Production houses contemplate playing previous hit films to increase footfalls, should cinema halls reopen
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; August 2, 2020)

Taking a cue from countries that have resumed operations of theatrical screenings amid the Coronavirus pandemic, Indian production houses will also screen their previous blockbusters to lure viewers back to cinema halls.

A trade source tells mid-day, "Some multiplexes and single screen owners are in talks with distributors and studios like Warner Bros India, Yash Raj Films, and Reliance Entertainment, among others, to showcase their blockbusters."

Devang Sampat from Cinepolis says that with the Indian audience comprising viewers of Indian and international content, they have a large slate to play with. "For the first two weeks, Cinepolis plans to screen 3D films like Avatar, Gravity, and Titanic, and Oscar-winning movies. Regional films will also be aired in accordance with each state," he says, adding that a survey conducted by their team has revealed that 86 per cent of moviegoers are eager to visit theatres. "Once we decide which titles we want to play, we will work on acquiring the rights."

Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi, who runs 17 single-screens across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, adds, "Single screens have been at the forefront of these conversations. Reliance has Rohit Shetty-movies like Golmaal 3 and Golmaal Again, Singham, and Simmba. Warner Bros has gone a step ahead and created interesting packages and catalogues where the best of their comedies and action films can be sent to the exhibitors. The idea is to rebuild the habit of watching movies at theatres and earn the confidence of our audiences."

Farhad Samji on Varun Dhawan’s next which is ‘all about entertainment’, Tiger Shroff’s third rebellious outing and kicking off Rohit Shetty’s new cop film today
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 6, 2019)

Farhad Samji started his Bollywood journey as a lyricist in 2002 with David Dhawan’s Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, and 17 years later, is one of the most sought-after writers. Known for scripting films like Ready, Bol Bachchan, Simmba, as also the Golmaal, Housefull and Singham franchises, Farhad brought in his 44th birthday on Sunday with five films in his kitty, including Laaxmi Bomb, Baaghi 3, Coolie No 1 and Sooryavanshi as writer and Housefull 4 as director.

Quiz him on how he brought in his special day and he says birthdays are usually boring because he doesn’t like late-night parties. “I’m a simple person who follows Akshay Kumar’s lifestyle and I am asleep by 10 pm. So, I spent the weekend at a hill station with my wife (Zukhruf) and son (Faizal). It was a detox break from work,” he laughs.

He flashbacks to when they were shooting for Golmaal 3 in Goa on his birthday. “I was in my room, waiting for someone to remember, till 9 pm, then, thinking they’d forgotten, I was getting ready for bed, when Rohit called asking me to come down and tweak the scene being shot. I did, only to find the set decorated and everyone, including Ajay (Devgn) and Kareena (Kapoor) waiting for me to cut the cake,” he smiles at the memory.

Quiz him on his current workload and how he’s juggling so many films and he says it’s all about planning. He was working on Akshay’s horror-comedy, Laaxmi Bomb, for almost a year and the first draft was ready long ago. Contrary to speculations, he informs that the film is not an adaptation of Kanchana or Kanchana 3 but the official remake of Muni 2: Kanchana, the biggest Tamil hit of 2011. “My job was to make sure the film looked as fresh as the original which released eight years ago. I have adapted several remakes like Judwaa 2 and Singham keeping today’s sensibilities in mind. It will showcase Akshay in a completely new light,” he promises.

Right now, Farhad is focused on Sooryavanshi and Baaghi 3. The former, which sees Akshay entering Rohit’s cop universe, and is set for an Eid 2020 release, goes on the floors today. “We begin in the month of Ramadan, which is auspicious. Fingers crossed, we will set new records with this film,” says the writer who is currently drafting the second half of Baaghi 3 and describes it as an “extraordinary story”. “Ahmed bhai (director Ahmed Khan) is going to take Ronnie’s (Tiger Shroff) character to the next league in this action-thriller which will be one of the biggest films of 2020,” he promises.

And then there’s Varun Dhawan’s Coolie No 1 remake. Are there still coolies anymore, you wonder, and he laughs, “This isn’t a biopic on coolies nor is it a documentary. It’s a David Dhawan entertainer and we have taken porters as the backdrop but essentially, the film is about a guy getting trapped between two girls. It is all about entertainment. I don’t think the audience will come in to see how many bags Varun picks up. They will come to see a comedy.”

The last schedule of Housefull 4 begins in the third week of May and they are hoping to wrap up the film in a fortnight. “A couple of songs, and few scenes remain to be shot. We begin after Akshay is done with the first schedule of Sooryavanshi. It’s the big Diwali release and with every new film, the pressure has only increased. This time, it’s four times more and so we are trying to make Housefull four times better,” he signs off.

Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; December 8, 2018)

Kunal Kemmu was all set to make his TV debut with the weekend comedy show Kanpur Wale Khuranas. He had even started attending workshops for it and shot a promo that went on air. However, at the last moment, he opted out of it owing to date issues. The Golmaal Again actor, who will be seen next in Karan Johar’s multi-starrer Kalank, has to start filming for the climax scenes in Hyderabad’s Ramoji City from the 14th of this month, while the TV show, for which shooting has already commenced, is slated to go on air on December 15. We spoke to Kunal about what prompted his decision and his take on comedy films. Excerpts...

