Reflecting on his career-defining role in the 1997 war film โBorderโ, Suniel Shetty admitted he would have eagerly returned for the sequel had his character, Bhairon Singh, not been killed in action.
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Shetty, however, remains connected to the franchise in a unique way as his son, Ahan Shetty, is part of the ensemble cast of โBorder 2โ.
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The 64-year-old actor on Monday evening attended the launch of the track โJaate Hue Lamhonโ, a remake of the song from the original album of the war drama. The track features in “Border 2”, which is set to be released in theatres on January 23.
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โBorder 2โ is directed by Anurag Singh and brings back Sunny Deol alongside a host of new cast, which includes Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh and Shettyโs son Ahan Shetty.
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“Border”, which was inspired by real events from the 1971 India-Pakistan war, featured Shetty as Captain Bhairon Singh, a battle-hardened Indian Army officer martyred towards the end of the film.
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Reports suggest Suniel may appear in a digitally de-aged cameo alongside original co-stars Akshaye Khanna and Sudesh Berry in the sequel.
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โI will never forget this film (Border)โฆ When I was offered this character, I was scared as I felt would I be able to play this character because playing a reel life character is easy but essaying a real-life character is very difficult,” Suniel said.
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“When I got my death sequence, I was very happy. When you die for the country, it feels good. But for the first time, I felt that if I was alive in ‘Border’, then I would have become part of ‘Border 2’. I always had this itch to wear the uniform,โ Shetty added.
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Shetty said he is indebted to the filmmaker for giving Ahan an opportunity after his debut in the 2021 film โTadapโ.
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The actor said people assume his son would automatically get work because he is Suniel Shettyโs son, but that’s not true.
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Describing the film as โincredibly specialโ, Ahan grew emotional and expressed gratitude to his parents and co-actors.
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Produced by Bhushan Kumar, J.P. Dutta and Nidhi Dutta, the sequel is presented by Gulshan Kumar and T-Series in association with J.P. Dutta’s J.P. Films.
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“Border 2” also stars Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa, Anya Singh and Medha Rana in pivotal roles.