Bollywood superstar Salman Khan is back in his shirtless, action-star avatar with Race 3 but the actor says the stakes are higher this time as they have tried to keep the stunts realistic yet high octane. "It's tricky (to get the action right). Sometimes, you go overboard and when you go realistic, they (audience) prefer the earlier films' action... So we needed to be careful.
"Action has to look genuine, believable. It can't look farcical and we can't make you laugh. Physically also, it's a lot of strain and hard work. If you don't look the part, physically and end up doing unbelievable action, then people laugh at you," Salman said in a group interview here.
The 52-year-old actor said it is easy to use special effects for action sequences but they decided against it as they wanted them to be believable, even when they were blowing up expensive cars.
"Tom Struthers is the guys who had done action for 'Tiger Zinda Hai' but he's also done action for Christopher Nolan films like 'Dunkirk' and the 'Batman' series. While we were shooting, they saw it and said, 'We've shot for so many blockbusters, but we have never seen somebody go ahead and destroy these many cars'.
"All the action in the film is not dinky cars, or special effects blowing up, we blew up pretty much that we bought. It is very real and all the cars too. They aren't special effect cars, these are the cars we bought," he said.
The film will also see Jacqueline Fernandez and Daisy Shah doing action sequences.
"The kicks they have given are lethal. They have really, really trained for it. Both of them - stretching and kicking and all that stuff. They have done that. It looks like two men fighting and it also has its humour and slight sensuousness. It can't be this hardcore action, so it has everything," Salman added.
When asked if he would like to make women-centric action films, the superstar said the budget should be right for it.
"It depends on the script... What the casting is. If there is action and if you can manage to make the film in a budget, sell the digital and satellite rights so later on, the film covers its cost. The math has to be right. Action costs a lot of money, it needs to stand out and look good, otherwise it looks tacky."
Salman is the new entrant in the "Race" franchise that was earlier headlined by Saif Ali Khan.
"This part of 'Race' is slightly different to the earlier two ones. It is 'Race' with 'Hum Aapke Hai Kaun!' This guy is very sharp, has humour, is ruthless and he has suppressed all his emotions so you don't know who this man is till the end of the film."
With "Race 3" Salman has turned distributor and he says the makers plan to release the film in China, that is seen as a huge market for Indian movies.
"We need to increase our number of theatres. Right now we are surviving on 5,500 screens whereas China has 38,000-40,000 theatres. Once our theatres increase, we would be at par with China and Hollywood. We are doing exceptionally well in the limited screens we have, just imagine what if we will have 10,000-15,000 theatres in five years. It will happen."
The superstar is happy that "Race 3" will be releasing in Pakistan.
Also starring Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Saqib Saleem, Freddy Daruwala the action thriller will arrive in theatres on June 15.
(With PTI Inputs)
