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Delivering The Right Punches

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Keeping in mind the importance of a mentor in one’s life, the makers of Saala Khadoos launched the trailer of their film. Debutant producer and popular actor R Madhavan, producer Rajkumar Hirani and Siddharth Roy Kapur, Managing Director, Disney today introduced their respective mentors and also shared some memories. Hirani calls Vidhu Vinod Chopra his mentor, while Kapur, who is now heading Disney, calls Ronnie Screwvala his mentor and Madhavan shared that he considers actor Kamal Haasan his mentor. Haasan, who is currently abroad also sent a video message for Madhavan, during the event. Read on to know why the film is titled Saala Khadoos and how Hirani came onboard as producer:

Rajkumar Hirani on the title

The film is about a mentor and his student. We all have one mentor in our life. Madhavan plays a boxing coach and coaches are always khadoos because they push students to an extent so that they do well. They push them, they motivate them and also abuse them or make them work very hard. In our life, all of us must have once said, ‘Saala kitna khadoos hai’ and that’s why we decided to call the film Saala Khadoos.

Rajkumar Hirani on his mentor

My mentor is Vidhu Vinod Chopra; he has been a pillar of strength to me. Right from filmmaking to every other aspect of the process, he has taught me everything.

Siddharth Roy Kapur on his mentor

I was doing my summer internship at UTV when I first saw Ronnie Screwvala, everyone was scared of him. I had seen him at that time and thought that I want to work with him some day. And then when I joined UTV and worked with Ronnie, I definitely thought at that point that he was khadoos. But those were the learning days. I was seeing a man who was so passionate about his work that at 3am he used to reach office.

Hirani on coming onboard

One evening Madhavan called me saying that he is coming over to meet me. I got a little scared as I was wondering what the urgency was all about. When he came home he looked very enthusiastic and then he told me the story idea, but I had my own doubts as he was to play the coach, and a boxer’s physique is very different from his but he told me to give him six months’ time as he planned to go to the US and get trained. And after six months when he came back I couldn’t recognise him. And finally, with his dedication and love towards the script, I decided to co-produce the film.

Kapur on backing the film

Madhavan had narrated the story to me a long time back and I had loved it. And then when he showed me the rushes of the film, we totally loved it and decided to back the film.

Madhavan on his mentor

For me it’s Kamal Haasan. As a kid my mother always used to tell me to become like him as he is an all-rounder and since then I have looked up to him. I still remember I was at the entrance of a film awards function where I saw Kamal sir walking in and I thought that one day I have to meet him. Little did I know that he will cast me in his film, which he was directing, and that’s where my journey started. A lot of people told me not to do that film as he was playing the main lead but I wanted to share at least one film with him so I did it. But believe me when the film released I got so much of appreciation from the audience.

Madhavan on Saala Khadoos

Sudha, my director, narrated the story to me. I loved it and in fact that was the time when I thought about my mentor and what role a mentor plays in our life. We went to many people and when we narrated the story, everyone got attached to it. That’s when we realised that the story is appealing. Sports as a film genre is rarely made in our country though today we have several films and I know comparisons will be drawn but ours is different.

Madhavan on multitasking

To be honest I just leaned on Raju sir, as he and his team are the best. He handled the production while I concentrated on my acting and posture.

Hirani on being a producer

My mentor (Vidhu Vinod Chopra) has taught me one thing and that is that I never visit the sets. If you’re looking at something which you find good then you have to trust the person who is making it. I liked what Sudha was thinking, or else I should have directed the film myself, why get Sudha on board? So we need to trust people we are working with and then they give their best.

Madhavan on getting trained in the US

I didn’t train here (India) because I would have ended up eating dahi chawal. That’s why I went to US where I learned a lot about my body posture and getting trained as that is what was needed for the film. I concentrated on the character.

Hirani on drawing comparisons

We recently completed 100 years of Indian cinema and for all these years we had so many love stories. But did they look the same? Every time we had a new love story. So similarly in sports too we will have many stories to be told. And if we are making a film on boxing it doesn’t mean it will be similar to Mary Kom or just because it shows a coach and players, it will be similar to Chak De! India.

Madhavan on the protagonist

If we would have cast an actor then we would have easily trained her to box and shot the film. But here we cast a real boxer who didn’t know acting at all. She learnt acting on the sets. So the idea was to show real fights, we have got real boxers from abroad for the film and if a common person would fight with them, it would look very unreal but she did it perfectly. And that’s why Sudha and I decided to have a real boxer as the protagonist. And believe me, after seeing her I have realised that acting is in your blood, you don’t need to learn it.


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