Eid has always been an important festival for you. How's this year looking?
Promotions for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and shooting for Sooraj Barjatya’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo kept me busy. I also have about 30-35 days of shoot remaining for Prem Ratan...
What will you be working on after Prem Ratan…?
I will be preparing for my film Sultan. I have already started assessing what kind of workout I need to do. It’s going to be tough and it will take time as I play a wrestler in the film.
Why do you call your role in Sultan tough?
Due to the physicality involved — otherwise, tough kya hain, wahi to karna hain jo karte aa rahe hain (I just need to do what I’ve been doing so far). I need to put on quite a lot of weight. I am getting into that mode gradually. I need to be careful because of my aneurysm. By the end of the process, I have to become a wrestler. It involves forms of fighting like mixed martial arts; so I am training for all that too.
Some religious groups have objected to the title Bajrangi Bhaijaan…
If you were in Delhi today, wouldn’t you address someone as Bajrangi Bhai? Or would you not address someone in Mumbai as Bajrangi Bhau? I don’t think there is any problem with it.
(Pauses) It’s a positive title; it’s the most positive title ever. No religious group will object because how can anyone, particularly someone who is devout, object to the positivity expressed in this film’s title? All religious groups teach their disciples to respect other faiths. Each one is a path to God. Look around you — don’t you see how secular we are? People in skull caps dance at Ganpati Visarjans, Hindus visit Dargahs to pray for Mannats.
Why do you think the actor gets all the blame when a big film flops? Take Bombay Velvet for instance.
Today, if an actor opts to do a film and it flops, it becomes the actor’s fault. No actor in his right mind chooses a film believing that it will be a disaster.
It is only on the Thursday or Friday before the film’s release that they know if the film has been accepted. When a film flops, actors get confused. They become either unsure or headstrong. Some people decide that if one film didn’t work, that doesn’t mean that their next with the same filmmaker wouldn’t work.
Some others decide to choose a safe project with a big producer and heroine, and get a sure-shot hit. It’s destiny basically. Where you want to go, you don’t know.When you hear a beautiful script that has elements of action, romance and comedy that makes you almost fall off your chair, you must do that film! There is probably just a ten per cent chance that the audience wouldn’t watch such films or won’t like you for doing them. Usually, out of curiosity, they do come and watch it once (smiles). So, the ticket is bought after all.
But would you ever want to do films for this ten per cent too? Would you do an Anurag Kashyap film for instance?
I think differently on this front. I believe that I should work so hard in each of my films that even that ten per cent is convinced to give my film a chance... you want to win them over too. Convert negativity into positivity — so much that people end up liking you. If you continue to do the right thing and walk the right path, it just feels better.
Why wouldn’t I work in an Anurag Kashyap film when I worked in his brother’s very first film? If the script is good, the story convinces me and I think that I can get along with the director during that period of shooting, I will most definitely act.
Even if I don’t get along with the director, so long as the story needs to be told and deserves to be seen, I would act in it.
Do you believe in destiny?
I believe in destiny; but I also believe that the harder you work in the right direction, the more your destiny changes for the better. With my films, I only pick projects in which I am able to connect with the character I play. I don’t mean the looks, but the essence of what the character does — so my character in Jai Ho is someone I did take back with me. I want to be like him.
