MUMBAI MIRROR (July 25, 2018)

One look at RSVP’s slate of films makes it clear that their mantra is ‘content is king.’ Ronnie Screwvala’s creative production house firmly believes in telling stories that entertain audiences while also conveying a strong message and their latest film, Yaar Jigri, is no exception to the same.

Directed by debutante, Amit Joshi, the film is about two best friends, Ady and Buddy who find themselves in a sticky situation that spirals out of control. What follows is a crazy road journey filled with a series of unpredictable events.

Set in Delhi against the backdrop of Diwali, Yaar Jigri, through its desi humour, endearing characters and pumping music by Tanishk Bagchi and Rochak Kohli, is all set to take the audience on a heartwarming and thrilling ride where one ends up rooting for both the friends as they really come through for each other despite their imperfections and differences.

The film essays a simple message for today’s youth — we all make mistakes in life, but true character is tested based on how we overcome those mistakes. When things get rough, there is always that one true friend who stands by you no matter what.

Buddy, played by Vikrant Massey, has moved to Delhi from Muzaffarnagar to escape his rowdy, male chauvinist father, who wants him to join the family business. He intentionally fails the MBA exams every year, just to extend his stay in Delhi and be away from his father. Initially shy and reserved, Buddy eventually comes into his own and takes charge of the situation he and his friend are thrown into during this unplanned journey.

“I’m elated to be playing the character of Buddy. It’s probably the first time I’m experimenting with a character like this. To top it all, collaborating with Ronnie Screwvala, Amit Joshi and Sunny Singh (playing Ady) is an exciting prospect. Knowing what we’re getting into, I just can’t wait to start filming,” Vikrant expressed.

Ady, essayed by Sunny Singh, is a carefree MBA graduate who loves being the centre of attention, especially when it comes to women. Post his MBA, Ady gets himself a job at a women’s fashion brand company. His character is street smart and someone who believes that he can easily get out of any difficult situation.

“It’s an honour and pleasure for me as I got an opportunity to associate with Ronnie sir (RSVP films) and Amit Joshi. The first narration I had with Amit for the film was enough to convince me to take it up. With that kind of conviction and vision, I am assured that the film is going to shape up very well. Also, I am looking forward to the character I play, Ady, who is a brat but a good person at heart; I think every guy will relate to Ady as he is careless (towards situations) and caring (towards people) at the same time,” Sunny said.

Yaar Jigri, which goes on the floors in August, will be shot across the beautiful locales of Jim Corbett, Nainital, Ranikhet and Delhi.

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 24, 2018)

Sunny Singh, who hit pay dirt with his turn as the gullible Titu Sharma in Luv Ranjan’s runaway hit, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, has now bagged a Ronnie Screwvala production. The yet-untitled film marks the directorial debut of writer Amit Joshi, who has previously penned Vikramaditya Motwane’s Rajkummar Rao starrer thriller, Trapped and is set to go on the floors in August. It will be filmed across North India.

“It is a slice-of-life film which revolves around friendship and will feature Sunny as a flirtatious North Indian as well as a lot of comedy,” a source close to the development told Mirror, adding that Dil Dhadakne Do and A Death In the Gunj actor Vikrant Massey plays Sunny’s buddy in the film.

Sunny, who was also a part of Luv’s Pyar Ka Panchnama 2 (2015), is the son of popular action director Jai Singh Nijjar, who is known for directing the stunts in big-budget entertainers like Vijaypath (1994), Singham (2011), Chennai Express (2013) and Shivaay (2016).

The 29-year-old actor will also be seen in a special appearance in Akiv Ali’s yet-untitled romcom featuring Ajay Devgn and Tabu in the lead. The Luv Ranjan production is almost wrapped up and Sunny filmed his sequences earlier this year.

Sunny admits that he aspires to be like Ajay, balancing the comedy and action genres.

MUMBAI MIRROR (February 7, 2018)

Entrepreneur and media mogul Ronnie Screwvala, in his first avatar at UTV, backed many first-time directors and pushed the established ones out of their comfort zone to build India’s largest movie studio back then.

RSVP, his new avatar at the movies, is following in the same footsteps if the line-up of debutant directors signed up with them is anything to go by. Diverse and creative talent with strong scripts is the formula for movie going audiences today and RSVP seems ready to disrupt this space again.

“We want RSVP to stand for three kinds of storytelling — stories that must be told, stories that we would love to tell and stories that everyone goes to the movies for. Along with some other exceptional talent we are very proud to associate with some promising debutante directors and writers who see the narrative as we do,” says Screwvala.



THE SEVEN FILMMAKERS

Anand Tiwari
With vast experience in the world of films, advertising and theatre, Anand makes his directorial debut with RSVP’s Love Per Square Foot, featuring Vicky Kaushal and Angira Dhar. It premieres this Valentine’s Day across 190 countries on OTT platforms.

Akarsh Khurana
Akarsh has been a part of theatre for over 15 years and has written screenplays for Anurag Basu and Rakesh Roshan. His directorial debut — RSVP’s Karwaan featuring Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan and Mithila Palkar — releases in theaters worldwide on June 1.

Sneha Taurani
After working as an assistant director with Ayan Mukerji, Milan Luthria, Mohit Suri and others, Sneha, daughter of Tips Music founder Ramesh Taurani, is all set to make her debut as a director with RSVP’s Dance Franchise — the first of which will be a Bhangra film written by award-winning Punjabi writer Dheeraj Rattan.

Aditya Dhar
Aditya has served as an assistant to Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rohan Sippy, Priyadarshan and Vishal Bhardwaj. He has also written story, screenplay and dialogues for the National Awardwinning Short film Boond and lyrics for Kabul Express. RSVP’s URI, which revolves around the landmark moment of 2016 in India’s military history featuring Vicky Kaushal, marks his directorial debut.

Vandana Kataria
Vandana won a FilmFare Award as Production Designer for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, was selected and participated in the Berinale Talent Campus 2016, and is currently working on Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy. RSVP’s Tara Ki Shaadi, a heart-warming but brutally honest tale about Tara and set around her wedding plans will be Vandana’s first feature film as writer and director.

Amit Joshi
After moving to Mumbai from Nanital four years ago, Amit wrote the highly acclaimed film, Trapped, which recently got nominated for Best original story and Best Screenplay at the Filmfare awards. Amit now makes his directorial debut at RSVP with a comic-adventure about two buddies who embark on a crazy ride.

Vasan Bala
Vasan is an award-winning ad filmmaker, who assisted Anurag Kashyap for a decade, was an associate on Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna and co-wrote The Lunchbox. His first film Peddlers (2012) competed for the Camera D’or at Cannes. He now directs RSVP’s Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota.

In addition to the debutants, RSVP also has some of the industry’s top directors, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar making four short stories on Love And Lust. Then, there’s Abhishek Chaubey directing Sonchiriya, Meghna Gulzar’s next after Raazi — a biopic on Field Marshall Sam Maneckshaw, Hansal Mehta’s biopic on Ram Jethmalani and veteran Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s kabaddi film for RSVP. Shashank Ghosh (of Khubsoorat and Veere di Wedding fame), Amit Masurkar (Newton), Konkona Sen Sharma (A Death In The Gunj), Anu Menon (Waiting) and Sankalp Reddy (The Ghazi Attack) sum up what promises to be the most exciting slate to come out of a production house in the next couple of years.