Mega-star Salman Khan who will celebrate his birthday this Tuesday ( 27th Dec), pleasantly shocked his ardent fans, when his favorite director Kabir Khan finalized pretty Chinese actress Zhu Zhu to play the lead in his current movie ‘Tubelight’ . Which has the Indo-Chinese ’62 war backdrop with Salman being romantically paired opposite Zhu Zhu. Incidentally, she was born in a military family in Beijing.
“The script warranted an authentic Chinese heroine and I did not wish to compromise by casting a mainstream Bollywood heroine or a North East Indian leading lady, “ justifies director Kabir who had been shooting non-stop with his lead cast on the breathtaking locales of Ladakh and Manali and later in Mumbai has just ‘wrapped up’ all the portions of the heroine.
The vivacious MTV China VJ-singer-turned lead actress apparently loves Indian culture, Hindi film music and had been religiously learning to speak in Hindi, before she bid goodbye to India. Besides various Chinese films including ‘What Women Want’, internationally known Zhu Zhu, labeled as the ‘natural beauty’ has acted in American movies as well including ‘ The Man With The Iron Fists’ .
Quipped a source connected with the production, who preferred anonymity, ‘ Since Indians are so fond of Chinese food, they would surely connect with a stunning Chinese heroine as well’. Historically, one recalls the landmark patriotic musical movie made against the Sino-Indian war backdrop titled ‘Haqeeqat’ (1964), directed by Chetan Anand which had Dharmendra romancing Priya Rajvansh.