Rahul says it was an indomitable challenge to get Salman to change the way he spoke in all his films.
Remember Rahul Bagga who played the porn writer Mastram in the film of that title? Rahul is a trained theatre actor. It comes to light that he was chosen to be Salman Khan’s Haryanvi diction coach for Sultan.
Rahul says it was an indomitable challenge to get Salman to change the way he spoke in all his films. “I am an actor. To be given the job of being a diction coach was daunting. As he is a big star, that too Salman Khan, everybody is very intimidated by him. But I guess I had this determination that I was chosen for a job that wasn’t my main vocation.”
Sources from the unit say initially Salman refused to take instructions from Rahul. Unit members say Rahul had to work from scratch on the punctuations and diction in Salman’s voice. The joke on the sets was, ‘Chal Baggatu apna kaam kar le, Bhai toh waise hi bolega jaisa woh chahega.’
Rahul says he refused to be intimidated by Salman. “If I was intimidated he would have not been able to speak Haryanvi so authentically. To his credit Salman gave me space to correct his dialogues in-between takes. And I was fearless in going up to him to correct him.”
Rahul had to make sure he corrected Salman without hurting his ego. “Being an actor myself I know how much it hurts the ego when you are told to correct yourself. Though I am an actor I was pretty clear that my work as a voice coach should also be the talking-point in Sultan. So, the relationship with Salman got established on the first day itself. He too was supportive to let me correct him between the takes, and during dubbing too. So I guess his eagerness and my will worked well overall.”
Weirdly enough Rahul is not from Haryana. “Not being a Haryanvi I was aware I was digging hell if I goofed up. Luckily it worked.”