Actor Vijender Singh has signed up for the role of the main antagonist opposite Salman Khan.This popular actor spoke to The Pioneer’s Shikha Duggal and shared vignetles of his camaraderie with Salman Khan, acting, and more.
Actor Vijender Singh has been an undeniably magnetic connection between the world of professional boxing and Bollywood now. He belonged to a mainstream sport, but in no time he was implicated in a mainstream movie too. As soon as Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan was offered to him by the production house of Salman Khan, as we all know, Vijender, like a very gutsy man, made this an easy cross-over by dipping into a yes! Beyond everything, he signed up for the role of the main antagonist opposite Salman Khan. Let’s whistle.
In an exclusive conversation with an absolute celebrity in his own right, we have the top professional boxer-turned-actor with us: “Portraying the role of a villain is probably the hardest thing to do for an actor. I was shown in a gloom-ridden limelight, and in turn, I went hard-core too. I had to force myself to portray complex emotions and human frailties, which are poles apart from the person I am in real life.
I had to feel like the character; I had to feel that negativity and hate for others, which makes my character look authentic.”He was born into a Jat family in a village in Haryana. His father was a bus driver with the Haryana Roadways, while his mother was a homemaker. Overnight success was a myth in his life! It took a lot of time, energy, consistency, and focus for Vijender, who is also a politician, to taste sustainable success.
Thereafter, he went on to represent his respective ethnicity, village, culture, and nation on a worldwide podium. And then his amateur training came in handy for those famous consecutive knockouts in the boxing ring! Moving ahead in this interview, back to the surroundings of the film, he said, “The only reason I ducked into a yes for this film was — Salman Bhai. I was in my seventh grade when Tere Naam was released, and like all the boys in the village, I went crazy about Salman Khan, his physique, and his styling. I get a cold sweat even now looking at him in the shoes of a hero, the way he takes his entry on the silver screen till today at the age of fifty-seven years.”
2008 was a historic win, and that gold medal in the boxing championship was indelible! Vijender recalled when nobody knew who Vijender Singh was — a mere model or that personification who was doing commercials for a cigarette? It was that gold medal that made Vijender Singh a brand! Otherwise, he feels he was going unrecognised and unacknowledged. He continued with elegance, “This transient shift to the entertainment industry is like Mauja hi Mauja for me. I am continuing to sign movie projects gradually.
But I still take a trip down memory lane about my sports career — it wasn’t easy for me. I kept plugging away day after day with no results before becoming a champion. I didn’t have these facilities given to a sportsperson today. I can easily think of my training days at forty-eight degrees celsius in the Patila region. I don’t want to sound filmy, but I immigrated a lot to become an international boxing champion for my country. I wasn’t able to get back to my parents for seven months in a row, which in turn created a gratuitous distance between my relatives and me.”
Conjuring up all the action sequences he did in Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, Salman Khan said, “Salman Khan was so in attendance on the sets. The kind of action I do in the ring is the polar opposite of what I am supposed to do in the film. I cannot injure a superstar or a body double. That’s when Salman Khan stepped in and taught me the basis of action according to reel sequences so that I wouldn’t be detrimental to any of my co-stars.
The action in the movie isn’t like a lifeless CGI extravaganza; Salman taught me not to be choppy when doing those scenes.” If truth be told, Vijender Singh annexed himself with the fisticuffs for the miniscule goal of snaring a government job for his family! Unhurriedly, boxing started to fulfil him, and he stopped relying on someone else’s approval. He also announces it to us, saying how he was in complete flow, not fighting with himself but doing what he loves now. So he set his foot into movies also.
For instance, thinking of, “There was a scene in the film where I was supposed to smack Salman Khan with a rock on his head in the climax, I went into a feeling of dazed. I am not this wild in the ring or in real life. Our director was always compelling me to show that “josh” in the scene, and I was just not able to. I understand, I wasn’t supported to do that in real-time, but just the feeling of it was making me feel flagrant.”
In the final edit, as we all know, studios are typically reluctant to give final-cut rights to an actor who is not financially vested in the project, but Vijender Singh, as someone who has made so many professional boxing records for our country, was fairly good with his final cut. Only shows his humility!
