Heroes, directed by Samir Karnik has an all star cast including: Sohail Khan, Vatsal Seth, Preity Zinta, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Dino Morea and Salman Khan. The film follows the journey of two young men as they deliver three letters to the families of fallen soldiers. In a recent interview with Devansh Patel, Salman Khan, who plays one of the soldiers, talked about the film.
About the story of the film Khan said, “Heroes has nothing to do with war, fights and violence. It has nothing in it. Sohail and Vatsal have to deliver three letters to the parents of the three shaheed jawans.Heroes is not aGadar or a Border or Maa Tujhe Salaam. When you see this film, you’ll come to know that it is a very entertaining film with an important message.”
Khan clarified that the heroes in the film could be from anywhere in the world not just India, “Heroes isn’t about the Indian jawans or the Indian soldiers or against Pakistan. It’s about two guys who just want to have fun in life and then they get an exercise to find out whether joining the army is important or not. The jawans in Heroes played by Sunny, Bobby, Dino and myself can be Pakistani, American, Chinese or Japanese but you will find such guys anywhere. In fact, there is one of my dialogues in the film saying, ’Yeh jung kab khatam hogi?’ and my co-star replies, ’Yeh jung thodi hain. Jung to tab hoti thi jab raja maharaja khud aage aate the ladne ke liye. Jis din woh neta jo yeh treaty sign karte hain, woh ladenge, tab yeh jung khatam hogi’. It’s a very meaningful film.”
In the film Salman plays Balkar Singh, a Punjabi officer and he really worked to get the look of the character just right. “First of all, I did not put a fake beard. I wanted to grow my own beard and make it look very authentic. Then again, we are actors and we have to act. There is no way out. It’s more about the convincing nature of the character you play. So even if I was thin, I can look tough. In addition, the postproduction, action coordinators, fights sequences, etc also helps build a tough guy. It is not physically possible to do the kind of stuff what Khalli or the Rock can do (laughs).”
He was asked how much of Salman is in Balkar Singh and he replied, “Every character I play or I’ve played is somewhere close to me. There is some personality in me, which has to have this resemblance. If I don’t have that spark of the character, I cannot play it. I choose those roles, which I think I can comfortably do it. My onscreen roles bring out some kind of Salman Khan, which is off-screen. Balkar Singh is tough, patriotic, loving and a good guy. I too am a good guy and not a bad one as many people think I am.
Talk then turned to his co-star Preity Zinta and about working with her he said, “She is a serious actress but sometimes she is a complete brat. Can you believe it; she went to some acting classes to learn the Punjabi accent. So when she came and started talking in Punjabi, I was shocked. It was too good. I’ve worked with Preity in more than five films now. So we jell along well and have a good rapport.”
In the film the two are shown together in the beautiful song ‘Mannata’ and Salman said they had fun shooting for those sequences but did have a bit of trouble, “Actually we were not getting the right lyrics for the song. I did hear the same song from Sajid – Wajid in Hindi and advised them to change it into Punjabi. So they had to re-work on the lyrics. ‘Mannata’ is an outstanding song and I love it. We shot the song in the fields of Punjab and it was fun. I can still remember the smell of the fresh fields and the sand.”
Salman also revealed that while he watched the film he actually cried: “Heroes got tears in my eyes about six to seven times while watching it. That’s the maximum I’ve cried while watching any film. Samir Karnik has done an outstanding job with Heroes. He is the true Hero.”
Overall Salman says the film is fun but also meaningful and adds that he thinks the film will be a hit. “I mean, I will be surprised if Heroes did not do well.”
Be sure to see Heroes in theaters now!
