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Making a Hollywood debut is a momentous milestone in itself, and it is quite another to do it playing someone you closely relate to off-screen.
Actor and martial artist Vidyut Jammwal, who is now 15 years into a career spanning Tamil, Telugu and Hindi cinema, is set to achieve just that in Kitao Sakurai's directorial Street Fighter — the much-awaited live-action adaptation of the legendary fighting game, as Indian yogi Dhalsim.
In an exclusive conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India ahead of the film's worldwide release on October 16, the actor reveals he had never played Street Fighter before bagging the role, and why the film does not feature action sequences that feel real.
Jammwal introduced himself to the game not as a child or a young adult, but right after he found out he was cast for his role as Dhalsim. And soon, he got hooked on to it.
"I hadn’t played the game till the time I got to know that I’d be playing Dhalsim. But, the moment I was cast, I played it every day with multiple partners so that I could understand every character. I got addicted to it for a while," he says.
He also reveals that while Dhalsim was a difficult character to embody, "Being the Indian yogi who uses breath as a weapon is very relevant to me because I have lived a life like that from the yoga fraternity I belong to. This is a yogi warrior and very similar to who I am," he believes.
Hindi cinema often produces and reproduces action sequences that, to many, seem staged and gimmicky than natural and authentic. But, Jammwal bets on the view that "gimmicky is good," at least when it comes to a film like Street Fighter.
"Everything about it is hyperbole, and that’s what makes it fun. The gamers who have enjoyed Street Fighter would know all the gimmicks. And for the people who've never played the game or have never enjoyed playing video games, this shtick is what is going to get them completely entertained,” says the actor.