Dwayne Johnson at the G.I. JOE: RETALIATION - Red carpet movie premiere, at Event Cinemas, Sydney, Australia 2013. (Eva Rinaldi | Wikimedia Commons)
Dwayne Johnson at the G.I. JOE: RETALIATION – Red carpet movie premiere, at Event Cinemas, Sydney, Australia 2013. (Eva Rinaldi | Wikimedia Commons)

WWE wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson’s next “San Andreas” hit theatres, May 29, in English and Hindi. The American action-adventure disaster film directed by Brad Peyton, also stars Indian-origin actress Archie Panjabi. A PTI report.

The film releases very close to the devastating earthquake in Nepal, which happened on April 25.

When asked if there was ever a discussion internally about whether it would seem insensitive to sell a movie about a tragedy that has rendered so many people homeless and dead so recently, Johnson said, “We made the movie knowing and understanding the context — The world we live in and life we have today. These things happen. It was incredibly unfortunate.

“Prayers and thoughts continue to go out to everybody in Nepal and everybody who was affected by that event. But the truth is you go into a project like this with everything you have got and your heart and your soul, and you just want to make a good movie, and, again, you understand the context,” the 43-year-old actor said.

Peyton said that the movie doesn’t make light of these things, because the cast and crew realize there are real world implications to an earthquake.

“I am sensitive to people that have been through tragedies. The movie is really meant to entertain you … Bad things happen. But the most important thing is how you come together with the people that you love to get back up and move on. That is really what the movie is about,” the filmmaker said in a statement.

Talking about her experiences while facing an emergency situation, Panjabi said until she came to America, she hadn’t really been through any disasters.

“And then, as soon as I moved to New York, I experienced a hurricane. And then Hurricane Sandy hit me in quite a big way. I had twelve days without any electricity, any water, and you start asking deeper profound questions — how powerful Mother Nature is, how short life is, how grateful we should be for things,” the actress said.