Actor Sooraj Pancholi, who recently donned a new avatar in Jaane Jaa, gets candid with The Pioneer about the music video, his take on its concept, recalling the tough phase in his life, and more.
Tejal Sinha
A long-awaited comeback—Jaane Jaa, the recent recreation of the 70’s classic, brought Bollywood’s heartthrob Sooraj Pancholi once again, and this time in a new action-packed avatar. Adding an extra layer of magic to this recreation is the fresh chemistry of Sooraj with the beauty Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia, the melodious voices of Atif Aslam and Asees Kaur, and an expertly reproduced by the renowned DJ Chetas.
For the unaware, the song Jaane Jaa is from the 1972 movie Jawani Diwani, starring Randhir Kapoor, Jaya Bachchan, Balraj Sahni, and Nirupa Roy in the lead. The original track was sung by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle.
Today, we have with us the well-built handsome hunk, Sooraj himself, sharing his excitement about being a part of the music video. Well, to many, this might be his comeback, but he wouldn’t call it a one though. However, to him, “It really feels great to get back to the skills, acting, actions, songs, and all the dramas that come along with filmmaking.”
In this exclusive conversation with us, he goes on to reveal that, before Jaane Jaa happened to him, he was also offered many music videos. However, he doesn’t really want to do those ‘typical romantic’ music videos. “These music videos were nice, but they weren’t making me feel like doing them. But when Universal came up with this
concept—a complete action-oriented music video with no singing or dancing—it was a complete out-and-out action, and to me, the answer was yes. I was 100% sure that I was doing it, and when I heard the song, I was 200% sure that I was doing it regardless of what. It was amazing, and they’ve not taken away much from the classic or ruined it in any way,” shares the Hero star, who was intrigued by the concept of the music video that made him say a ‘yes’, and feels Jaane Jaa is surely going to be a ‘club-bangger’ song for sure.
The lyrics go so well with the concept of the video that they will keep you hooked up throughout. Now, as the video begins, right from the beginning, it gives you all the chills of ‘Fighting for your love’. In fact, the music video too begins with ‘Don’t find love; fight for it’. Speaking of it, he gleefully enthuses, “I would always fight for my love, and I think everybody else would connect with that. This video is about not giving up and fighting for your love to the end. We worked really hard on the action sequences, which we had only 10–12 hours to shoot, and we did this in one day. It was very tiring, but we have surely made a kick-ass music video.”
Going ahead and sharing his camaraderie with co-star Nimrit and working with the team, he says, “Working with Nimrit was really good. We didn’t really have much time to interact since we were shooting separately on sets, but working with the entire team was the first time that I was working with Universal, and it was amazing. The action director, Prateek Parmar, was a treat to work with. My forte has always been action, and I’ve been training for action even before I was or thought of being an actor. I had trained for Taekwondo for a really long time. For me, this music video was a win-win situation.”
So does that mean he’s much more keen on action and adventure roles? Well, he says, though for him, he would love to do more action films than other films, but he’s open to everything to work on. He says, “I have never done an action film before. People think Hero was an action film, but it was not. Satellite Shankar was again not an action film, and Time to Dance was a dance film. So I’m waiting to do an out-and-out action film. But that’s not what I only want to do.”
We are all very much aware of the tough phase that he’s been in for years now, and finally getting onto the track would surely not be a cakewalk for anyone. The adversity he had to go through was so great that he was even given the tag of a ‘bad lover or bad partner’. Recalling the time when people judged him, he shares, “I think they have; they judged me too soon when I was too young, when I was just a 21-year-old boy. People judged me too soon, didn’t want to know what had happened, and just made their judgements. 10 years before my judgement was made, and I would like to blame the media for it. It was completely out of control, but I can’t really say what people think about me. Either you like me or hate me, I don’t know; there’s no in-between.”
In April 2023, a CBI Special Court acquitted Pancholi due to a lack of evidence after ten years of court battles. After the verdict was announced on April 28, Sooraj took to his Instagram Stories and wrote, “The truth always wins,” and added the hashtag “God is great.” But there’s always some part of the past that stays with one; it could be the trauma, and especially for him, being a public icon could bring in fear too. But that’s not the case with him. Yes, it was initially difficult during the trial process, but now, “I have nothing to worry about. Now I see a much smoother road ahead.”
He even recalled how he had lost so much work during those times and shares, “I lost a lot of work because of my trial; I had to go to court every week, not once but three times a week, and I didn’t have my passport for about 5 years. Every time that I had to travel, I had to get a travel permit, and not every time they would grant it. So I did lose a lot of work and shows, but it is what it is, and I cannot change what happened.”
Well, slowly and steadily, we surely are going to see him back on track with the projects he is working on. On the work front, he has got one film and one web show, both at the end of the year and is looking forward to doing good work, not something that will not create an impact. “Cinema has changed a lot, and I want to make a good impact with my work. Wherever there is good work, even if it is on OTT or films, I would do that. I can’t really choose, but I want to say that both platforms are amazing. I would obviously prefer being on screen than on TV,” he signs off, adding, “I think I’m a very emotional person, so something that connects with me emotionally in a script, I would like to do that.”
