Arjun Rampal, who was last seen in Daddy, is back with JP Dutta's war film, Paltan. The film is based on 1967 Indo-China War, and has an ensemble cast of Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Harshvardhan Rane, Gurmeet Choudhary, Luv Sinha and Siddhanth Kapoor, amongst others. In an interaction with mid-day online, the 45-year-old actor speaks about his absence from the big screen, experience working on a war-drama, and his upcoming projects. The film released on September 7.

You play Colonel Rai Singh in the film. So, what was the information you gathered as your prep for Paltan?
When you are playing a true character, you have to know everything about him. Lieutenant Rai Singh was under the British Army and was trained under them. This was during the pre-independence period. He's a strategist and also did a stint in England while on training. All those skills he would come and teach the soldiers back home because we had an arrangement with them. So, that we used to do with the British Army. My maternal grandfather was also under the British Army and fought World War 2, after which, he went to England. He fought the war in Indonesia and that's where he met my grandmom (laughs). Rai Singh was the kind of officer who led from the front. He would not be like the usual officers, who would sit in the bunker. They are warned not to go on the field but he had the kind of attitude, 'Why would I sit in the bunker?'