (police vigil) is in operation on Film City Road. The police have had a tip-off that a truck full of arms is on its way. A truck appears covered with waterproof tarpaulin. The police stop the vehicle and conduct a search. Hundreds of AK-47s, bazookas, rifles, pistols, bombs, a transmitter and hand grenades are found. The driver and other accomplices are arrested and taken to the Goregaon police station. Tension mounts. . . until the guns turn out to be fake!

Rajendra Tyagi, a resident of Goregaon West, manufactures and supplies fake guns, rifles and other weapons to Bollywood for use in top-banner films. The guns, mostly of German and Italian make, are imported from USA and London. Some of them are made locally in a small workshop in Oshiwara. They cost anywhere between Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 each. Initiated by his brother, Mahendra Tyagi in 1984, the gun business has come a long way from key winding mechanisms to latest electronic gizmos, he says. "We were the first to supply fake guns to the film industry 15-16 years ago. Before that, during the days of the movie Sholay, real guns and rifles were used for shooting. Film-makers used to track down people with gun licenses and use the original firearms during a shoot." An excellent horse rider and struggling artist, Mahendra Tyagi was well known for his roles as a daku (dacoit) in the Hindi film industry. He wanted to start a business on the side since he knew that his meagre film roles could not sustain his family. His gun trade started with one real licensed rifle, which he obtained from his hometown. This gave impetus to the idea of supplying duplicate guns to the film industry.

In the 1960s and '70s, Bollywood had only one machine gun, which was circulated among all artists for use. The joke doing industry rounds in those days was: that if Dharmendra had a scheduled shooting date, so did the machine gun! This gun had a small box attached below, with a clock-like key winding mechanism. On slow release, the contraption would fire. The artist's expression and the firing had to coincide for the most dramatic results. The Tyagi brothers then came up with the idea of electronic guns for the film industry. They imported most of the guns until the highjack of the Indian Airlines flight in December 1999, when vigilance was stepped up. After that, they were only able to get the dummy guns while returning from shoots abroad. Some of these setbacks they solved by manufacturing fake guns and copying designs from foreign manuals themselves. But Tyagi admits that he is unable to produce the perfect finish of a foreign counterpart.

The Tyagis' first gun was used by Sunny Deol in a movie pictured in Ladakh. The Tipu Sultan serial sported some of their ancient, beautifully crafted weapons. Most of the Trimuthi Productions like Tridev and Vishwathma have used their arms. Lately, they have gunned their way into Vinod Chopra's yet-to-be released film 'Mission Kashmir' starring Hrithik Roshan, Jackie Shroff and Preity Zinta. The Kargil Rally conducted by Raj Purohit showcased two of his canons placed atop jeeps driven round the city. Speaking on the making of the guns, Tyagi says, "The bigger guns and canons fire with the help of gunpowder and smaller use pellets instead of bullets. Most guns are attached to a fuse and battery and have their own firing device. Previously, machine guns were attached to a wiring device, which made the artist immobile. So, during a firing scene the artist would have to remain static. If he moved even an inch, the wiring would be exposed or get detached." Tyagi's assistants are always present on the sets during a shoot, loading and unloading the arms and setting up the devices. "All the actor has to do is aim and shoot," he claims. To counter misuse and police annoyance, all the fake guns are serial numbered and registered with the Police Commissioner's Office and the Movie Action Dummy Association Union.

Today, this arms dealer has the best Bollywood banners attached to his rifles. Next time you see Hrithik or Sunil shooting their way out of trouble, remember that they're using Tyagi's master blasters to do so.

Anupama Vinayak

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