Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; January 31, 2019)

An old adage says that people change with the changing times, but there are exceptions to every rule. Sunny Deol has never felt the need to reinvent or get in line with the current trends. He may be on social media, but he's not one to tom-tom about his banner or his own achievements. He believes in giving his best shot, even to those films that take several years in production. And he doesn't get bothered when these labour of love doesn't find a big audience. Strip away the stardom and Sunny is a Punjabi, proud of his roots; a man who takes pride in the fact that he made it big in Bollywood on his own terms. In a candid conversation with BT, he speaks about perceptions that drive the business, his dispassion for biopics and the crazy world of filmi equations. Excerpts...

You had two films, Bhaiaji Superhit and Mohalla Assi, stuck for seven years, while they finally released in 2018, neither managed to make any impact at the box office. That must have hurt?
It’s unbelievable, but both the films had started off in the same year, too. I did not disassociate myself from them because I think people remember how honest your performance was, irrespective of the fate of a film. Everyone wants their film to work, but unfortunately, our system functions on perceptions. If a film is not playing prominently, then it’s assumed that there’s a problem with it.

Also, people today know that they have other avenues to watch a film, so there’s no urgency to catch something first day, first show. Of course, some films get way more shows than others and that builds a different perception around them. The nature of our business is such that you can’t cry and crib about it. I’ve always worked with new filmmakers and never chased camps and big studios. But sometimes, I wonder whether managing the scale of a film’s release is also an actor’s job now?

The popular perception is that the Deols (Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby) are people who make emotional decisions even in the professional space. It is also believed that this soft emotional side to you has led to instances where people from the industry have taken you for a ride. Has that changed in recent years?
Sometimes, I try to think about these things through my head, but my heart always wins over. But honestly, I feel I won’t be able to work if I think with just my head. Yes, when something goes wrong, we do analyse what didn’t work. Having said that, if we Deols had to change our approach to life and work, it would have happened a long time ago. After all the ups and downs we've gone through, we’re still the same. As for people taking us for a ride, I feel sad for those who did that to us. I feel terrible for the kind of people they are. Waise, maine theka nahi liya kisiko sudhaarne ka, it’s their karma. People only remember the film and the performances, not what went into it. So, we also don’t want publicity for anything other than our work.

From the time you made your debut with Betaab (1983) to now, is there a life lesson that you hold close to your heart?
I’ve learnt to be patient. I was an impatient person at the outset, but this profession taught me to keep my cool. You have to learn to control your anger and emotions at all times. There are moments when you do let go and that can damage your prospects. It hampers your performance on the big screen. That’s the reason I’ve calmed down a lot. People find it hard to believe that I don’t beat up people in real life. They expect me to do that, maybe because I do it so convincingly on camera, but in reality I often disappoint them.

Do you feel your peers like Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor have reinvented themselves as actors, but have you missed the bus?
There’s no such thing as catching or missing a bus. The moment a film does well, a mysterious bus just appears out of nowhere (laughs!). I have been busy with so many things in my life that I haven’t really concentrated on myself. Now, I am working on projects that will release in good time. Box office is very important, so you have to work in films that are more relevant today and made well, too. By that, I don’t mean I will start working in biopics, which are the in-thing today. For me, a realistic character is good enough.

So, you’re not interested in biopics?
I find biopics really gimmicky, unless they are made with realism. Border (1997), for instance, was based on a real story, but I wasn’t imitating anyone. You can’t possibly look like the person you’re playing in a biopic anyway.

As an actor, at this stage of your career, what’s your plan for the future?
I really don’t know. Everything will depend on what Rajkumar Santoshi and I do with our film, which starts soon. I am planning to work in many more films. I’ve always played characters that are mentally and physically strong, purely because of the way I look. I will continue doing that, but with a sight twist. I will play characters that are more real and ones that suit my age. I like what Clint Eastwood does. I mean, the film centres on him, but it’s a character, not a hero in the typical sense. I like strong characters. I played a lawyer in Damini (1993). It was a much smaller role, but had a lot for me to bite into. Trust me, no one wanted to take up that role. I was also told to drop out of it, but I didn’t. My approach to work will remain the same. I am not in a rush, I never was. If something comes to me, I will take it up if it offers me enough to do on screen. I am not lucky enough to deliver a bad film and still be a successful actor. More importantly, moving forward, I will see to it that I pick up projects where I only have to act, and not perform other duties. My kids are like me; it frightens me sometimes because they’re going to become actors and I know it will be tough for them.

Do you feel with changing times, films and filmmakers have started giving more importance to characters as opposed to the image of the actors who portray them?
We’ve always had characters in our films, but sometimes, we’ve had actors who are stars, which overpowered everything else. There was a phase like that. The thing is, if someone is a star, he or she will be followed no matter how good or bad they are as actors. That will never change no matter how much we change the industry’s dynamics.

