Key Points

Mukesh essays the role of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, a cruel Pakistani dictator in the series. The actor recently spoke with IANS during the promotions of ‘Salakaar’, and shared how he infused cruelty in the character.

He told IANS, “When you have this kind of character, a lot of things automatically come in your favour. The look the makers gave me, the kurta that the costume designer gave me, when you have this kind of character, it starts forming inside you”.

He further mentioned, “That is why you are in films because you understand so much how cruel the character has to be, for that we follow the orders from the director. The words you are being told as an actor, it helps to sketch and portray the character for the camera. If the director tells me to tone down the pitch of the character by a few degrees, I do that. It becomes easy. Many times your get-up, the environment in which you perform. The car in which the director made me sit. The scene inside my house, the books Zia read, the whole environment took me there, I didn't have to do much. The lines on paper were telling me”.

Zia-ul-Haq is the bedrock of most of India’s problems, he was the one, who gave a definitive form to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s plan of “Bleed India by thousand cuts”, a thousand year war declared against India for Pakistan’s own interest.

Later, Zia got Zulfikar Ali Bhutto framed in a case, and got death penalty approved for him through hand-picked judges.

- IANS