Suvinder Vicky on abusing Arjun Rampal in Dhurandhar 2: ‘Will not go to mothers, sisters’

Dubai: Suvinder Vicky spends much of his screen time in Dhurandhar 2 swearing at Arjun Rampal.

He assumed most of it would never make it past the censors. He was wrong, and when he offered to add more, the director stopped him.

Speaking to Hindustan Times for an exclusive interview, the Kohrra actor described how the film's roughest dialogue was written, filmed and, unexpectedly, kept.

He thought he would be beeped out

His first reaction to the script was to point out the obvious problem.

"I told Aditya that my whole dialogue will be a big beep, he should have instead made me play a mute character in the film because I'm abusing so much," Vicky said.

Aditya Dhar was unconcerned, and told him nothing would be cut.

That confidence turned out to be justified, though not by accident. Vicky is clear that none of the language was his own. "The credit for the swearing should also go to our screenwriter, because I didn't make any of those, that was all written in the script," he said.

The line the director would not cross

Having been told the dialogue would survive intact, Vicky saw an opportunity to add to it.

Dhar shut it down on the spot, with a specific rule.

"He said we will not go to mothers and sisters," Vicky recalled. "It is also our responsibility to not hurt sentiments in films."

That distinction is worth explaining. In Hindi and Punjabi, the most offensive category of abuse is that aimed at a person's mother or sister. It is a recognised line, and crossing it means something different from ordinary swearing.

So a film widely discussed for its unfiltered language turns out to have had a rule about which kinds of insult were permissible. Everything else was allowed. That one category was not.

Arjun Rampal's response

The two had worked together before, on Satluj, which made the scenes easier.

"When I warned him about my dialogues in the film, he told me, it is part of life, let rip on camera," Vicky said.

"Even though my character was small and I had to abuse a lot in Dhurandhar 2, people showered me with a lot of love," he said. "I never became a meme before, but after Dhurandhar, a lot of memes were made on my character, so I was on a high."

On violence, and who is responsible for it

Asked about the gore that runs through the film, his answer was less defensive than the question invited.

"There are films which are based on real life and then there are fictional films, but they are also inspired by what goes on in the society," he said. "We are the humans, and we are the devils too. It depends who takes what in what sense."

He argued the audience has more control than it once did. "Earlier, we only had theatres and Doordarshan. Now, we are moving with entertainment in our hands. If we don't like something, we can go to something else."

On Satluj

The interview also covered Satluj, which has had the opposite experience to Dhurandhar 2.

Vicky plays a negative role in it and expected a hostile reception. "I thought that after people see me in the film, people will hurl abuse at me, but those who have seen that era understand it."

His argument for playing such parts is generational. "Today's audience is smart, and they can differentiate between reel and real. But if actors did not play these characters as authentically as possible, many would not feel the fear of that time."

He made it personal. "Even if I talk about my kids, they don't know what happened in 1984, and they don't know who Jaswant Khalra was. So, maybe it is us actors and directors who are responsible for showing it as authentically as possible."

The film has faced release problems, and a pirated version is now circulating.

"We don't support piracy, but a film reaches the audience some way or the other," he said. "Definitely, if this film was released on 70 MM, the makers would have got their return on investment, and it would be nice to watch it on the big screen."