In today’s day and age, people rave about their achievements, even the smallest of it. With directors like Rajkumar Santoshi and Imtiaz Ali having flourished under your banner, why does your family never step forward to take credit for it?
We don’t look for credit and we don’t want it. That's also the reason why we are lagging in the race. We have never been the type ki hum accha kaam karenge, aur phir jaa jaa ke bolenge ki dekho ji humne kuch accha kiya. People know what we have done and that’s why we are here, not because the industry was supportive of us. We, Deols, have never tried to cash in on our position as producers or as actors. I don’t know if that was right or wrong. I don’t even see my films. I am their worst critic and every actor should be just like that. We don’t need others to tell us where we went wrong, we all know it.

One of the new-age mechanisms to stay relevant in the news and to catch up with fans is to be on social media. You don’t seem to follow that trend at all.
Ranbir Kapoor is a modern-day star, but I don’t find him on social media. And he is relevant and has fans, right? I don’t know what is good or bad about social media, but everyone hangs out there. It’s seems to be a platform to advertise and I don’t see it achieving anything more. I don’t interact with people much on social media because if I sit and do that all day, when will I work? Yes, there are days when I am tempted to react to conversations on social media, but I don’t give in to it. I sometimes feel like switching off everything because it’s such a distraction. I might sound like an old timer, but people need to have some privacy, too. To a degree, stars should not complain about the social media activities because we have provoked people to pay attention to us all the time.

Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; January 12, 2019)

Troubles don’t seem to end for Sunny Deol’s Bhaiaji Superhit, which had gone on floors in 2011 but finally hit screens only last year.

In the latest development, Bombay High Court has prohibited satellite runs of the comedy after Fauzia Arshi, the original producer of the Preity Zinta starrer, alleged that she is yet to be compensated for the film rights by producer Chirag Mahendra Dhariwal.

The film reportedly had its world television premiere on Zee Cinema last month. Arshi says of the January 8 hearing, “I am happy that the court has ruled in my favour. It has ordered that unless the remaining amount is paid to me, the film can’t be aired on any platform — be it satellite channel or a digital platform.”

Arshi claims that she had relinquished the film’s rights for a promised sum of Rs 5 crore. As per the contract, Dhariwal was to allegedly pay her Rs 3 crore while the remaining Rs 2 crore was to be paid by distributors. The settlement terms further stated that in case of failure of payment from distributors, Dhariwal would be liable personally to clear the dues himself. She has apparently received only Rs 1  crore from Dhariwal so far.

The court order, a copy of which is in possession of mid-day, reads, “Bhaiaji Superhitt has already been released in cinema halls, so the injunction will be restricted to the release of the movie on television channels, on the internet or on various forums in India or anywhere in the world.” The court has granted three weeks for the dues to be cleared.

Dhariwal remained unavailable for comment.

Bhaiaji Superhit is a terrible flick and the fact that it got delayed further adds to the mess. Besides continuity issues, the film also suffers from poor writing and direction. The director even takes the liberty of changing a ‘clean’ character into a chronic drug addict just for one particular sequence in the middle and then taking a U-turn in the next scene! The action scenes induce unintentional laughter and one particular shot in the climax involving Preity Zinta will make it to the list of trashy scenes list! Surprisingly, the characters are well thought of and had a lot of potential. In any other film, probably the ones directed by David Dhawan, they would have created a riot but here, they end up doing nothing special. This is particularly in the case of Preity Zinta. Her character had a lot of scope but is let down by the apology of a script. Performance-wise, she’s fine and same goes for Arshad Warsi. He’s the only one who raises genuine laughs. Sunny Deol does fine as always but to see him do back-to-back disasters like Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se, Mohalla Assi and now Bhaiaji Superhit would surely be a big blow for the fans. Ameesha Patel proves she can still soar the temperatures and just requires the right kind of films. Shreyas Talpade is over the top. Jaideep Ahlawat genuinely tries to do a good job but again, there’s nothing much he can do when the film itself is so bad. Brijendra Kala is decent while Hemant Pandey (the guy who turns Charsi Bhai just for one scene), Amit Mistry, Mukul Dev, Pankaj Tripathi are all wasted. Needless to say, avoid!

My rating - * ½ out of 5!

As his son Karan gears up for Bollywood launch, Sunny Deol says youngster focuses on acting instead of showbiz frills
Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; November 23, 2018)

Over three decades after Sunny Deol made his Bollywood debut, son Karan is following in his footsteps. Having taken the onus of launching his son in the world of movies with his directorial venture, Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, Deol admits that juggling the dual role of a director and father can be unnerving.

"For any father whose son is starting out, it's normal to feel nervous. It's not difficult for me to direct him; I have to work hard with him, just like I would have to with any other newcomer," he says.

The proud father adds that despite being a rank newcomer, Karan's choices display a sense of maturity that belies his young age. "None of my kids want to learn martial arts, build six-pack abs or learn a certain kind of dancing. These are tools for an actor, but they aren't a necessity. Karan wants to be an actor first, he wants to attain stardom by delivering successful films."

On the acting front, Deol is gearing up for the release of Bhaiaji Superhit. Stating that the action comedy is right up his alley, he says, "I have never played to the gallery as I feel that is nautanki. I gave a nod to the project because my character appealed to me. Plus, I have worked with Neerraj Pathak [director], so we share a comfort level."

FINAL DRY WEEK BEFORE FLOW OF BIGGIES BEGIN FROM NEXT THURSDAY!

