Sanya Malhotra on ‘Jawan’ role: It’s something I could never have said no

PTI, Sep 13, 2023, 4:21 PM IST

The limited screen time in ”Jawan” never bothered Sanya Malhotra as the actor says she was more focused on what she could learn from superstar Shah Rukh Khan and the rest of the film’s team.

Malhotra has a pivotal but small role in the Atlee directorial as Dr Eeram, a former doctor who is part of Shah Rukh’s team of vigilantes.

The 31-year-old actor said she learnt a lesson on her first film ”Dangal”, in which she shared the screen with Aamir Khan, and it came in handy when she signed for ”Jawan” as well.

”Nitesh (Tiwari) sir had told me during Dangal to see what you can give to a script as an actor. How much you’ll give or what you are or not, that doesn’t matter… Even in ‘Dangal’, I had wrestled for only a minute or 2, but I trained for over a year for it,” Malhotra told PTI in an interview.

The actor also gave the example of Shah Rukh’s appearance in Kamal Haasan’s 2000 movie ”Hey Ram”.

”(In ‘Hey Ram’), he had done a character just for the script and love of acting that gives me a lot of confidence as an actor. When I got this opportunity, it’s something I could never have said no to because I’m a huge Shah Rukh Khan fan and to get to work with him, to be around him, to see him work – why would I say no to it even in my dreams? ”I want to learn from him, he’s an institution, I want to learn from Atlee sir, I want to learn from Nayanthara ma’am, see them on set, see how they conduct themselves on set, off set. That was very important,” Malhotra said.

”Jawan”, a father-son story at its core, highlights various social and political issues through its hero, essayed by Shah Rukh.

The film also stars Vijay Sethupathi, Priyamani, Girija Oak, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Lehar Khan, Aaliyah Qureshi, Ridhi Dogra, Sunil Grover and Mukesh Chhabra as well as Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Dutt in a cameo appearances.

Malhotra called Shah Rukh an ”institution” and she learned a lot from the actor.

”He’s King Khan for a reason… Just to sit with him and ask him anything about acting, to see him work, the kind of passion he has for his work, it’s unparalleled… I asked him some questions, got to learn so much from him.

”He told me to listen to my heart and not my brain, and that’ll kind of stay with me forever, I don’t even know if he remembers it, but he did tell me that.” A Red Chillies Entertainment presentation, ”Jawan” is produced by Gauri Khan and co-produced by Gaurav Verma.