When the selection team came to the city for the test, they were completely swept off by the response. While Pune had the highest number of participants for the auditions of Pulsar MTV Stunt Mania, a show that has eight boys and four girls in a stunt academy, where they train and compete in the most daredevil bike stunts, it’s little wonder that three out of the four girls on the show are from the city.

Competing on wheels, Firdoz Shaikh, Vartika Pande and Smithaa Gondkar will be seen pulling off massive stunts involving a BEST bus, train, truck, helicopter, cars and camels. Braving speed for years and snatching breaths, risking it on wheels is what they call life.

Vartika Pande
Syed Adil Kazmi, who besides being one of the contestants on the show, has also been her guide and friend much before the show happened. Training under him, at his Bhopal Biker Boyz, Vartika Pande, although from Pune, was selected from the Mumbai auditions. “I started training seriously a year-and-a-half ago; before that I was a pillion rider for another one-and-a-half years. Being a member of Stunt Rider Gurlz, Firdos and I had been consistently practicing at Undri,” says the second year law student, who has also featured in the Bajaj XCD135 cc advertisement.
A professional stunt rider, she is an expert at stoppie and chain-saw. Calling the stunts on the show one of her greatest adventures so far, Pande says, “I would like to take it up as a career. Speed is an adrenaline rush and even when I talk of it, I feel it within my veins. My family has always supported me and it has been an exciting journey so far; participating in the Stunt War is my final aim.”

... contd.