Hassan Raghu
A former soldier and stunt director who has trained thousands of stunt artists and championed India's folk martial arts, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2025.
Hassan Raghu has been a soldier, a stuntman, a film action director and a guru of India’s traditional martial arts. In 2025 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of art, from Karnataka [1].
From the Army to the movies
Raghu was born on 18 January 1954 [2]. He served in the Indian Army’s artillery and received the Sangram Medal for the 1971 war [2]. After working as a physical and gymnastics instructor, he became a film stuntman in 1978 and an action director in 1980, working on more than 150 South Indian films [2]. In 1986 he won the Karnataka government’s best action award for the Kannada film Accident [2].
Training thousands
He set up an institute to train jobless young people as stunt artists, and has trained more than 10,000 artists and more than 300 stunt masters [2].
Reviving folk martial arts
He founded the Centre for Indigenous Folk Martial Arts in Ramanagara, along with the Karnataka Sahasa Kala Academy and a study centre for ancient martial arts [2]. Since 2011 he has organised the Shourya Parva festival of martial arts, and he has taught at the National School of Drama since 1994 [2].
His honours include the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award (2017) and an honorary doctorate from Karnataka Folklore University (2024) [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2025: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2025: citation for Hassan Raghu — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
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