It says a lot when Jackie Shroff exudes the maximum swag in a room that also has Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra. Dressed in denims and boots and carrying a cross-body bag that says ‘Peace of Mind’, the 58-year-old spoke to t2 in Mumbai recently on Brothers and son Tiger Shroff.

We haven’t seen you in Calcutta for a while now…

Long time, long time. It’s been some time since a good film has come from Calcutta for me. I am waiting (smiles). I loved working in Bengali films… it was superb ya, lovely. I had a blast working with Rituda (Rituparno Ghosh in Antarmahal). So easy… so beautiful. He was a master. You guys have Soumitrada (Chatterjee)… what a man… what an actor. Satyajit Ray… Mrinalda (Sen)… Suchitra Maa (Sen). I wish I could work there all the time!

Brothers is one of the bigger films you’ve worked in in recent times. What made it special?

I am used to big production houses. I have worked with Subhash Ghai, Yash Chopra…. While working on this film, I developed an emotional bond I haven’t felt in any other film. These are all young people whose fathers I have worked with (smiles). These children gave me so much love. Karan (Johar) gave me all the respect and affection that his father (Yash) would give me. His dad called me Tiger….

Is that why you named your son Tiger?

(Laughs) No, no… I named him Tiger because as a baby he would claw at my face all the time. He loved pulling my moustache (smiles). Coming back to Karan, he’s given me a role that’s very, very strong. The name of the film is Brothers and it has a very strong emotional connect with me. I lost my brother when I was 10. As a 17-year-old he died trying to save someone else from drowning…. (Pauses) I only felt how much I loved him when I lost him. I am alone now… and as a father in this film, I am trying to ensure that my two sons don’t break each other’s heads. They hate their father….

[At that moment, Jacqueline Fernandez hops over to say ‘bye’ to ‘Jackie Sir’. “Get me a small pack of that Kandy Black Ceylon Tea,” Jackie tells Jacky when he hears she’s leaving for hometown Colombo. “Are you a tea drinker?” Jackie asks me when Jacqueline walks away. When I say ‘no’ he says, “Oh, all you young people drink coffee nowadays. Switch to tea… it’s healthier,” he smiles.]

So you were talking about being  a father in Brothers…

Yes, I am a man whose sons hate him and yet he tries his best to bond them. As a father myself, it’s safely the most emotional film I have done in 34 years of my career. And I have done a lot of emotional roles, mind you… Gardish, Ram-Lakhan, Parinda, Kaash, 1942 (A Love Story)… but I have never been choked with emotion while working on a film as I have been here. I couldn’t breathe in one of the scenes… I just couldn’t take the emotion.

And Akshay and Sidharth are lovely babies. Sid is my son’s age… he’s like a baby to me. Akshay is also like a son… I know him from the time he was an assistant to (photographer) Jayesh Seth and he would come and give me my pictures. From then to now, he’s come so far only on the basis of his hard work. Great chap… lot of respect… he’s the joker on set. In the middle of an emotional scene, he would make us crack up with his jokes. Good to have great kids like them on set.

Tiger has made a name for himself already. You must be very proud…

Very happy, very proud. That he’s doing so well I realise when mothers of little kids point towards me on the road and say: ‘Tiger ka daddy, Tiger ka daddy’ (smiles). It’s such a lovely feeling. It’s then that I realise that my little boy has surpassed me. It’s an emotion that I can’t express.

How did you feel when you saw him on screen for the first time?

Very nervous. He hadn’t even told me that he had signed the film (Heropanti). Then I saw him dance like I had seen no one else dance. I saw him fight without any wires… I was stumped. Then I saw him hold his own in front of a National Award-winning actor like Prakash Raaj and I was so proud.

He is a fantastic football player and he wanted to take it up professionally. But his mother (Ayesha) wanted him to be in films. When he got Heropanti, he did it to make his mom happy (smiles). I have never forced him to do anything… I would have been equally happy if he had taken up football.

Your debut film Hero is being remade. What are your thoughts, especially after Tiger had refused to do the film?

Tiger didn’t want to do it because it’s his father’s film. He didn’t want to be compared. I don’t have a problem if my films are being made again. I have done Devdas (2002) myself. I love the promo of Hero. I like the boy (Sooraj Pancholi). He’s got soft eyes and a hard body. I think he will be fantastic.