Meet the Man Who Had His Heart Ripped Out in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'

If you’re a child of the ’80s, you probably still see his face etched in your nightmares: As Indiana Jones (and a nation of teenagers) looked on in horror, this man watched as his own beating heart was pulled from his chest, and then he was lowered face-first into molten lava. Credited only as “Sacrifice Victim” in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, this poor, hopeless soul was played by an accomplished
theater actor of Parsi descent named Nizwar Karanj. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film’s May 1984 release, we tracked down Karanj, 58, who’s now retired and living in Mumbai, India. (The scene’s heart-ripper, famed Bollywood star Amrish Puri, passed away in 2005.) Read on to find out how they filmed that volcano scene (It involved real fire.), which shot had to be removed because it was too gory for the censors, and what

Meet the Man Who Had His Heart Ripped Out in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'
Gwynne Watkins May 23, 2014

Meet the Man Who Had His Heart Ripped Out in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'

If you’re a child of the ’80s, you probably still see his face etched in your nightmares: As Indiana Jones (and a nation of teenagers) looked on in horror, this man watched as his own beating heart was pulled from his chest, and then he was lowered face-first into molten lava. Credited only as “Sacrifice Victim” in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, this poor, hopeless soul was played by an accomplished theater actor of Parsi descent named Nizwar Karanj. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film’s May 1984 release, we tracked down Karanj, 58, who’s now retired and living in Mumbai, India. (The scene’s heart-ripper, famed Bollywood star Amrish Puri, passed away in 2005.) Read on to find out how they filmed that volcano scene (It involved real fire.), which shot had to be removed because it was too gory for the censors, and what Indiana Jones means to Karanj now.

So you were discovered by the casting director while you were doing a show at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
That’s correct. I briefly met Steven Spielberg for about 10 minutes in an office in London. I didn’t hear from them for a while after that, and then my agent said they’d “penciled me in” for Indiana Jones. All I was told was, “You’ve got to go to Elstree Studios [in the U.K.] three weeks before filming because they had to make a body cast.