For actor Sanjay Suri, shooting in Kashmir for the forthcoming movie ‘Sikandar’ was like getting back to his roots which were abandoned several years ago. Reason, his father was killed by militants, after which the former top model migrated to Delhi with his family. All this happened while he was a teenager of 19.

Born in Srinagar, Suri was never able to forget the wonderful days he spent as a child and then as a teenager in the beautiful terrains of the state. But all these years he just kept away from Kashmir for fear of thoughts from the past haunting him.

Sanjay says “It was hard for me to go back to the place and shoot there because of emotional reasons. That’s why I kept delaying the shooting of the film. But once I was there I felt nice”. Seems it was because of Sanjay, the entire unit of ‘Sikandar’ directed by Piyush Jha became more comfortable.

Sanjay since he grew up in Kashmir knows Kashmiri culture inside out, everyone looked up to Sanjay if they wanted to know anything about the local food, the ways of speaking and for visiting the popular places in the state. After 18 years Sanjay was once again was able to visit the locality where he stayed hangout at places where he used to be as a youngster, thanks to ‘Sikander’.

In ‘Sikander’, Sanjay plays a character named Mukhtaar Matoo who is a transformed terrorist leader. R,Madhavan is also in cast along with child artists Ayesha Kapur and Parzaan Dastur.

The film hit theatres in April.