Bharat actor Salman Khan has said he and Katrina Kaif had to work extra hard on the film after Priyanka Chopra’s sudden exit; the Quantico star had to leave the film as she was supposed to marry Nick Jonas.
The Bharat team have begun the promotions of the film and sat down with director Ali Abbas Zafar for a Facebook live and fielded questions by fans.
On being asked about her character in the film, Katrina said, “I had two months to prepare once we cracked the physicality and hair, everything fell in place.” But Salman interrupted to add, “Priyanka didn’t give us much time.”
A fan asked Salman about how challenging it was to play a man from the ages of 6 to 60. The actor replied, “It was very challenging for me as I am in an age group that I neither fit in that age group (old age) nor the younger age group. And the age group in which I am, I don’t consider it as my age group. I am how I am and have worked that way in the film.”
Katrina also called her character challenging and said, “There were distinct sections in the film from the year 1975 to 1990 (when her character enters the film) and then 2010. At least it was clear from these three distinct portions where you are going to see the change in the character’s age, which was very helpful. The important thing was to get the body language right for the older portion, and to see the mindset of that age.”
A user also asked Salman about his favourite film with director Ali Abbas Zafar. But the actor came up with a very surprising answer – Marigold. Talking about the film, he said, “I was an actor, Ali Larter was also in the film and Willard Carroll was the director. Ali was fifth assistant director in the second unit. Salman was also asked about which part was the toughest in the film. He said targeting Ali, “I had gained weight thrice in Sultan, then again I reduced and gained weight in a span of six months for this film. Thank you.”
On being asked about working with Sunil Grover in Bharat, Salman said, “Bechara! Sunil is one of the most talented actors I have seen so far. He doesn’t do mimicry, he just gets into the character and he plays that character. So if you have seen in Gutthi, in Dr Mashoor Gulati or the way he imitates Mr Bachchan or Dharam ji (Dharmendra), he is not hitting below the belt, he is actually a very big fan of theirs. He plays their characters to the T. He is one of the most talented people that I have ever come across. There are lots of characters in the film in some scenes who have done better than him (laughs).” Katrina, too, looked impressed working with Sunil. “He is really and incredibly knowledgeable person. You can talk to him on any topic and he is really a very wonderful person to spend time with. He has such incredible knowledge about books and culture,” she said.