Jawan: Tamil speaking dialogue writer on how Atlee trusted him with SRK's Hindi lines

A still from Jawan

When dialogue writer Sumit Arora saw Bigil in 2019, he was immediately taken by Atlee's fresh voice. That was enough reason for him to come on board the director's maiden Hindi film, Jawan. Arora, who has served as the Hindi dialogue writer on the actioner, says he experienced the best of both worlds in superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Atlee.

Atlee and Sumit Arora

"I first met Atlee for Jawan when he was working on the post-production of Bigil. Later, when I watched the film, I felt it was massy, yet had a strong message of women empowerment. Then Atlee and I met again. I saw Jawan as an opportunity to learn something. He is clear about what he wants, yet gives you space to create something as a writer," says Arora.

Writing lines for Khan was the cherry on top. Since Atlee didn't speak Hindi, Arora was on set during the shoot, tweaking the dialogues, improvising it with the superstar. On the occasions that he wasn't available on set, Khan would call him if he needed help with lines. "Shah Rukh sir is always trying to improve [the material]. So, if he needed a line to be changed, he would call and say, ‘Please give me a line for this. Your time starts now,'" he laughs.