The debacle of Thugs Of Hindostan has hit business hard. This Aamir Khan-Amitabh Bachchan starrer was expected to rule the box office for a couple of weeks. But it has turned out to be a miserable flop. The cracks started developing from Day 2 itself and the film crashed heavily in the weekdays. There has been a huge reduction of shows in Week 2 and the same will happen from tomorrow as well, when it enters into the third week. This has led to tough times for the exhibitors and they had no choice but to replace the shows of Thugs Of Hindostan with regional and Hollywood films. Holdover films like Badhaai Ho, AndhaDhun, Baazaar etc also came to their rescue.

A few Hindi films also released last week but all of them – Mohalla Assi, Pihu and Hotel Milan – didn’t work at all the box office. This week will also be poor but better than last week. It’ll see the release of Bhaiaji Superhit. It’s a film in the making since almost 4-5 years and is directed Neerraj Pathak, who earlier made an interesting but commercially flop film, Right Yaaa Wrong. That was a serious courtroom drama while Bhaiaji Superhit is an action comedy of an UP-based gangster who tries his hand in films. It has an ensemble cast, comprising of Preity Zinta, Ameesha Patel, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Pankaj Tripathi, Jaideep Ahlawat and Sanjay Mishra.

The trailer however looks very poor and hardly funny, although Preity seems to be in form. Also, it comes too late in the day and after the debacles of Sunny’s other comic films like Poster Boys and Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se. Both these films didn’t work in cinemas but were hits on TV. Bhaiaji Superhit will also follow suit. However, it’s box office performance would be better than Mohalla Assi. This film of Sunny opened at Rs. 30 lakhs and Bhaiaji Superhit hopefully should open in the Rs. 80 lakhs-1.10 crore range. The single screens in B and C centres might open better than multiplexes in cities.

The other Hindi release of the week is The Dark Side of Life: Mumbai City. It’s biggest USP is Mahesh Bhatt as an actor in a dynamic role. Kay Kay Menon, Deepraj Rana, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Jyoti Malshe and many others also star in this flick. The trailer of the film is very sad and unintentionally hilarious. There’s no buzz about the film at all and it’ll have a disastrous run.

All eyes are now on 2.0, which releases next Thursday, on November 29. In fact, from next week till the end of the year, there’s a significant release every Friday, from Kedarnath to Mauli [Marathi] to Aquaman to Zero to Simmba. Exciting days are back with a bang!

BOMBAY TIMES (October 25, 2018)

Ever since its release, the teaser of Bhaiaji Superhit has been garnering positive response. And today, the trailer of the film will be unveiled.

Directed by Neerraj Pathak, it features Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta along with Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Ameesha Patel, Sanjay Mishra, Brijendra Kala, Jaydeep Ahlawat, Mukul Dev, Pankaj Tripathi and Pankaj Jha.

Though it was initially scheduled to release on Dussehra, the makers decided to postpone it. About the change in the release date, producer Chirag Mahendra Dhariwal says, “Theatres in Madhya Pradesh were shut because of a strike during Dussehra. Since our film is very North India-centric — the story is based in Uttar Pradesh — we didn’t want to miss out on the audience there and decided to postpone release to the next suitable date in November.”

A few songs from the movie have released already and have been appreciated. One of the main highlights of the action comedy is that it will see Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta reuniting on screen after 15 years.

Bhaiaji Superhit, made under the banner of Metro Movies, releases November 23.

The film, which had been in the making for over seven years, has two producers fighting over credit and non-payment of dues
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 3, 2018)

The Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta and Ameesha Patel starrer Bhaiaji Superhit, which had gone on the floors way back in 2011, has run into trouble as it finally inches closer to its release date.

Mirror has learnt that the film’s former producer Fauzia Arshi has sent a legal notice to its team, including current producer Chirag Dhariwal, director Neeraj Pathak, actor Sunny Deol and the music company Zee. “I was approached by Neeraj in 2011 to produce the film. We decided on a budget of Rs 24 crore but finally settled on Rs 26 crore. After an entire schedule was shot in 2012, with Rs 5-6 crore that I had put in, Neeraj suddenly informed that the budget will now have to stretch to Rs 40 crore,” Fauzia informed Mirror, adding, “After that, Neeraj and Sunny insisted that they wanted to work with Chirag Dhariwal, who had agreed to finance the film with its revised budget.”

When asked if they agreed to pay her back, Fauzia informs, “Dhariwal gave me a cheque of Rs 4 crore, which bounced. They promised to give me Rs 1 crore at the time of the film’s release but that hasn’t happened as well. Our contract stated that I’d be credited as producer on the film but that has not happened either. Along with interest, I am supposed to receive at least Rs 10 crore from them.”

When Mirror reached out to Chirag Dhariwal, his spokesperson refuted Fauzia’s claims. “It was Chirag Dhariwal who started the project. The lady (Fauzia) came into the picture later and took over the film after paying him Rs 2.5 crore by cheque, which bounced. She gave up just five days after the film went on the floors. That’s when Chirag had to step back in. After that, the entire film was shot by us and she was not involved in it,” the spokesperson added.