I Was in J&K When Article 370 Was Abrogated: Sidharth Malhotra

Cameraperson: Sanjoy Deb
Video Editor: Veeru Krishan Mohan

An upcoming romantic action film directed by Milap Zaveri, Marjaavaan is all set to release on 15 November. It stars Riteish Deshmukh, Sidharth Malhotra, Tara Sutaria and Rakul Preet Singh.

The Quint spoke with Tara Sutaria and Sidharth Malhotra about the film. Here are some excerpts from the conversation:

Sidharth, Marjaavaan seems like this ‘80s masala action film. How do you think this will connect to the multiplex audience?

It’s a love story at heart. A love story is universal, so definitely the feel, the packaging of it is larger than life, you know, which has a flavour of little classic cinema. But I think a love story resonates with, you know, everyone in India so it doesn’t matter whether it’s a single screen or multiplex.  There is space for every kind of cinema here today. The biggest hit film in the country, pan-India is Baahubali, which is completely fictitious.

Tara, your debut with Student of the Year wasn’t sort of the big hit everyone was hoping it to be. Right. Did that affect you in any way?

You know, actually it’s funny, everybody says that. It actually did so well and I want people to know that. With the kind of film that it is, of the franchise that it is that everyone says that it is. It did, actually, it did well.

And Sidharth, with you. You have this like metrosexual lover boy image that sort of worked with Hasee Toh Phasee and then Kapoor and Sons so and in this film Marjaavaan, you’re playing this street-smart sort of hero. How do you convince yourself to play, get into that zone?

Well, I have been a fan of this cinema. I think this kind of feel, I would say, not the story but stems from heroes I grew up watching. And I have whistled and clapped when I saw them on TV or the big screen. You want to not always see something which is real, you know? You want to go into the movies to believe in certain stories, to believe in certain characters. So I thoroughly enjoyed it actually.It feels great to be so powerful. Hit 10 people at one time. You know, to break helmets. And I put myself on fire in this film I have stood on top of a 30-foot Raavan and jumped off.

And Sidharth, you were one of the first actors to go to Kashmir after Article 370 was abrogated. So what was that experience like? You were shooting for Shershah.

We were actually there. We were there at Kargil while the whole political change happened. But we were, I think hats off to our Indian army, to the forces, the police and the local government to support us. We had a complete smooth shoot all thanks to that. We have a special film which is actually shot in Kargil, for a film which is based on Kargil War, which is a first.  I think their hospitality is – I mean, for me it was a first. You know, they would just at night shoot, we used to feel cold at times. They would open up their houses and come and give us kahwa. Yeah, I think it’s a lovely place. People should go. Unfortunately, it’s not so big on tourism.