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Pavan Raj Malhotra forthcoming release ‘Zorawar’ ft. Zorawar Singh (Honey Singh)

Zorawar is the story of the emotional journey of a young Indian soldier, Special Agent Zorawar Singh (Honey Singh) and his search for his long-lost father.

Zorawar is an upcoming comedy Punjabi action film directed by Vinnil Markan who lauds his team’s endeavor and the ‘blood, sweat, grit and determination’ they invested.

Once thought to be dead, Zorawar traces his father to Durban and flies into the city to try and resolve the mystery. Pavan Raj Malhotra plays the pivotal role of a police inspector who helps Zorawar take revenge on his father by leading him to Durban

The film additionally features musical artist Yo Yo Honey Singh in the titular character, along with actresses Gurbani Judge and Parul Gulati. The screenplay: is by Sagar Pandya, the music director: is Yo Yo Honey Singh, Rockstar Babar, and the producers are Rajiee M. Shinde, Rabindra Narayan and Rakesh Maharaj.

Pavan Raj Malhotra, an unassuming, modest luminary of the Indian small and silver screen, enjoys to his credit a prodigious body of work. He enjoys instant recognition, born out of stellar performances as the simpleton Hari in “Nukkad”, Ghunuram in “Bagh Bahadur”, Salim of “Salim Langde Par Mat Ro”, Tiger Memon in “Black Friday”, the benevolent coach in “Bhag Milkha Bhag”,. In the south, for his performance in the Telugu film “Aithe” (2003), the British film, “Brothers in Trouble”, that enjoyed eminence at the London Film Festival, as also at the Berlin and San Francisco Film Festivals. Other films that quickly followed included, “Antarnaad” (1991), “Tarpan” (The Absolution) (1995), “Pardes” (1997) and “Earth” (1998). Several prestigious awards, naturally made their way to Pavan Raj Malhotra’s repertoire over the years.

Pavan Raj Malhotra imbibed the critical pillars of his character namely discipline, dedication, commitment and hard work from his father – a strict disciplinarian, who ran a successful machine tools business. It was expected of Pavan, that he would take up the reins of the family business, however his innate interest lay in observing people and decoding their behavior and mannerisms, a habit he found very fundamental to his renditions as an actor in later years.

At school, Pavan Raj Malhotra was a very keen participant in dramatics and other co-curricular activities. Later, in Hansraj college, he performed in various plays and street plays and won the very prestigious Fine Art College Colour honour, also receiving the award for Best Actor for a college play at the BITS, Pilani Festival.

Thereafter, he joined Faizal Alkazi’s theatre group Ruchika. Thereafter he discovered Mandi House and National School of Drama (NSD). Street plays followed in 1982, Pavan Raj Malhotra’s destiny carried him to Bombay, where he took part in the play, “Ek Ruka Hua Faisla”. When Richard Attenborough began shooting for “Gandhi” in Delhi, twenty one years old Pavan Raj Malhotra found himself assisting in the wardrobe department, earning Rs.100/- per day. Thereafter, he worked hands-on with directors like Kundan Shah, Aziz Mirza, Sudhir Mishra, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Saeed Mirza in lead roles of production and wardrobe styling, when he desperately wanted to move to the front of the camera. Pavan Raj Malhotra recalls, “Organising khaana for 30 people at Rs.250/- was a very trying experience.” He also worked as a behind the scene assistant on the sets of “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron”, “Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho” and “Khamosh”. Suddenly in 1985, he was out of work and he recalls touching possibly the worst time in his life. Then, “Nukkad” happened and everything changed.

Close on the heels of the success of “Nukkad” arrived several TV serials offers like “Intezar”, “Manoranjan”, “Circus”, “Yeh Gulistan Hamara” and “Goongi Tarikh” that gave Pavan Raj Malhotra a foothold in the medium. Pavan Raj Malhotra’s role of the angry under-world leader, Salim in “Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro”, impressed custodians of Indian cinema and veteran filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta selected him to play Gunuram in his National Award winning film “Bagh Bahadur”. These were quickly followed by K. Bikram Singh’s “Tarpan” opposite Revathy and Dev Anand’s “Sau Crore”. Serials including “Ujale Ke Ore”, “Love Stories”, “Zameen Aasmaan”, “Kirdan”, “Ek Kahani Aur Mili”, “Lahu Ke Phool”, “Akanksha”, “9 Malabar Hill”, “Ghaav” and “Ret Pe Likhe Naam”. These firmly entrenched him in audience mind as a powerful character actor. His body of work is impressive, with a host of no-nonsense roles. He’s played everything – from a roadside gangster in the critically acclaimed “Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro” and an underworld don in “Black Friday” to Kareena Kapoor’s uncle in “Jab We Met” and Farhan Akhtar’s coach in “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”.

With such variety behind him, he can still surprise the audience with his versatility. Pavan Raj Malhotra works with a few definite beliefs that include, “you have to learn to be a good actor. The main thing, however, is to feel it in you. Otherwise, the emotion is not reflected in your eyes. The body language is also very important”. Pavan Raj Malhotra believes more in the quality of work than in quantity. There is always a high expectation of the quality of Pavan Raj Malhotra’s on screen presentations and mediocre is never a term that features around him. Another fulcrum of his success rests on his mantra, that unless and until a role excites an artise, he can’t do justice to it. A perfectionist and a pure Punjabi, the versatile actor’s strength lies in his playing every role as if it were his last and giving credit to the Almighty for his achievements. He takes his image as an alternative actor seriously and has for long been regarded to be a “thinking actor”, who works with an inner freedom believing for instance, that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The secret of his success lies in living and breathing the characters portrayed, winning national awards and audience appreciation.

Some of Pavan Raj Malhotra’s other notable performances include “De Taali” (2008), “Delhi-6” (2009), “Road to Sangam” (2010) and “Badmaash Company” (2010). His role of a religious head trying to make a political fortune out of a strife in “Road to Sangam” highlighted his immense potential as an actor. His commercially successful films include “Shaitan” (2011), “Bhindi Bazaar” (2011), “Ek Thi Daayan” (2013) and “Bang Bang” (2014).

A few of the awards won by Pavan Raj Malhotra include the BAFTA Award for “Bagh Bahadur” (Bengali) – 1990, National Award for “Fakir” (Hindi) – 1998, Nandi Award for Best Villian - “Aithe” (Telugu) – 2003, Filmfare Best Villain Award (Telugu) “Aithe” – 2003,, Dainik Jagran Award for Best Actor for “Children of War” - 1984, Dada Saheb Fhalke Film Festival Award for Best Character Actor in “Children of War” and last but not the least at St. Tropez International Film Festival, France the Best Actor Award in a foreign language film.

Pavan Raj Malhotra’s recent films of prominence include “Punjab 1984” (2014), “Children of War” (2014) and the biopic, “Aye Janam Tumhare Leke” (2015) based on the life of Bhagat Pooran Singh the founder of the Pingalwara movement.

For Pavan Raj Malhotra, the next few months are busy with a series of films on the floor and shortly ready for release. These include “Zorawar”, “Gelo” and “Once Upon a Time in Amritsar”. The canvas for the enormously talented Pavan Raj Malhotra is immense and his loyalists can expect to view a few stellar performances from him in the months to follow.