Sam Bahadur actor Vicky Kaushal on the massive responsibility of playing India’s first Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

First look of Vicky Kaushal as Sam Manekshaw.

Ever since the first look of Vicky Kaushal as India’s first Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw came out in 2020, the audience has been waiting with bated breath to see the biopic based on the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. In the interim, Kaushal has done movies such as Sardar Udham (2021), Govinda Naam Mera (2022), Zara Hatke Zara Bachke (2023) and The Great Indian Family (2023).

Now the teaser for Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur, starring Kaushal, Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sana Shaikh, is out with the release date set for December 1. The actor and the filmmaker, with whom Kaushal has worked earlier in Raazi, chatted about the movie at the teaser launch. Edited excerpts:

Vicky Kaushal and Meghna Gulzar on the sets of Sam Bahadur.

Tell us about the journey the film has taken from idea to fruition?

Meghna Gulzar: Ronnie (Screwvala, producer) discussed Sam Bahadur with me in 2016, so when this film releases, he would have been in my life for seven years. I didn’t know much about him then except that he was India’s first Field Marshal and played a very critical part in the win of the 1971 War. Seven years hence, I don’t think there is much that I don’t know about him. I am grateful for that journey because let alone a larger-than-life character, it is a larger-than-life zindagi which he lived and lived it with utmost bravery and dignity. Role models like him need to be known about. Our motivation was to tell the story of a man who is an ideal for everyone and in telling his story, we have also imbibed his ideals.

Vicky, from playing a military officer in Raazi to now playing Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, how do you get into the skin of these characters?

Vicky Kaushal: When you get a director like Meghna, she does not let you just touch the skin of the character; she makes you meet the soul of the character. I’m just glad that she offered me the role of a lifetime. My mom and dad have lived through the 1971 war in Punjab and I have heard his stories from them. To grow up and get an opportunity to see life through his eyes makes me feel very fortunate.

You have worked with Vicky twice now. What makes him such a good actor in your eyes?

Gulzar: It is very strange for me - I love him as a person and as an actor, and then to put him in the role of Sam Manekshaw who I completely adore. A lot of times, when I was loving what he was doing, I was asking myself if I am loving Vicky the actor or am I loving what he’s doing with the character. Having said that, when you have a character and a name comes up in your head, then you don’t think much. It happened with Raazi and with Sam Bahadur. I knew he would dive into the role and give me more than what I expected. He will make it his own and that is what he has done. For nine months, I think he had forgotten how to stand straight (because the real Sam developed a stoop in his later years). He had to learn to walk straight again.

Kaushal: The journey of Sam... started with Raazi for me. We were shooting in Patiala and were holed up in a hotel when Meghna first mentioned that she is thinking of this film next. I had heard about him but didn’t know what he looked like. While talking to her, I discreetly googled his image and I thought to myself, ‘he’s so handsome, I won’t get this role!’ But somewhere this wish got planted in the universe because she spoke so highly of this legend. In May 2019, I got a call from her and met her at her place in Bandra where she again spoke at length about the film and Manekshaw sir’s journey and told me to go through the script. I was flying to New York that night and I read the script on the flight. I was waiting for those 15 hours to get over so I could call her up and say ‘I am doing this, please don’t look anywhere else!’ (Laughs.) We have tried to imbibe the spirit of the man through the film.

Vicky, when you go back home, does it take a while to shake off a character?

Kaushal: It does not happen with all the characters I play but with a few and with Sam Bahadur, that was definitely the case. He had a certain body language and a way of talking which I had imbibed over a period of a couple of months and shooting in 13 cities. When you are doing something like that day in and day out, some of it lingers. I remember shooting for a song for another film in the middle and the director kept coming up to me to tell me to straighten my back! (Laughs.) After many months of the shoot when I met Meghna, she said I was finally Vicky again.

This is the biopic of a man who was highly revered in the Indian Army. What responsibilities came with playing this character?

Kaushal: It is a huge responsibility, along with being a huge honour to wear the Indian Army uniform. On top of that, if it has the name badge of Sam Manekshaw, it becomes a massive responsibility. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Additional Directorate General of Public Information of the Indian Army for their support throughout the film. Every time I would meet them, they would say, ‘dhang se karna (do the role properly), he was our best guy’. The pressure was always there and we have done our best.

Your wife Katrina Kaif has Merry Christmas releasing a week after your film. What are the conversations like back home?

Kaushal: She is excited for my film and I am excited for hers. She has another film release (Tiger 3) two weeks before mine. I am sandwiched between her films which is a great spot to be in! (smiles)

Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal is releasing on the same date as yours. You and Ranbir starred in Sanju together. What will Friday, December 1 be like for you?

Kaushal: On that Friday, we both will hand over the film to the audience, so it will be the audience’s day. In today’s time, we as an industry should give the option of multiple films to the audience. That is how we will flourish as an industry. We have those many weeks in a year but we cannot limit ourselves to making only those many films in a year. We have to make multiple films and will have multiple releases on the same day. We have to build that atmosphere where multiple films can work together. We have that strength in the audience and at the exhibitor level, so why not? We need to push that envelope now. If the audience resonates with two films and both are good, they will both work. I am as excited for Animal as anyone else. As long as it’s a great day for the audience, it’s good. We work for them and not for each other.

Fatima Sana Shaikh, Meghna Gulzar, Vicky Kaushal, Sanya Malhotra and Ronnie Screwvala at the teaser launch.

Tell us about working with Meghna.

Kaushal: A blind trust developed working for her in Raazi. I trust the approach she has towards the story and the character. She is probably the only female director I have worked with and I sense a difference. There is something to be said about men written by women. There is a sensitivity, dignity and gravitas with which she treats her male characters. I find that really special in the writing and in the way she directs. I sense it in the little gestures or the little things she says. I get to see from a woman’s perspective what is heroic. That is something I learnt as a person and that is the biggest thing I take working with her - I get to be a better man.

Did it take a lot of imagination from your part to play this man?

Kaushal: All the interviews available of Manekshaw sir are from his time when he was past 70 years of age or retired. I had no reference for when he was younger or in his mid-years. I didn’t know how he talked or walked. We met his family, his grandson. Meghana and I discussed the text a lot of time and worked on his walk and his body language. As an actor it was a stimulating process for me.