*******, Indian style! The eye-watering antics of men and boys playing with swords and chewing glass tube lights
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 07:20 EST, 11 June 2012 | UPDATED: 16:05 EST, 11 June 2012
With eye-watering stunts, plenty of blood, cringe worthy moments and more than a few bruises, the stars of ******* became international celebrities.
Now a group of Indians are looking to do the same with performances that include being run over by cars, hanging each other by their heads, chewing glass tube lights and playing with swords and spiked maces.
The outrageous group, who call themselves Bir Khalsa (The Brave Pure) and perform to packed village fields in rural Punjab, claim their stunts are from of an ancient and almost forgotten martial art.
Outrageous: The group, who call themselves Bir Khalsa (The Brave Pure), perform to packed village fields in rural Punjab
Bright spark: Amandeep Singh, 20, a member of the Bir Khalsa Sikh Martial Arts Group, chews fluorescent strip lights in Amritsar, India
The group practice the ancient Sikh martial art of Ghatka, a fighting technique that is passed down from generation to generation and only Sikhs are allowed to perform.
The 450 strong group have members whose age ranges from 10-year-old children to 34-year-old grown men.
The group's extreme stunts, which often leave several of their members heavily bleeding, made them into stars on India's Got Talent recently, with judges and the audience covering their eyes in between shocked glances.
Founder and head coach of the group, Kamaljeet Singh Khalsa, pointed out that Sikh hardmen were used to police their countrymen during British rule in India because of their fearsome fighting reputation.
He said: 'Sikhs are a race of warriors and we have always endured hardship since the beginning, so we do not feel pain.'
Kamaljeet says his group does extreme stunts to focus attention of the ancient practice of Ghatka.
He added: 'We are trying to revive the art of Ghatka from oblivion, which has been limited to only local fairs in Punjab.
'Other martial arts such as kung fu and jiujitsu are famous worldwide but we have allowed Ghatka to be forgotten. We push ourselves to do the most difficult stunts to raise awareness and respect for this ancient art.'
Kamaljeet said he is happy to let children play with daggers and swords, claiming it is not dangerous if they are properly trained.
He said: 'We train children using wooden swords but as they grow confident with age we train them using iron Kirpans (Sikh ritual daggers) when they turn six.
'We only let them do stunts under our supervision never on their own.'
However, Kamaljeet says his own parents were against him practicing Ghatka because of the frequent bleedings and broken bones.
He said: 'My mother used to scold us every time we arrived home bleeding son we started stitching ourselves up before going home.
'But now our parents, especially our fathers, are extremely proud of us for bringing fame to our town and community.'
The group has had their share of injuries in the past. He said: 'One of our members had a axe lodged in his head after a slight miscalculation. He later had inch deep gash in his head.
'Another time, one of our stunts went bad when one of the fire eaters used kerosene instead petrol and ended up burning himself,' he said.
'Both of them were in hospital for a few months but now both are absolutely fine and still do stunts.'
Bir Khalsa's success has led to a number of similar groups coming up through out Punjab, but none do crazy stunts that they are prepared to do.
'Groups have sprung all over Punjab trying to imitate us and we get hundreds of children and adults who want to join our group,' he said.
The group recently established a world record in Italy for breaking maximum number of coconuts placed on forehead with a baseball bat.
The group broke a total of 59 coconuts in a minute while they were placed on the forehead of one of the team members, breaking the previous record of 41 coconuts.
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