Peter Hein

Peter Hein is a fight master/action choreographer, stunt coordinator who has worked on many South Indian films. He became famous for his action sequences in films such as Sivaji (2007), Anniyan (2008), Ghajini (2008), Magadheera (2009), Enthiran (2010), Raavanan (2010), 7aum Arivu (2011), Kochadaiyaan (2014) and Baahubali (2015). He has been nominated for the noted Taurus World Stunt Award against many big Hollywood names. He received a Filmfare Award for Best Action for his work in Ghajini (2008 film). Stunt masters such as Anal Arasu and Silva have worked as fighters and assistants to him.

Early life and career

He was born in Karaikal to Vietnamese immigrants and settled down in Chennai. He started his career as an extra fighter and assistant fight master for many Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. During the initial days of his career, he worked as assistant to action directors Kanal Kannan and Vijayan. Krishna Vamsi, a Telugu film director (one-time assistant to Ram Gopal Varma) recognised his sincerity and dedication and offered him the chance to direct the action sequences for the film Murari which is also dubbed in Tamil. From then on, he became a full-length action film director, action co-ordinator and stunt director for various Telugu and Tamil films. He acquired recognition from critics and media for his work in several films such as Anji, Run, and Kaakha Kaakha and it was his work in films such as Varsham, Anniyan, Athadu, Chatrapati and so on that brought him critical acclaim. Ram Gopal Varma introduced him to Bollywood with the film James. Mani Ratnam was very much impressed with his work in films like Athadu, Anniyan and Sivaji and enrolled him to direct the stunt sequences for the film Raavan. However, due to scheduling conflicts with Magadheera, Hein has done limited work for Raavan.