Enlarge Image
Ajay Devgn calls Shivaay a risky shoot, but insists he was prepared for it
Upala KBR (DNA; August 11, 2016)

A bearded Ajay Devgn comes striding into the lounge of the hotel in Indore. His biggest fan club in the city has organised the trailer launch in the city for him. The actor has flown in from Chandigarh after visiting the Wagah border. He esplains his facial fuzz, “I just haven’t had the time to shave, between editing Shivaay and starting work on promotions.” He’s not just the producer of the film but also the actor and director. His friends say the star has been locked up in the edit studio, eating, breathing and living Shivaay. The trailer has got him some excellent responses. We sit down for a short and snappy chat.

Explain the unique title: Shivaay.
It suits my character. It’s my name in the film. Shiva is the only God who is like a human being, Otherwise, all Gods are portrayed as perfect. Shiva has flaws – he gets intoxicated, smokes up, he gets mad... But he can be fooled, can reconnect — and that’s the human being of today. Though my character is a Shiv bhakt, I haven’t shown him praying or doing anything overtly religious.

Why Bulgaria?
In Bulgaria, the locations are tough, but there is access and infrastructure. If that kind of infrastructure was there at Mt Everest, I would have shot there, but there isn’t. Wahan pahunch kaisa sakta hai aadmi? Aayega jayega kaise? Toh problem hota hai bahut. Then there is -25 degree temperature in Bulgaria and we could get the right kind of equipment there. How would I save my unit if we didn’t have the proper shoes and jackets for -30 degree, freezing cold weather? It was a very risky shoot, but we were prepared for it and hats off to my unit. They stood there and made sure we completed the shoot.

The cold must have posed it’s own problems.
I got hypothermia once, but except for that incident, everybody was fine. We had doctors and ambulances on the sets. I was lucky to get some good weather there. If I was supposed to shoot for 60 days and I had light only from 9 am to 4pm, they said that the weather would be bad. I said it won’t be and true enough, whenever I would walk out of the hotel to shoot, the weather would be perfect with bright sunshine. We had kept buffers in planning to compensate, in case the weather changed, but we never needed those. For a 60-day shoot, we shot the film in 40 days and completed it before time.

Your trailer doesn’t reveal the story. Comment.
We want to create intrigue. That’s what people are talking out. My cousin said that “It’s so intriguing I want to know what’s coming next!” And this suspense will be there until the release. It’s not about the story, but about the screenplay. I want people to go and see the screenplay too. I am very lucky to also get the right kind of casting in Erika Kaar, Sayyeshaa and the little girl Abigail Eames. I would call the film an action-emotion-drama. My action is real, not unnecessary flying or hitting. In the trailer, when you see the expression on my face, it’s of pain when I am hitting people.

You haven’t revealed the villain in the trailer.
Yes, it’s a deliberate strategy to keep the suspense and intrigue intact. The villain is something we want to keep a secret till the very last minute — till the Friday the film releases. I know it’s unusual, but we don’t want to reveal the villain’s identity of the film. Every trailer released will keep the people guessing as there are lots of twists and turns in the film.