Shaad Ali (MID-DAY; December 27, 2017)

Going by his recent outings, success has been eluding director Shaad Ali. His Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur-starrer, Ok Jaanu, did not light up the box office. Neither did Kill Dil (2014), which featured Ranveer Singh and Govinda. The director is currently filming Soorma, based on the life of Indian hockey star Sandeep Singh, starring Diljit Dosanjh. When mid-day caught up with him at a hockey stadium in Chandigarh, Ali said he wants to start afresh. Set to work on a biopic for the first time, the director reveals, “I don’t want to limit myself. I am interested in all kinds of subjects.”

When he debuted with Saathiya (2002) , followed by the Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji-starrer Bunty Aur Babli (2005), Ali was hailed as the new-age director. But after Jhoom Barabar Jhoom in 2007, he wielded the directorial baton again only seven years later. Ali says he has learnt from his mistakes. “I am human. What does one do when he is hurt? Apply an ointment, tie a bandage and wait for the wound to heal. I have done the same thing. Time is a great healer. I hope things work out for the better now.”

Besides The Humma Song, nothing worked for Ok Jaanu, which was a remake of Mani Ratnam’s Tamil film, O Kadhal Kanmani (2015). Ali says he doesn’t know what went wrong. But with Kill Dil, he admits that he went off track. “The screenplay went awry. It proved to be cancerous. I realised that the balance was not right before the release itself.”

Ali has pinned his hopes on Soorma, which is about the tribulations in the life of a sportsman. The director says he is not making the movie with the intention of popularizing the sport. “But if it does, I’d be more than happy. I play, follow and love hockey."