The trailer of the film Sultan is proof that Salman Khan has worked hard, really hard, on the role of Sultan Ali Khan, a champion wrestler. Apart from mouthing his dialogues in Haryanvi, Salman Khan also trained hard and gained weight for the role. The actor used to shoot wrestling sequences on set for six hours non-stop, and then train in wrestling and MMA for several hours before and after the shoot.
“I had to fight real wrestlers and they can’t fake it. Most shots are real, no cable and a lot of contact happening. Unlike stuntmen, these wrestlers don’t fake the shot. They actually expect you to pick them up and throw them down,” Salman Khan said at the launch of Sultan’s trailer on Tuesday.
Sultan is certainly one of the tougher roles Khan has played so far, but the one thing the superstar found most difficult during the shooting was to wear a langot (a wrestler's traditional loincloth).
“The most difficult part in this film has been the langot,” Salman Khan said. “Today I understand what heroines feel when they go through swimsuit shots and all that.”
“When I had a chat with Abbas [Ali Abbas Zafar, director of Sultan], we thought of shorts, but we knew it would not look real as all wrestlers wear the langot. I was like all right, I’ll wear it. But when I reached the set wearing it, there was a crowd of 5,000 present, and there were women too. I told Abbas there is no chance I am going there like this,” Khan narrated in good humour.
“Somehow I gathered courage and started walking from my van to the set in a lungi. I had tears in my eyes. I was feeling violated. I am not a shy kind of person. I am not shy of going shirtless or wearing shorts. But somehow that was the most difficult thing.”
Produced by Yash Raj Films and also starring Anushka Sharma and Randeep Hooda, Sultan releases on July 6.