Kollywood woke up to the tragic news this morning of a popular stuntman losing his life following an on set accident during filming Karthi;s ‘Sardar 2’. Yezhumalai who has performed high octane stunts in several Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films reportedly fell down from a height of 20 feet sustaining injuries to his head, chest and other body parts. He was rushed to a nearby hospital on July 16th night but he succumbed to his injuries on the morning of the 17th.
‘Sardaar’ starring Karthi and directed by P.S. Mithran was released in the year 2022 and became a huge success collecting over Rs.100 crores. The sequel which was in preproduction for a long time went on floors a few days back. A stunt sequence was being shot at the Prasad Lab compound in Saligramam Chennai when the untoward incident occurred. Eye witnesses have stated that the deceased climbed twenty feet to tie ropes for the next shot. News reports say that Yezhumalai attempted the climb without proper rope protection for himself and unfortunately slipped and fell on iron box on the ground. Investigation reports suggests that the impact of the fall from the risky stunt had caused internal hemorrhage.
Popular Stunt Choreographer Jaquar Thangam speaking to newsmen lamented that even though there are high safety equipment nowadays when compared to his times such a tragedy had occurred. He promised that the Tamil Stunt Union will take care of Yezhumalai’s wife and children and urged young stuntmen to take utmost care before performing a stunt to ensure that there are proper safety measures.
An official announcement from the ‘Sardar 2’ team has not been released at the time of this writing. The film is produced by Prince Productions with Yuvan Shankar Raja scoring the music. Karthi and S.J. Suryah are playing the protagonist and antagonist respectively. The shooting has been halted temporarily while the Virugampakkam police have registered a case and are investigating the incident.