Interview: Salman Khan
By: Arora Rai
Bollywood’s period pieces tend to favor seriousness over lighthearted fare, intently focusing on larger-than-life personalities and their struggles during precolonial or British rule.
A story about the 18th century Pindaris who fought against colonial powers to protect the honor of their culture, Veer takes a slightly different approach in its attempt to redefine how the period piece genre is presented to audiences.
In an interview with reporters during his promotion of the film, Veer’s leading star, Salman Khan, said the movie has its fair share of light moments. The Bollywood star added that films about India’s empirical rulers or early colonial struggles present the people, during such eras, as too stiff and serious.
“This has emotion, drama and comedy unlike other period films which always cast an impression that no one used to laugh in those days,” Salman Khan told reporters over the weekend about Veer. “The language has undergone a huge change. The dialogues are in contemporary language but would show that people of that time used to speak and behave like this. We haven’t followed the regular format.”
A film about love, treachery and bravery, Veer is the latest Bollywood biopic to hit screens as it releases on January 22nd, departing from other movies in its period piece vein in how the story of earlier peoples is told.
Salman Khan said instead of making the film so serious and causing a disconnect between modern audiences and the stories of the older generations who preceded them, the filmmakers made every effort to make Veer a film everyone living in India today could relate to.
To that end, Zarine Khan was cast, as the filmmakers thought she had a modern enough look to connect to today’s moviegoers yet also symbolize the spirit of a look consistent with 18th century women.
“The film is of a different genre, so we needed a young, fresh look,” Salman said of casting Zarine as the leading love interest in the film. “We needed somebody with a yesteryear look. How our grandmothers and great grandmothers used to look — we needed someone like them.
“Just two weeks were left to start the film and we didn’t have anyone who would fit the role. We were searching left, right and center, and met her by coincidence on the set of Subhash Ghai’s Yuvvraaj.”
Of course, beyond the casting of Zarine as the leading lady, Salman Khan deeply believes Veer will stand out as a unique film mostly because he wrote the script – only the second time the Bollywood stud wrote a film’s screenplay. (He also wrote the screenplay for the 1990 film Baghi.)
In writing the script, Salman Khan told reporters he pushed himself to make the story as uniquely spectacular as possible in hopes that his father, Salim Khan, would ultimately approve of his son’s work.
“I showed the story to my father, and the biggest fear was what is he going to say,” Salman Khan humbly said. “But he said it’s a good story.”
In comparing Veer to his first screenplay, Baghi, Salman Khan said the films are both very similar in the way they present paternal-themed stories.
“Baghi showed a good relationship between a father and son; Veer does that too,” Salman Khan humbly told reporters. “I believe that father and son should be the best of friends. Today, my father and I chat, drink and chill out together. That’s the chemistry they should share. The respect should also be there.”
Audiences will determine whether Veer is ultimately different for the better when it hits screens worldwide later this week. At the very least, moviegoers will not be too surprised that the sword-wielding Salman Khan, who plays the film’s title character, will be sporting a tightly fitted wardrobe throughout the entire movie.
