Sunny Deol: Technology is destroying humanity

During a group interview for Batwara 1947, The Free Press Journal asked Sunny Deol his views on social media and technology

Kabir Singh Bhandari

Late on Tuesday evening, Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta and Rajkumar Santoshi sat with the media to discuss their upcoming partition drama Batwara 1947. During the interaction, The Free Press Journal asked Sunny Deol his views on social media and technology.  Specifically, the fact that he is one of the OG action heroes and is introverted and shy, so what advice would he give to upcoming actors who are also introverts, but have to compete in age where social media presence seems to overshadow a lot. 

Sunny, who was in a jovial and refreshingly talkative mood, gave us an unexpectedly detailed answer.

Struggle after Gadar

“I think an actor should never be an extra smart person, because then they won’t know how to do those scenes in a movie when you’re supposed to portray a normal person. And as far as this whole social media scene is concerned, I feel its become so difficult nowadays. Also, I feel sad when I meet certain people who have worked with me in a film and then they come and meet me again, asking for work, my heart goes out to them. I really wish I could do something for them but I can’t. So you just have to carry on going ahead with whatever you have. It’s your own decision which you have to take. Like my dad, when he came from Punjab, he came after leaving everything behind. There were times when he wanted to go back when he wasn’t getting work. Somehow something clicked. As fas as I am concerned, after giving a massive hit like Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), I was still struggling. I don’t know why it is like that. That’s a reality and we have to just go through it. If you’re lucky enough, things will work out,” Sunny replied. 

“Technology is destroying humanity. It all started off by connecting humanity, but technology needs to be used in a proper way and somehow that’s not what is happening. The new generation have all this technology at their disposal and for them its like a game, they don’t realise the damage it’s causing. There will be a time when they will realise it but it will always be too late. God bless them,” he added.

Preity, who was at her chirpy best, also pitched in. “I think today is a very tough time for young kids. Like we got bullied in school, by maybe, 10 people. Today on the internet, there are 10 million people who might come after you. And the internet will survive all of us.”

When Sunny shouted at Preity

She als o recalled some interesting anecdotes about the Deol brothers, like how the first time she ever saw an Apple computer was when Sunny had one, around 1999. He was probably editing on it or something she said. Preity also joked about how she had once called to talk to Bobby late at night during the landline phone era, and Sunny had picked up the phone. “Ye bhi koi time hai call karne ka!”, he had shouted into the phone. Preity said she was shaken from the experience, and actually wrote down in her personal diary how she had gotten shouted at by none other than Sunny Deol. 

Batwara 1947, directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and produced by Aamir Khan Productions, releases on August 14.