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Getting into uniform gives you a high: Sonu
The actor talks about his upcoming war drama, Paltan directed by JP Dutta, and how he always wanted to play the role of a soldier
Actor Sonu Sood is happy with the purple patch in his career. He has three biggies in hand — Manikarnika with Kangana Ranaut; Simmba with Ranveer Singh; and Paltan, a multistarrer with director JP Dutta.
Sonu tells us excitedly, “I started my journey from Delhi, Connaught Place, where I got my first portfolio made. I would go to different offices and hunt for those columns in the newspapers so that I could get to know where I could give those pictures. I didn’t know a single soul [in Bollywood]. Somewhere, God has been kind, and that’s why I have been able to make a mark for myself in movies.”
Paltan will see him team up with actors Arjun Rampal, Suniel Shetty and Harshvardhan Rane, among others.
Talking about how it was working in a war drama, the actor shares, “It was really exciting. Actually, JP Dutta was the first director whom I had met [in Mumbai]. He promised that if he made a war film, we would work together. But he went on to make other cinema [movies in other genre], and we couldn’t work [together].”
He further shares, “However, when he narrated to me [the story of] Paltan, I knew that this was the film I always wanted to do. Playing a soldier, and getting into the uniform gives you a high. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.”
Paltan is set in the backdrop of 1962 Indo-China war, and recreating those sequences was a task. Sonu reveals, “First of all, in period films, there are language and body language barriers. When you are representing someone from the Army, who has made India proud, you have to play [enact] it well. The soldier, who has fought for the country, should feel proud that someone has done justice to his character.”
The actor adds, “I did want to talk to the soldier that I was playing, but JP Dutta had lots of notes and pictures from his family. I wanted to give [something] of my own self also.”