News Entertainment Bollywood What? Salman Khan’s ‘Sultan’ was initially titled ‘Dangal’, confesses director

What? Salman Khan’s ‘Sultan’ was initially titled ‘Dangal’, confesses director

New Delhi: Salman Khan’s upcoming movie ‘Sultan’ has been one of the most anticipated movies of the year. The movie has bagged a lot of attention for its plot, Salman’s looks, the lead actress and

Salman Khan in Sultan, Dangal poster Salman Khan in Sultan, Dangal poster

New Delhi: Salman Khan’s upcoming movie ‘Sultan’ has been one of the most anticipated movies of the year.

The movie has bagged a lot of attention for its plot, Salman’s looks, the lead actress and much more.

However, what else has created a buzz about ‘Sultan’ was its resemblance with Aamir Khan’s ‘Dangal’.  

Both the movies revolve around wrestling with Salman and Aamir playing the roles of wrestlers. Though the superstars have claimed both the movies are entirely different, ‘Sultan’ director Ali Abbas Zafar admits that there is an uncanny resemblance in both movies.

During a recent interview Ali confessed that he had titled the first draft of ‘Sultan’ as ‘Dangal’.

“It’s bizarre when I wrote this script, I had no idea that there was any other film that was ever going to get made on wrestling. I wrote this film in 2012, it’s almost four years since. And I can tell you now that the first draft of Sultan was called Dangal. The first 10 pages, which I mailed to Adi, was titled Dangal,” Abbas told a leading daily.

He explained the reason for choosing Dangal as the title saying, “Dangal means a wrestling competition. When I travelled in Haryana for research in 2012, I would ask people about the matches and they would say, ‘Aaj dangal chaupal pe hai, aaj dangal nadi ke paas hai.’ I just thought ek jo charm tha uss title ka, bahut honest charm tha.”

However, Ali later confessed that Sultan turned out to be a better title for the Salman Khan starrer, “Yes, because the character was called Sultan, but the journey was about fighting within. Also, the title Sultan was not with us. It was with Ramesh Taurani, and I thought, ‘Yaar, agar nahi milalega toh kya karenge?’ But Taurani gave the title rights up for Salman’s sake.”

Also starring Anushka Sharma in the lead role, Salman Khan’s ‘Sultan’ is all set to hit the screens on Eid this year.