Sidharth Malhotra Explains Why Playing A Real-Life Hero Onscreen Adds More Pressure On An Actor
Captain Vikram Batra- The real Shershaah who gave his life in The Kargil War so that his country people can live peacefully. Soon we will see the glimpse of his life and his journey Through Siddharth Malhotra who play him onscreen.
Captain Vikram Batra - The real 'Shershaah' gave his life in The Kargil War so that his countrymen could live peacefully. Very soon, we will see glimpses of his life and journey through Sidharth
Malhotra who will be seen playing him on the silver screen.
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The trailer of the film has received a mixed response. Many feel there are lot similarities between Sidharth and Captain Vikram.
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Indiatimes got candid with the Shershaah star and spoke to him about getting into the character of Vikram Batra and lot more.
To begin with, on having similarities with Captain Batra, Siddharth said,
"It was a conscious effort to look like him right from his college days to being soldier; all this was distinctly planned and created by keeping the real life references of Captain Batra. Vishnu Batra has been a great support in getting all the help we need.
There was a lot of prep to get into his personality, mannerism, his relationship with family, how he led in to the Kargil war. We took every bit of him from the people who even met him once and knew him for a lifetime. The attempt is to give you an essence of his personality, to show how he became this iconic soldier and we have given our 100 percent for this.¡±
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When asked Sidharth if making a biopic on real life heroes catch more attention and whether it comes with a guarantee that the film will definitely be a hit, he differed and said,
"I feel there is more pressure when you have to play someone who is a real life hero. Because you are dealing with the army, a battle field during Kargil which the country faced, they have reference of him. It will take just one instance to like it or neglect it, if the fact is not checked. So there has been a lot of conviction, authentication, a narrative - you need to build something within a target. I don¡¯t agree with it that it was an easier process.
Also, if it would be that easy, the film would have been made much before. It took 5 years to be made. The family approached me and I knew I wanted to do the story and I wanted to do it right. You just cannot pick a story from history and say ye picture to hit hi hone waali hai. I think when you pick anybody from history, it adds more pressure and you have to be more careful in dealing with it. You have to be authentic even with your cinematic liberty. It has to be a good mix of all that you can show it to people.¡±
Sidharth who has faced a lot of failures, when asked that how he deals with flops and manages to move on, he said,
¡°Bollywood has a perspective that only box office matters and I think it is a very short-sighted impression. When you look back at some iconic films with megastars in the country, those are not box office hits. To give you one example, Amitabh Bachcan¡¯s Ageenpath- it¡¯s a cult film today. And it¡¯s not me who¡¯s defending but stating facts. I feel I will be more happier if I will be remembered for roles or films that I have done and not the mirage that this industry or media has created that business and box office is everything."
Adding further he said,
"I don¡¯t look at Shershaah as a business or profit point of view, it will be unfair to Captain Batra¡¯s life. I feel so indebted to his family that they let me play him. I feel I will be cheating them if I only talk about the profit and loss of the film, it¡¯s not that, it was someone who was flesh and blood. We are enjoying freedom because he gave his life.¡±
When asked if the constant pressure of being in the radar makes the survival difficult, he replied,
"I don¡¯t know it¡¯s difficult or worst. I have seen both spectrums of it. I have seen films that have worked beyond expectations and which haven¡¯t. It¡¯s a constant battle. And it¡¯s not like the audiences have a very long memory. One is just trying to keep beating their previous work.
I think it¡¯s more about consistency than living on your hits and flops I have learnt that in 9 years. When I came from New Delhi, I didn¡¯t know anything. I only knew how the film is made because I was an assistant director, but I didn¡¯t know what happens behind the camera, and nobody was there to teach me how this functions. I learnt it on the job and I am still learning.
if you ask any actor what gives them real happiness, most likely they will tell you that if somebody comes up and tells you sir aapka woh scene, woh dialogue kitna achcha tha, that¡¯s what matter. Also, I am here for the long run, I am not here to live that small happiness, I have not come from New Delhi to Mumbai, to give those sparks of happiness. I want the whole fireworks and I have many many years to do that.¡±
Indeed, the actor is here to stay.
