MUMBAI:

Gone are the days when a diminutive Salman Khan was shown beating a baddie twice his size. The fights now are among equals.

For the climactic battle in Apoorva Lakhia’s Mission Istanbul, the reed-thin Zayed Khan put on 11 kg and weighed 75 kg for the first time in his life. All because he had to take on the movie’s bad man Niketan Dheer, who was 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 86 kg.

He was excited when he was told about the climactic situation and requirement. Director Lakhia has pushed him to the limit. “Two days before the climactic scene was to be shot, he gave me the picture of a guy, who was 6 feet 4 inches and built like a rock. With a straight face, he told me I had to fight this guy and had to look sinewy enough to look like his adversary. I thought Apoorva was joking. Since I played a journalist in the film, I wondered why I needed to do this. But my director was firm,” he said. — HNS