‘Paltan’ lines up a few good men from Bollywood. Paltan stars share the challenges they met doing the movie.
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https://gulfnews.com/life-style/celebrity/desi-news/bollywood/paltan-lines-up-a-few-good-men-from-bollywood-1.2274784
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Read the full Gulf News article:
https://gulfnews.com/life-style/celebrity/desi-news/bollywood/paltan-lines-up-a-few-good-men-from-bollywood-1.2274784
See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos
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NewsTranscript
00:00JP sir, I mean you know he's a legend, he's a living legend, very very known for the war
00:10genre of films that he has done. He's got a very strong sense of the armed forces, you
00:19know, he understands them really well. He really does genuinely believe that they are
00:25unsung heroes and so his quest has been to finish this trilogy which he had started.
00:31I remember when I started my career as an actor, I always wanted to do a war film and
00:35that too with a director like JP Dutta, you can't go wrong. Unfortunately, there are very
00:39few directors who can actually try to attempt a war film. It's not easy, there are lots
00:44of researches going, lots of permissions are required and you need a big heart to make
00:48a war film and you know, create that whole world. So, you know when JP sir told me that
00:55you know I'm making this film called Palatan and it's about 1967, the period which most
00:59of the people haven't seen it. So he said yeah, I'm on.
01:01I come from an army background in a way. Both my grandparents were in the army. Been very
01:06close to it and I always felt as an actor it would be wonderful to play an army officer.
01:12I have played an army officer before but it's been more on a fictional level. This is like
01:16a true story. It's a story which happened in 1967. It was actually a victory, a small
01:21one but won by India against China but completely kept under wraps because of political pressure
01:31and unwill to bring the story out. So they actually became true unsung heroes because
01:42if they had not done that at that point in time, Sikkim would have been with China. India's
01:48map would have been very different. War I don't think is a good thing. Okay, that's
01:52what this film has really taught me. It's too much, it's too tense, it's too violent.
02:02I don't think it's really something which should be promoted but it is important to
02:06tell certain stories and I hope that this film evokes peace, more into people and tells
02:14you that war is not necessarily a really good thing but at the same time when push comes
02:20to shove, the importance of your nation, the importance of the armed forces that sit there
02:26and make you have a normal life. It was really difficult to get out of my earlier character
02:30where I played Dawood Birham and to get into playing a soldier, especially in Ladakh where
02:37the conditions were very difficult to shoot. But it was an amazing experience. You have
02:41such an amazing cast and one of the best directors in the world who makes war films. He made
02:45it really easy for all of us because the way he explained to us with our characters, we
02:52just picked it up from there, playing real characters. I am playing one of the young
02:56guys in the film, probably the youngest out of all. I'm playing a Havaldar and I'm playing
03:00a person from the intelligence. So it's amazing because I've spoken Chinese in the film because
03:07I'm the translator from the Indian Army side. My character holds a lot of importance because
03:12every communication from the Indian Army side is through me to the Chinese. I took lessons.
03:17That must have been tough, right? It's not an easy role to play. No, it's not at all
03:20because Mandarin is a language that we have to be really careful about because if you
03:24say one word in different tones, it all means different, you know. He's a soldier who's
03:28just basically joined the army three months before and he literally is thrown into the
03:34deep end. You know, he has to step up and deal with a situation that he's not experienced
03:40really. So it's a very, you know, I love the character because he has a lot of shades.
03:45He's aggressive while at the same time, he's also conflicted. And why is he conflicted?
03:51Not because he's afraid. He's conflicted because he does want, he wants to make sure that his
03:56fellow soldiers, his brothers, his paltans, so to speak, they all basically, you know,
04:02don't go down during the call of duty as he doesn't want his fellow soldiers to die. And
04:07so he's not afraid, but he is intelligent enough to ask questions as to why certain
04:12actions are being taken. So I really enjoyed playing this character a lot, you know, because
04:16JP sir wrote him very beautifully and there's a lot of shades to him. To play a soldier,
04:21I would say that for all of us, it was physically taxing. Obviously, not just because the sequences,
04:28but more so because of the weather, the lack of oxygen in there. I mean, everyone felt
04:32the same way, but at the same time, we have to do our best. We have to not compromise
04:38on our performance because we have a responsibility. We are playing the part of a soldier. You
04:44know, if I am going to disgrace that, for me, it's not a part, it's a duty. Their duty
04:49is to protect our nation. My duty is to protect their reputation. And I will never compromise
04:53on that, no matter what. There's a song sequence which is going on and, you know, after the
04:57war, you see your, I mean, your friends, your soldiers who have lost their lives. So I was
05:04actually crying, you know, we shot for that scene for almost three and a half hours. It
05:08took almost three and a half, four hours. In that three and a half, four hours, I was
05:13just crying, you know, the shot used to get cut. Again, I used to go back. Again, automatically,
05:18I used to cry. So I think the whole energy was something which I can't put in words,
05:24but one has to experience, you know, the kind of ambience, the kind of, the whole song,
05:31the way it was created. I think the tears were unstoppable. As JP sir always says, heroes
05:37don't choose their destiny. Destiny chooses them. So I think it's not me who chose to
05:44be in this position. I am a boy who ran away from his house when I was 16 years old. So
05:50I was going towards the life that I wanted, always wanted. So I was spending my time in
05:55the mountains with no network and chilling out. And I felt hungry. So I came out towards
06:00the highway and then I suddenly got a lot of messages. And one of those messages was
06:04to reach JP sir's office immediately. So I go to sir's office and I find out whatever
06:09has happened. But what I'm trying to tell you here is I did not choose this. I think
06:14the soldier whose part I'm playing, I think he chose me. JP sir never takes the credit.
06:20I always thank him, but he says I am just the medium. He has chosen me. He wanted you
06:25to do this film and you to portray his character. So I've done my best, ma'am, and really looking
06:32forward to a nod of approval from even Mr. Abhishek sir, Mr. Bachchan and from everyone
06:42who watches the film and from the family of the person's life that I portrayed on the
06:47radio. We are soldiers. There's no ego between soldiers. I see. Are you actually a bit jealous
06:54of his body? Be honest. Me? Me? Jealous of his body? I have to take you a little, I have
06:59to rewind this a little bit. I have to rewind this a little bit. We grew up. Now that I'm
07:05not talking about the, I know he's redefining age, but we were growing up and we were all
07:15watching him be a Greek God on the screen. And we could only dream of it. And now sitting
07:24around him, talking to him, getting news from him, getting feedback from him about the film
07:30while we were on the set, off the set. The film, the term Paltan says everything. Paltan
07:34is a teamwork that wins the battle. So it's very important to, you know, have those actors
07:41who are at the same wavelength, on the same page. And obviously you have a director, JP
07:46Dutta, who knows how to put all these things together. Everyone has got brilliant roles.
07:51And when you are there for two and a half, three months, the kind of rapport that you
07:55share with each other, you know, makes you feel nice that, you know, you're among great
08:01co-stars, great friends. And when those two and a half, three months flew, we never actually
08:05realized. And we were, you know, we finished the film Paltan. And I think that's the magic of this film.