The quartet’s repartee was the highlight of a trailer launch, which also had Katrina Kaif and Karan Johar in attendance
Akash Bhatnagar (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 3, 2020)

On Monday, Rohit Shetty rounded up Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh for the trailer launch of the Akshay Kumar-led Sooryavanshi, the latest entrant in the filmmaker’s cop universe. Save for leading lady Katrina Kaif, who was in attendance with producers Karan Johar and Sibashish Sarkar, the team arrived in t-shirts announcing ‘Aa Rahi Hai Police’.

Ranveer, who arrived 40 minutes late and was ragged by Akshay for keeping his senior colleagues waiting, was the self-appointed hype man for the occasion. When he smeared lip-balm across his lips before planting a peck on Ajay’s cheek, the latter dead-panned, “If you wanted to do something for us, you should have showed up on time.” When asked if Ranveer, who has a guest turn in the film as Simmba alongside Ajay’s Singham, reported late on the sets as well, the Khiladi Kumar chuckled, saying, “He’d come early and wake me up at 7 am, when I’d tell him that I wake up at 4, and was lying down after my exercise.” Ajay quipped, “By the time we wake up, Akshay has finished making a movie. Since he’s an early riser, I’d ask him, ‘Tu doodh wala hai kya?’”

Meanwhile, Mr Khiladi revealed that he was supposed to debut with Phool Aur Kaante, but Ajay “snatched it away” from him. Akshay kept up the cheeky tone of the event when someone enquired why more multi-starrers aren’t being made these days. “There was Rajkumar Kohli, a director in our time, who made amazing multistarrers. His last film was Jaani Dushman, I think he should return,” the 52-year-old actor joked. “It had seven heroes, you should think about it,” he nudged Rohit, alluding to the filmmaker’s plans of remaking Satte Pe Satta.

When prodded on his recent donation of Rs 1.5 crore towards building a shelter for the transgender community, Ranveer swooped in before Akshay could answer, saying, “He’s donating me a helicopter after this film.” Ajay cautioned, “You’ll get traffic up there too.” Their colleague revealed that after shooting a particular scene, he’s become a fan of Katrina’s acting. When Ajay interjected, “You didn’t like her acting before?” Akshay instantly quipped, “No, I was a fan of her beauty before this, but now of her acting as well.”

Karan hailed Rohit as “a bonafide superstar”, who reciprocated by joking that with Sooryavanshi, Karan will be revealed as the next cop in his universe. Never short of words, Ranveer added that KJo’s cop uniform would be branded, which made Katrina laugh so hard she had to lean on Karan for support. “It’s my lucky day. She’s the only girl who has fallen on me,” the filmmaker joked. Rohit then revealed that the cutest thing in the film is Ajay’s dance.

The event ended on an unexpected note. When asked about reports that he was upset with Saif Ali Khan, who said, “There’s an idea there that seems to have caught on, but certainly a dangerous idea”, on their last film together, Tanhaji, Ajay feigned anger, saying, “Yeah. I went to his house, beat him up and broke his legs. He can’t even walk anymore.”