Utkarsh Sharma, who plays Sunny Deol’s son in Gadar 2, on how the senior actor is more an idol than a co-star to him
Utkarsh Sharma and Sunny Deol
Utkarsh Sharma was all of five when he played the adorable son Jeete to Sunny Deol’s Tara Singh in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001). As Gadar 2: The Katha Continues hits the screens after 22 years, Sharma reprises his role—only this time, he is flexing his arms alongside Deol. Off the camera, Sharma says he remains a wide-eyed fan of his co-star. “I was clapping when he was performing action scenes. I was also the first one to whistle at his entry on the set. So, I react to him the way the audience does,” grins the actor. He notes that Deol’s real-life persona is poles apart from his on-screen image. “He has this raw, hard image, but on the set, he is shy, introverted and kind. So, though you are in awe of his image, you feel connected to him on a personal level.”
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Yesterday, the Deol and Ameesha Patel-starrer opened on a strong note at the box office. The buzz around the film has taken many by surprise, but Sharma attributes it to the recent lack of full-blown actioners in Hindi cinema. “As an audience, we have been starved of hardcore action on screen. The reason why south films have been doing well in the Hindi heartland is that no other star [from Bollywood] has brought that cinema to them.”
Gadar 2 marks his fifth collaboration with director-father Anil Sharma. Admiring his filmmaker-father’s professional approach towards him on set, the actor says, “During the making of Gadar, we didn’t sleep for three nights in a row as we had to shoot. For a five-year-old, it’s too much, and I’d get cranky. So, in between shots, if my eyes would shut, my father used to say, ‘Wake up! We are in the middle of an important shoot.’ Even on the set of Gadar 2, our relationship was of an actor-director. There was no question of favouritism.”
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