‘We Went Without Ration for a Week During ‘Paltan’ Shoot’, Reveals Arjun Rampal

The war drama ‘Paltan’ is all set to hit screens on September 7. The JP Dutta directorial stars Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Harshvardhan Rane, and Gurmeet Choudhary. The cast shot with real-life soldiers for the film and in an exclusive interview to Republic TV, Arjun Rampal and Sonu Sood revealed what the soldiers go through as they protect our borders.

Read | From Ranveer Singh To Bhumi Pednekar; Bollywood Celebrates 72nd Independence Day

Sonu Sood, who plays a Major who hails from Rajasthan in ‘Paltan’ said, “When you do a film like that and when you stay with these soldiers for two and a half to three months, you talk to them, you get into their uniforms, you actually see the way they are living and I think it is a different high.” The actor said that his respect for soldiers increased two-fold after seeing the conditions they live in, “When we actually got on board for ‘Paltan’, we had the same respect for our nation but after we shot for the film, then we realised what our soldiers go through and you have to actually live in those conditions with -20, -30 degrees, with no oxygen and with very less food.” Sonu added, “We were there for almost two and a half to three months and that too in the peak of winter in November- December when it is so cold that you can't even talk but still you have these soldiers who are there sitting waiting for the shot.”

Arjun Rampal revealed that they didn’t have food for a week due to harsh weather conditions. “For one week the rations didn’t come because there was so much snow and the trucks got stuck and we did not get food for a week. And the soldiers gave us their rations and shared with us and then when our rations came, we, of course, gave it back to them and we shared it with them”, the actor said.

Read | Ten Bollywood Films On Patriotism You Must Watch

Arjun, who hails from an army family said that he has always had immense respect for the army. "My grandparents were in the army. I have climbed the Siachen Glacier and I have gone and lived with the soldiers there so the respect for them has always been high. It was a huge responsibility to be able to walk in the shoes of such true-life heroes”, the actor said. Meanwhile, the multi-starrer movie also features an ensemble cast including Jackie Shroff, Siddhant Kapoor, Luv Sinha, Esha Gupta, Sonal Chauhan, and Deepika Kakar.