Chitah Yajness Shetty is also a renowned Martial Art and Action instructor and teacher who has personally trained most of the artists who are presently ruling the world of Cinema.
Chitah Yajness Shetty was born in Bankal Village of Karnataka to Dr. Shrinivas Shetty and Mrs. Gulabi Shetty on 1/8/1965 and studied in Ninjoor School and Manipal Junior College till 12th.
After completing his education, Chitah Yajness Shetty left school and joined Hotel Valley View International Health Club as a Trainee Waiter. The hotel housed many foreigners who were students of Kasturba Medical College. One such Dental student, Mr. Sensi Ooi from China, practiced Martial Art in the premises of the hotel. This fascinated Chitah who left his work every day to watch Sensi Ooi practicing and subsequently Chitah began imitating the tehnique being performed by Sensi Ooi.
One day, Sensi Ooi caught Chitah peeping and watching him perform Martial Art and he warned Chitah that he cannot invade his privacy and that he will complain to the Senior Authorities. Chitah begged him, saying his job depended on it, and though he promised Sensi Ooi never to pry again, Chitah could not control himself and kept watching him perform and practiced whatever he could learn.
Chitah mustered the courage to ask Sensi Ooi to teach him Martial Art but Sensi Ooi complained to his seniors and Chitah was transferred to another department as he was too good a worker to be sacked. Two years passed, Chitah kept on practicing Martial Art. One day while practicing he tried to jump like Sensi Ooi and fell directly on his head, knocking him unconscious. Chitah had to be hospitalized and was discharged with eight stitches on his forehead.
On hearing this news, a worried Sensi Ooi came to the hospital and asked Chitah to commence training in the art of Mixed Martial Art and introduced him to Jeet Kune-Do
A black belt commando trained forest officer was Chitah’s partner for sparring. Over time, they became good friends and spent quite some time on a ‘Machaan’, keeping a vigil on Illegal Hunters and Sandalwood smugglers
Chitah had a moment of inspiration when from the Machaan, he saw a Cheetah walk by with slow graceful moves. The Cheetah spotted a deer drinking from a lake in front of him. The Cheetah crouched and jumped from the edge of the lake, picked up the deer and jumped to the other side without touching the ground.
Awestruck by the cleverness, speed and power of the Cheetah , Chitah Yajness Shetty put himself psychologically in place of the Cheetah and began practicing the movement as to how Cheetah aims , its quick reflexes, concentration, cunningness, speed , power and he put all these things together and made a special workout combining it with his training of Jeet Kune-Do.
He studied and planned his training program of Jeet Kune-Do involving the real Cheetah’s unique body language- how it runs, how it smells, how it approaches its prey, its reflex when it sleeps and its reaction towards even a small sound , how it jumps on the tree branch, the power it uses to hit the head of the bull, by watching it and studying it closely for more than a year in the jungle, Chitah converted the same into a training program which has been imparted by him to countless student over the years.
The experience of studying and learning the tricks and techniques of real Cheetah came handy for Chitah Yajness when he had a hand to hand fight with a real Cheetah in Mumbai in 1984.Chitah Yajness wanted to shoot a film with a real Cheetah making its moves with him emulating the same. As soon as Chitah Yajness opened the cage door he felt a cyclone moving towards him as the Cheetah broke its chains tied to its neck and leg and came out of the cage.
Chitah was directly in front of the huge animal who aimed for his head but Chitah ducked the Cheetah, in a flash, bit his leg and suddenly he pulled Chitah down on the floor. Chitah caught the neck of the huge Cheetah and kept dragging him all around the ground. The nail of the Cheetah went deep into his forearm. Chitah felt it was the last stage of his life when suddenly somebody shouted and asked him to catch the tail of Cheetah and pull. With great effort, Chitah was able to get hold of the tail and put all his strength in pulling the tail which controlled the Cheetah. Hekp arrived after an eternity, the animal was injected with anesthetics, but Chitah was injured with bruises and deep wounds.
After being treated at the hospital, there he learnt that the Cheetah with whom he had the encounter was not a trained and tamed Cheetah but had recently been captured from the jungle and was brought just 3 days back and had already eaten the hand of one of the men who was feeding him mutton. The Forest Officer was livid with rage at the worker who gave the key of the cage to Chitah yajness, his power and presence of mind he had got out from Cheetahs claws.
Chitah had one more near-death experience in 1986 during the Ganpati festival. Chitah took the Ganpati Idol of the society for immersion at Versova Beach in Mumbai where thousands of people were present. When they went inside the sea it was low tide but the water level rose suddenly and there was quick sand where he was standing and Chitah was sucked in the sea by underwater currents and he found it impossible to swim out. He lost energy and drowned 25 feet below. Chitah had confidence in his ability to survive and started praying to God and his parents and after one hour and fifteen minutes suddenly a fisherman came in a boat and threw a rope which Chitah caught and came up. A police officer named Raja Sawant came to save Chitah but before reaching the spot he also drowned but was rescued. Fortunately for Chitah, help had arrived in the nick of time. The fisherman took Chitah to the shore and got him admitted to hospital and on the other bed was Raja Sawant who was put on glucose whereas Chitah was fine and was walking around.
Owing to his ability to control his breathing under water as result of which Chitah could survive really surprised Police Commissioner Mr. Julio Riberio who came to hospital to see inspector Raja Sawant and asked Chitah as to who had drowned he, or Raja Sawant, who had gone to save him! The reason why Chitah survived was because of Martial Art and Jeet Kune-Do. As per the fisherman and the locals of the area this was the first time that somebody had come out alive after being stuck underwater for so long.
Chitah’s training has had a lot of benefit for children and adults alike. The work-out not only tones the body, but brins positive changes in the student, helps him gain self-respect, confidence, balance, self defense, respect for others, and aids in personality development. The program also helps avoid stress in daily life for growing kids, increases self-awareness, helping them become better citizens of the country as well as of society.
Chitah has proved that his training is the best. Hundreds of students who have trained under him are proof enough. Chitah has had students in Bollywood and Hollywood films as well as corporate field and he has been in the field of training Martial Art for 30 years.
Chitah Yajness Shetty has also produced a film called ” HUM TUM PE MARTE HAIN” starring Govinda , Urmila Matondkar, Dimple Kapadia, Paresh Rawal, Gulshan Grover, Johnny Lever and started another production titled “Yahoo” . Chitah has also directed a film titled ” Boomerang” which was shot in Cyprus.
Chitah has also done Martial Art action sequences in films such as PRAHAR, JIGAR, LUCK BY CHANCE, YUVAH.
And has also acted in films like GAMBLER, KRISHNA, ZALIM, PRAHAR, JIGAR, LUCK BY CHANCE, PLATFORM, SAINIK, BHAI.
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