Salman Khan gave Hanuman different dimension, says director

Mumbai, April 28 (IANS) The character Hanuman has a little swag of superstar Salman Khan, who gave it a different dimension in "Hanuman Da Damdaar", says the forthcoming animated film's director Ruchi Narain.

Salman has done a voice-over for the first time for an animated character.

How did he approach a children's film based on Hanuman's character?

Narain told IANS here: "When I went to him with the story, he reacted like, 'What is this Da Dumdaar?' but as I started narrating the story, I think he liked it. So, he did it."

"He was very involved. He listened to the story three to four times to get the character, speaking style and everything right. So as an audience, when we watch the film, one can see a little swag of Salman Khan in Hanuman's character. He gave the character a different dimension."

The film will also feature the voices of actors like Raveena Tandon, Vinay Pathak and Kunal Kemmu, apart from celebrated lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar.

Narain said in the beginning, most of the actors were a little unsure about the potential of the film.

"I don't blame them as most of the time, Indian animated films don't match high quality and content. At times, animation films are quite silly. So, people have a notion that animation films, which are for kids have no good stories, with half baked characters. In this film, I attempted to get that correct," said the director.

"Hanuman Da Damdaar" is set to release on May 19.