‘Red Alert’, ‘Border’ are films you need to do: Suniel Shetty

more images

more images

TORONTO - Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty takes pride in doing issue-based movies like the recent “Red Alert: The War Within” and the 1997 hit “Border” as they allow him to give something back to society.

“‘Border’ is a patriotic film and very rarely do you get a chance to pay back to the real heroes (Indian soldiers). That’s why ‘Red Alert’, ‘LOC’ and ‘Border’ are the films you need to do,” he said.

Suniel revealed: “Dutta is planning something else and I am very excited about it.”

Suniel, who played the lead role in director Anant Mahadevan’s “Red Alert: The War Within”, says Maoist violence is a bigger threat to India than the Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

“Few people realise that this (Maoist violence) is India’s biggest problem today. I believe it is the biggest threat because basically it is your own family that’s upset with you. When there is a problem within a family, it gets very difficult to control because you don’t know who is who,” Suniel, who attended the Miss Canada-India beauty pageant here as chief guest, said at a press meet Saturday.

“Right from Chhattisgarh to the interiors of Maharashtra, this (problem) exists…it is cutting the heart from the country. I thought it is a a subject which is very, very socially relevant. If I could bring a change to get the government to see the side of the Naxalites and make Naxals see a side which they probably are not aware of - the kind of destruction (they are causing)- I am happy I did it.”

Calling “Red Alert” a milestone in his career, he said: “Nobody believes it (internal violence) is India’s biggest problem. Two years down the line, there will be random killings in the streets. It is happening in small towns. People in cities don’t realise because they are not being harmed. But there is a parallel force that is being formed. I am not happy about what the government is doing.”

After doing a realistic film, Suniel is now shooting here for Aneez Bazmi’s “Thank You”, which also stars Sonam Kapoor and Akshay Kumar as lead pair.

“It is a comedy. It talks about something to which most women won’t react very positively. It talks about men’s problem of hurting the ones they love most. It talks about relationship - how it should be and unfortunately how it is. It has Akshay, Sonam, Bobby Deol, Irrfan Khan, Celina Jaitley and myself in the cast,” he said.

Talking about Sonam, he said that she is the daughter of his “very good friend and a finest actor”. “Acting is in her genes… she is very, very elegant, very pretty looking… done very well for herself on her own, getting into production with her sister at a young age…”

Asked whether he would act in southern movies, the actor, who is from Karnataka and has done guest appearances in Tamil and Malayalam films, said: “Yes, I want to. But if you don’t know the language, I believe you are weak as an actor.”