Jawan dialogue writer Sumit Arora opened up on how he came up with the viral ‘voting’ monologue in the Shah Rukh Khan starrer.
Tamil filmmaker Atlee recently made his directorial debut with one of this year’s biggest blockbusters, Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jawan. The big-ticket film featured King Khan in a double role as Azad, a cop and Vikram Rathore, an ex-commando.
Besides Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘massy massy’ avatar, the action entertainer also left an impact with some memorable dialogues. One of them is the voting monologue which drew a lot of claps and whistles in theatres.
Recently, in a chat with Indian Express, the film’s dialogue writer Sumit Arora revealed how he came up with this viral sequence featuring Shah Rukh Khan aka Azaad.
Sumit told the publication, “It was the whole finger juxtaposition, with raising questions and voting. Once I cracked that ‘ungli’ concept, it was like we can do the monologue, we need to express what Azad has been doing so far and what he wants to say to the people. But how will he say it? What will be the tool he will use to express himself? I thought about it for days and then I finally cracked the ungli idea, I felt it was a good connection that you raise finger to ask question and also to vote. It just fell into place very seamlessly.”
The writer said that it was an important scene because SRK’s character Azad is finally explaining why he is doing what he is doing. After donning various avatars- bald man, white long hair, half mask, he is finally seen coming out with his truth. Since it was supposed to be the important piece of dialogue in the film, it had to be written with the correct emotion and punch in a way that it doesn’t get boring.
“That’s why I had to use a lot of interesting tools in it, like start with a poem—main kaun hu, kaun nahi—then go to the ‘ungli’ line then give an example of a mosquito coil. Basically, you have to make it interesting. But obviously, the most important thing was the actor. The way Shah Rukh sir delivered the lines! He did it in one, full take! I don’t think we did another take also. Sir did ask if we should do another, but Atlee was so impressed he said, ‘Sir we got it.’ It was just beautiful,” he recalled.
Besides Shah Rukh Khan, Jawan has an ensemble cast which includes names like Vijay Sethupathi, Nayanthara, Sanya Malhotra and Priyamani. The film also has a cameo by Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Dutt.
