Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; January 16, 2017)

The greatest welcome ever — that’s how Hollywood director D J Caruso defined his India reception as soon as he landed here for the premiere of XXX: Return of Xander Cage last week with actors Vin Diesel and Deepika Padukone.

Much like Vin, the filmmaker was all praise for his actress, saying that he was familiar with Dippy’s work in Bollywood. When we asked him to name his favourite Deepika film, Caruso struggled for a while before coming up with ‘Pinku’. Seconds later, he shook his head and said, “No, it was Piku. It was amazing, and had so many emotions. The gentleman, who played her father (referring to Amitabh Bachchan), was simply outstanding. I have seen his previous works too, but wasn’t aware that he is still in the business. I’d love to make a movie with him.”

Caruso sounded equally gung-ho about casting Deepika’s rumoured boyfriend, Ranveer Singh, who was spotted on the XXX set last year. “He is always full of energy. He hung out on the sets for a few days and that definitely made things better for Deepika since, I guess, she was missing home. He befriended so many people [who were part of the unit]. It would be fantastic to cast them [Deepika and Ranveer] together in a Hollywood film,” he added.

Buzz is a sequel to the new XXX film will kick off this May with Vin and Deepika. Ask him if there is room for Ranveer and Caruso says, “Who knows, if something interesting comes up, I would definitely look at approaching him.”