Working with Jawans was a great high: Sonu Sood

J.P. Dutta is back with another compelling film titled, ‘Paltan’. Based on the Nathu La military clashes of 1967 which took place along the Sikkim border, ‘Paltan’ unravels an untold story of the Indian forces facing off in an intense battle to avert Chinese infiltration. The film is the last part in J.P. Dutta’s war trilogy after ‘Border’ (1997) and ‘LOC Kargil’ (2003). The trailer of the film is sure to leave you with goosebumps and while your heart swells with patriotic fervour. In an exclusive interview with Republic TV, the cast of 'Paltan' opened up about the life-changing experience of shooting with real-life soldiers. 

While talking about working with the jawans, actor Sonu Sood said,

"Working with Jawans was a great high. You just listen to them,  you talk to them and the innocence on their face... when you have those 500- 700 soldiers in a frame, you can't cast actors in that because you need to see the reality, the pain they actually go through, those sunburnt faces, that innocence and that determination to fight for the nation." Further recalling his experience, Sonu said that he realised what soldiers go through after working on 'Paltan'. "You have to actually live in that -20, -30 degree temperature with no oxygen and with very less food. 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", the actor said.

'Paltan' also stars Arjun Rampal who stated that portraying a soldier on screen was a huge responsibility. The actor said,

"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 multi-starrer movie features an ensemble cast including Jackie Shroff, Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Gurmeet Choudhary, Harshvardhan Rane, Siddhant Kapoor, Luv Sinha, Esha Gupta, SonalChauhan, Deepika Kakar. Meanwhile, Sonakshi Sinha's brother Luv Sinha and Television actress Deepika Kakkar, known for her role in 'Sasural Simar Ka', is also making their Bollywood debut with the last part of the war trilogy 'Paltan'.