Street Fighter Special Look Features Vidyut Jammwal in his International Debut

“Whenever one of our own makes a mark on the global stage, we take a great pride in it. There was Priyanka Chopra Jonas with Baywatch, then there was Deepika Padukone with Vin Diesel and XXX, Anil Kapoor of course who has been our ambassador in MI and today we have this gentleman—Vidyut Jammwal.”

With these words, Star Studios 18 head honcho, Ajit Andhare, introduced the media and a section of hyper-enthusiastic fans to Jammwal, who is a part of the cast of Street Fighter, the actioner releasing in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on October 16. And he portrays the iconic Dhalsim.

Before Street Fighter became a movie, Andhare mentioned it as the “OG Arcade Game” that had become one of the rulers in the Anime and Animation Space.

“There is only one guy who can embody the character of Dhalsim, who embodies Yoga, Kalaripayyatu and Martial Arts. Guys, he is not acting, he knows all of these and that is Vidyut!” continued Andhare. He stated that a global casting agency was searching the world and for them to have found this gem in India was something to be proud about.

Jammwal, dressed in all-white, walked onto the stage amidst cries of “Vidyut! Vidyut!” The actor stated, “I think I worked all my life—from the age of 3—to get into this movie! Sahi kehta hain na, mehnat karte raho, jo milna hoga pahunch hi jaayega (What they say is correct—keep working hard and what you deserve will come to you)!”

Describing the experience as one of a kind, he said, “I was lucky to be surrounded by 11 of the legends in the world. And with great pride I can tell you that they believe every Indian man is like me!”

In reply to my question about how Dhalsim, whose original character can extend his limbs and breathe fire, was handled in the movie and how much VFX was involved, Jammwal said, “I have been telling this to people that the movie is not meant only for gamers. What you will see on screen is exactly what you see in the game—how they look, how they fight, and what is their temperament. And this is what will work in India, impossible things done with VFX or green screen in such a way that it will all look realistic, like how we see Hanuman-ji flying holding a mountain, and we believe that is possible.”

My second question pertained to differences between working styles in India and in Hollywood. “There are major differences, really major ones, and that is not about budgets, which is also is true, of course. But what I found was the massive sense of discipline! For the first time, I saw 300 people on set following strict discipline. Over there, an actor does not know what coming late means. He is under contract and he just has to be there. There is no concept of “Main late ho gaya (I am late today)!’  Even if you are just a minute late, you can get a call asking whether you are in hospital!”

He went on, “The laws are so strict there. If you work overtime, each technician is compensated for every minute that he works extra. They thus wait to do overtime! We can get better, but we will take a while to get there!”

Jammwal, who then practiced the Patanjali Yoga for over 10 minutes live on stage, standing still without even the blink of an eye. He teaches this meditation technique now to students, and his inspiring message to them is to stop somewhere and relax in their mad race to get somewhere.

Street Fighter, directed by Kitao Sakurai, also stars Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Joe ‘Roman Reigns’ Anoa’I, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Andrew Schulz, Eric André, Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, Jason Momoa, Orville Peck, Olivier Richters, Hirooki Goto, Mel Jarnson, Rayna Vallandingham and Alexander Volkanovski.

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