Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; January 10, 2018)

Harking back to the good old days of Bollywood, director Indra Kumar organised a mahurat shot for his upcoming film, Total Dhamaal, at Film City in Mumbai yesterday. Madhuri Dixit-Nene, who reunites with Anil Kapoor after 18 years in the comic caper, says she was thrilled to see the age-old practice being revived. In what was a perfect reunion for Dixit and Kumar, their Dil (1990) leading actor Aamir Khan gave the mahurat clap for Total Dhamaal that also stars Ajay Devgn.

“It was like a flashback to the ’90s when the mahurat of a film was a big thing,” smiles Dixit before adding, “Stars used to come for mahurat claps and the actors [of the project] would enact a scene from the script. These things don’t happen these days.”

The actor says that the event took the 90’s quartet back in time. “After Aamir gave the clap, we all performed a scene. Post that, Aamir, Ajay, Anil and I were reminiscing about the early days of our career. It was fun to reconnect with everyone,” she beams.

Besides the incentive of working with a director who has been behind some of her biggest successes, Dixit says her enthusiasm to explore comedy made her give a nod to the third instalment of the Dhamaal franchise. “Comedy is one genre that I was missing. The idea of teaming up with Anil Kapoor after so many years [was another reason]. It has always been fun working with him, and this time around, it is with Indra Kumar who has given me three of my career’s biggest hits [Dil, Beta and Raja].”