Marrying at the young age of 15, Tandon has had a difficult life. Abused by her husband, she broke free from the marriage, leaving with her two children. From then onwards, it was an uphill ride for Tandon, despite the difficulties she faced along the way.
Geeta shared great rapport with Rohit Shetty, the show’s host and her mentor, believing she would not have survived this long without the guidance and motivation from her “guru.” Today, she stands as a beacon of hope for many women that have suffered abusive relationships.
“He always used to say to me, ‘If you leave me, you’ll just end up doing sex work and dancing in strip clubs,’” Geeta Tandon remembers.
One of Bollywood’s leading stunt women, Geeta is used to taking risks and leaping into the unknown - and it all began when she was still a teenager and ran away from a violent husband. Despite having nowhere to go, she left with her two children.
“I made up my mind I would never do that.”
Over the years, she struggled to survive as a single parent in Mumbai and said yes to every opportunity that came her way as a result of which, when a woman asked: “You seem like a bit of a tomboy, can you do stunts?” She answered with an enthusiastic, “Yes!”
At the time, Tandon had never performed a stunt in her life, but she wasn’t going to turn down the chance of a paying job.
Before long she found herself on the set of an Indian serial called Shakira, to perform a stunt that involved launching herself off the edge of a building with absolutely no training.
Securing herself with wire cables, the crew reassured her she wouldn’t be harmed, but she wasn’t so sure. She was in need of money. And that became her opportunity.
She moved from district to district desperately chasing scraps of work. One week she’d be making 250 rotis [flatbreads] a day, the next giving body massages to elderly women. She was also invited to a massage parlour. But she found that it was nothing but a house of sex workers.
As soon as she found out, she was horrified. “I wanted to do something with integrity. I wanted to be able to look in the mirror and not feel guilty about anything I did.” She added.
Six years, and hundreds of highly technical stunts later, Tandon now has more than enough work to get by. She’s one of Bollywood’s most skilled and daring stunt performers, and one of the very few action women willing to take part in a high-speed car chase. It’s precisely her ability to play as hard and fast as the boys that makes her so great at her job.
She doesn’t mind that some people don’t regard it as a suitable job for a woman.
Attitudes to women in India are still in dire need of change, she says. One thing that disturbs her is that countless women, having heard her story, have written to say that they too are trapped in abusive marriages.
“They can’t leave because of the way they will be treated by the Indian society,” Tandon says. “Women deserve more respect.”
Source: BBC
Thursday, June 04, 2026
