The press screening for Ikka took place a few days ago at Sunny Super Sound, Juhu. It is named after its owner, Sunny Deol, who was also the lead in the legal drama. As the show got over in the evening and the credits were rolling, one was just beginning to think whether to wait for everyone else to filter out and then leave, or wait a bit. At this moment, to my right on the aisle, I watched a bulky figure walk by in a checked full-sleeve shirt, wearing a cap and dark glasses. The reason I couldn’t instantly recognise Sunny paaji was probably because of his new clean shaven look, while for the last two hours we had seen him as a bearded high-profile lawyer. Later, he even joked about that fact, saying how today everything has become about the ‘look’ of the actor, with acting being forgotten.
Sunny walked up to the screen and then faced us. A few media folks started conversing with him by stating how much the film reminded them of Damini (1993), something which I didn’t agree with. In fact, my opinion was that he seemed a bit caricaturish in Ikka, even though I enjoyed his selected outbursts, something which we’ve come to associate him with. Then one of the journalists mentioned something which made me realise why Sunny seemed familiar when he entered, but at the same time unrecognisable. He was looking very much like Dharmendra, even in the way he was walking and the way his hands were moving. Then someone else asked him whether his name would always come as ‘Dharmendra’s son, Sunny Deol’, as it had appeared during Ikka’s credits, a practice which had started during Border 2 to honour his late father’s cinematic legacy.
But talking about Sunny, he was low-key and soft-spoken, which, for those who are aware, is a Sunny quality. Even his replies he kept simple. Like when someone went a bit overboard in praising him, he replied by saying that all he was doing was his work. Others too kept saying how the film would do ‘very well’, to which he replied that he is among those actors who don’t talk much about a film till it actually starts doing well, making me and the others laugh out loud again. A bit later, he left as the next screening was held for him, the rest of the cast, and their family members.
Next up for him is the partition drama Batwara 1947, releasing on August 14, post which there is Ramayana Part 1 (Diwali 2026), Gabru (2026/2027), and Jaat 2 (2027). Sunny times ahead!
