Bollywood star hero Akshay Kumar has always maintained that he is a stuntman first and an actor next. His name has always been associated with action. A black belt holder in Taekwondo, he taught martial arts before becoming an actor. He has always batted in support of stuntmen and now Akshay has set up a unique initiative for them.
Akshay has instituted a first-of-its-kind insurance scheme for the stuntmen and stuntwomen. The scheme is the brainchild of Akshay Kumar and noted cardiac surgeon Ramakanta Panda, who operated on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009. The scheme is going to cover 380 stuntmen between 18 and 55 years of age.
So far, there has been no such insurance scheme for stuntmen across any film industry in India. Akshay, Dr Panda and their team has worked on the scheme for about five months before making it a reality. Akshay strongly believes that stuntmen and women work very hard and take life-threatening risks and hence they should be insured.
As per the policy, a stuntman will be covered for Rs 6 lakhs in case pf physical injury and Rs 10 lakhs in case of death.
