Sooraj Pancholi: “Salman’s Tweet Made All The Difference”

On Tuesday morning the world woke up to a big announcement  .Salman  Khan tweeted that his  protégé Sooraj Pancholi(whom Salman  had introduced  in  2015  in  Hero)  was  going to play the  legendary  boxer Hawa Singh in a  bio-pic to be directed  by Prakash Nambiar.

“I agree  it was  a masterstroke to get Salmam Sir to tweet. I requested him  to  do so. I  even asked him to do it around 11 am when the traffic would be  at its peak. He  obliged. At around 10.15 he tweeted. Within  minutes I started  receiving calls and messages  congratulating me.”

 That’s star power.And some day Sooraj hopes to have  it.  Would Hawa Singh turn the tide  for  Sooraj?

“I hope so,” says  the  softspoken  Sooraj who began training to play the  Haryanvi wrestler, six months   ago. “During  the second  schedule  of my last film Satellite Shankar I   got to know I  was playing Hawa Singh. Of course I knew about Hawa Singh and  how he had won the gold medal  at  the Asian Games in  the heavyweight category at the 1966 and 1970Asiad  . To play him was an honour.”

Sooraj confesses he is  a  big boxing  aficionado . “Boxing is  the  only game I  sit and watch  avidly.I love all the films about boxers and  boxing, the Rocky series being my favourite. If  I had to pick one sport that I am allowed  to play on screen it would have to be boxing.”

Intense training  for  the role  has been on  for six months. “I’ve been  following a diet  of  high carbs,  high  protein and and doing high-intensity training. I’ve gained ten  kgs for the role. I visited Hawa Singh’s native  place  in  Haryana. So yes,  I’d say I’m prepared for the role.”

About his last  film Satellite Shankar Sooraj expresses a  sense of disappointment  about its  boxoffice  performance. “But it  has been appreciated on television. Sony has aired  it twice already.In any case , I’ve moved on. I am now so much into Hawa Singh  I feel he’s  monitoring every  move I  make.I can’t afford to get this wrong.”