“Naseer plays Surya, the Sun God and the father of Karna” – Prakash Jha : Bollywood News

Surya is the Sun God. His followers consider Him to be Brahma in the morning, Vishnu during the day and Shiva at night. He is portrayed sitting on a chariot with seven horses. Surya is pictured with swastika, too, as it is the sign of the sun. Surya represents an independent direction of followers along with the mainstream shakta, shaiva and vaishnava streams. Surya is a Vedic God.

“Naseer plays Surya, the Sun God and the father of Karna” – Prakash Jha

Now you all must be wondering why such a lecture on Surya is being given on a Bollywood portal. Read on! Raajneeti. Rings a bell? The epic, modern day political drama is well inspired by the Mahabharata characters, as we all know by now. Now the question again - Where does Surya fit in? Well, the Sun God is one of the characters in Raajneeti and is portrayed by none other than the maestro himself - Naseeruddin Shah.

Surya is also the father of Karna in the Mahabharata. He conceived him with Kunti, the mother of the eldest three Pandav brothers. And if you must be looking for an answer to the question which goes - Is Naseer saab very much a part of the epic film? The answer would be - Yes, but a cameo. The stalwart received a call from the director Prakash Jha one day while he was conducting some workshop. Prakash Jha quotes, "Yes, I tried to call Naseer but on several occasions, I couldn't get through to him. Then one day, Anjum Rajabali called me and told me that I was dialing the wrong number. I wanted to work with Naseer as I've not worked with him before. And even though the role was small and he only had to give in two days for the shoot for his part, he said 'Yes' without listening to the script."

Jha further quotes, "Naseer didn't even want to read the script after repeated insistence that he should read it. He told me that if the role was small, he didn't want to read it because he trusted my word. As he plays Surya, the Sun God and the father of Karna, if there was one man who could play this part, it only had to be Naseeruddin Shah."

With each passing day, it looks like Raajneeti may well be described in one word 'larger-than-life'.