Jackie Chan has nothing on Kamal Haasan. The Chinese action star has had around 20-odd injuries in his acting career so far, while the South superstar has broken his bones 34 times already, all suffered while shooting for his films.

Haasan’s most recent injury came on the sets of the comedy Shabash Naidu, which he is directing as well as playing the lead in. Obviously, shooting has come to a standstill.

But it isn’t as serious as the injury he sustained while doing an action scene in Tamil film, Kaligan, 10 years ago. He recalls, “I did an action scene in a subway. It was a relatively easy sequence. But a car sped up and hit me smack on my spine. I landed on top of the car. Then, when it halted, I went under the wheel. I dislocated my jaw, my nose was cracked and I had three fractures. I thought I’d never walk again. That’s when I made a comedy called Ladies Only to feel better.”

Another time, while shooting Hindi comedy Mumbai Express, Kamal was shooting with a child actor on a motorcycle when the vehicle turned turtle. To protect the child from injury, Kamal Haasan took the full brunt of the fall.When asked if it was worthwhile taking such risks for a few minutes of thrills, Haasan replied, “We actors tend to follow Steve McQueen’s policy: ‘Why use a body-double when you have a good body?’”His partner Gautami Tadimalla says, “Kamal is recovering well. He has a fracture in his right leg. But it’s taken care of. And he’s resting. The doctors expect to send him home in about a week and then, he’d require a few weeks of rest and recuperation.”