From a tortured wife to a Bollywood stuntwoman, Geeta Tandon narrates her inspirational journey. Ankita Jain reports
Standing on a towering structure, she stares down, yet another jump, yet another chance to defy death or, maybe not. Her heart thumps, it gets louder by the second. The faces of her children flash in front of her...the director shouts “Action!” and Geeta jumps. She hurtles down and lands with a thud. She’s pulled it off, once again. And yet another day of life greets her. This is the everyday story of 30-year-old Geeta Tandon. Jumping through glass, driving cars at break-neck speeds and being set on fire have become a part of her passion now. She claims to be the only stuntwoman to have successfully attempted car chases (driving cars through objects like barricades or racing along narrow lanes), and that too with minimal training. But then again, things like that probably come more easily to a person who has spent a greater part of their lives fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive.
A successful stuntwoman in India since 2009, Geeta says, “There are women who do car chases in India but are old or are not capable one way or the other. Almost always the men do it. I can ride any car or bike. I have driven a Harley, a Bullet and a dirt bike. Recently, I did a body double for Alia in Udta Punjab. I had to fall off a cliff, it was dangerous. When I was done, the entire crew was up on their feet cheering and clapping for me and even Alia came praising. But then I am certainly less known.”
Her story inspires many. She survived child marriage, motherhood before the age of 21, brutal domestic violence that included rape and yet stood on her feet despite all the challenges. Geeta recalls that she realised life was anything but fair when she lost her mother. She was just nine years old at the time. Geeta and her three siblings were shunted from relative to relative as her father struggled to make a living by singing at jagrans in Mumbai. “It was fighting for 14 years since the time my mother passed away. I was tortured every day. My relatives would say that nothing is for free either work or die.”
“When I turned 15, my tomboyish habits and my love for gulli danda and cricket started raising concerns among my relatives. They figured that an early marriage would correct my ‘wild’ ways. Within two days, I was married off to a 24-year-old man from Jaipur,” she adds.
Having seen her elder sister settle down happily in an arranged marriage, she felt her fairy life would start thereafter. “Marriage for me meant the stability of a home with a loving family and food on the table — a lot for someone who never knew where she was going to end up next.”
little did she know then that she had just entered a nightmare that would go on for the next five years. “I was a servant, a sex machine and a punching bag present to fulfill his needs. I got pregnant at 16 and was briefly happy thinking it would stop the beating. But it only got worse,” she says.
After her second child was born, Geeta became even more miserable. “My children would cry for milk while my husband was beating me up. Afterwards, I couldn’t even feed them,” she remembers.
Didn’t she try fleeing awayIJ “I tried to run away from the house thrice and even complained to the police. But they chose to turn out as marriage counselors. The cops told me that marital fights should be kept within the walls of the house. I stopped trying to register complaints as I had no support,” she says.
At the age of 20, Geeta finally managed to break free of her husband’s clutches and ran away. Having never worked before, she had no idea how she was going to survive on the streets. “I have studied only till 10th standard. Working was an alien concept but I never lost hope,” she says.
She tried everything under the sun to survive. “I was ready to drive taxis. I even cooked for mess where they paid me Rs100 a day for cooking 250 rotis every morning and night. There were days when I wasn’t even able to feed my kids.”
She survived on odd jobs and even opted to perform as a junior artiste in film industry. “Though I had never danced before, I eventually landed a job as a bhangra dancer and was thrilled. We were often given dinner at the weddings or parties we’d perform at. If I saw food getting wasted (which it often is at these events), I’d ask if I could take some for my children who would be delighted,” she laughs.
During this job, she met a woman through her bhangra company who asked her if she would like to perform stunts. “I’ve never said no to anything except sex work,” she says. Her first stunt assignment was in the year 2009 for a tele serial. “For me, it was like a game, either I would survive or die,” she recalls.
She ended up with burns on her face and as her burns healed, so did Geeta’s spirit. She started enjoying her work because it reminded her of her old tomboyish self. She learnt to drive during a 20-day training programme for a reality show, and that eventually helped her stand apart from her peers.
It was not always a win-win situation for her, she even suffered many serious injuries including a tailbone and a spinal fracture which no one believed she would recover from. “I was working for a small budget film starring Zeenat Aman. My role involved falling off a building after being shot. Unfortunately, I hit the railing hard and fractured my back,” she recounts. Today, she earns Rs7-8 lakh on an average every year and that doesn’t include the commissions she gets for special projects. She also owns a house in Malad, Mumbai. She claims to have worked in films like Bol Bachchan, Shingam, Ragini MMS and many more to add to the list. “I have worked as a stunt double for many, including Parineeti Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, and Deepika Padukone. They all remember me with respect and affection,” smiles Geeta. She now plans to open a school that offers fighting and self-defence lessons to women.