You were geared up for your debut TV show and had even shot a promo for it. Why did you opt out of it?
There were a lot of things happening even while I was getting into it. I knew that the dates for Kalank’s climax shoot might be around the same time as it was planned. There are a lot of actors involved in the scene, so that couldn’t be shifted. I also realised that television has a fixed schedule and unfortunately, we couldn’t work around the dates. I am shooting for Kalank from December 14 till the end of this month. I’m happy the makers found Aparshakti (Khurana) to host the programme. I’ve known Preeti and Neeti Simoes (producers of the show) for a long time and they suggested we should do something together, but TV is a big commitment for me. This limited edition series of 16 episodes was perfect, but it eventually didn’t work out. We are still hoping we can find something in the future. I wish everyone involved with the show the very best and look forward to watching it soon.

When you eventually make your TV debut, will it be with a comedy show?
I can’t say that, but I like this whole format where you get to improvise, so I still maintain that something like this will interest me.

After starting off with films like Kalyug and Zakhm, you are now firmly entrenched in comedies... 
I love comedies. It’s just that I am generally shy when I meet people for the first time. But once the ice is broken, I am known to be a lot of fun. Yes, after doing serious cinema like Zakhm (1998), Kalyug (2005) and Traffic Signal (2007), filmmakers weren’t sure if I would be good at comedy. Even when I did the ensemble movie Dhol (2007), the makers were wondering why I wanted to explore this genre! But if you remember at the age of eight, I did Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), which was a funny film. After Dhol, I went on to do movies like 99 (2009), Go Goa Gone (2013) and the Golmaal series where people saw the fun side to me... to the extent that most of the time I am doing comedy now.

Does that mean your forthcoming movies also are comedies?
No, now there are a couple of films that are quite different. I can’t talk much about my part in Kalank. All I can tell you is that I am playing a character that nobody has seen me do before, or since Kalyug happened. There’s another film, which will mark the debut of an ad filmmaker. It’s a dark comedy and has a different way of storytelling. I am excited about that as you will see interesting actors coming together in it.

When do you start shooting for Go Goa Gone 2? 
The scripting is in process right now and the idea is to start in March if everything works out correctly. This film is close to my heart as it was with Go Goa Gone that I learnt how to be a writer (I had penned its dialogues). The movie was with Raj (Nidimoru), (Krishna) DK and me for a long time when we were in the process of putting it together, and finding somebody who will make it. Initially, nobody thought we would do a zombie film and a different kind of comedy, but it was well-received. We had taken three months off for writing it. Now, that the characters are established, there will be something newer in the story, but this time I’m not part of the scripting process.

The movies you are doing now are all multi-starrers...
Firstly, you never go into a film thinking whether you will be playing a solo lead or will it be a multi-starrer. From the business perspective, it makes it easier to do a multi-starrer because the stress of ‘Will this do well at the box office or not’ is shared with everybody and not one person, whether it is a hit or a flop. Apart from that, it’s the story that you enjoy. Golmaal will never work with one hero, so you can’t say, ‘I won’t do it if it’s not a solo lead’.

Despite so many good actors in Bollywood, there aren’t many comedy films that are made in here...
True. Comedies are a tougher genre to work in. A joke can either make you laugh or it can’t. It’s a lot about action and reaction, you always don’t need to say something funny. India has so many different cultures and comedy translates differently everywhere. There is English humour that does not translate so well to Hindi-speaking audience and vice versa. It’s difficult to make a film that is funny for everybody. There is a massy kind of humour as opposed to the niche humour. People are scared to experiment with it. For example, despite being funny, Go Goa Gone did really well only in metros, but not in the interiors. There was a feeling that this might be the case because the humour was slightly more English, and the audience there would be alien to this kind of a zombie film. But over the years, when the movie was shown on satellite TV, it was accepted by everybody. Now, when we talk about the sequel, there is pan-India anticipation about it, not just from the metros. Comedy is still being explored in India. I think there is an attempt in making such films because they are doing well. But, then again not all comedies are great. Some work, some don’t. Sometimes on the set when we are doing a scene, it seems very funny but when it is edited and put it out there, it is not so funny. Comedy is actually a serious and tricky business.

Madhureeta Mukherjee (BOMBAY TIMES; March 14, 2018)

He raged on to the silver screen 27 years ago, on a roaring hot bike in the action drama, Phool Aur Kaante. Ever since, his career has not always been a bed of roses, but neither have the thorns left him bruised. Like he says, “Even in my low phase, I have always had one hit in a year”. Ajay Devgn has deftly balanced the art and the mart. For every Zakhm, there has been a Golmaal. For every 100-crore-hit, there’s been a critically acclaimed drama to root for. A director’s delight — he could tear the screen with rage or turn into silent dynamite. Off-screen, he’s a man of his own mind. Rare and solid. He doesn’t say much, but when he does, he fires bullets — direct and dauntless. A few days before the release of his upcoming film Raid directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, he settles into a comfortable chat (which is a rarity) with us and talks about his lucky streak, how he’s averted a mid-life crisis and the fact that the industry today has better business sense, but lacks the emotional quotient. Read on…

You are playing a tough-as-nails IT officer in Raid, who is investigating one of the most high-profile and controversial cases that we have seen. While essaying heroic characters in our films, the natural tendency is to go OTT in order to make the character seem more superhuman. Here, you seem to have played it out subtly. It is a challenge, isn’t it?
The film happened because we met this IT officer and realised that there was a great story to be told. We were toying with the idea of making it for four years. Finally, the writer Ritesh Shah narrated the story to me and I loved it. Then, we got Raj Kumar Gupta (of No One Killed Jessica fame) on board, as he understood the space that this movie is set in. I have never worked with him before, but he is this quiet and honest guy, who talks about nothing other than the film he is working on. Also, I like Ritesh because he writes dialogues that are not filmi or flowery, but hard-hitting. They don’t sound like… yeh kya line likhi hai, and yet, leave an impact. I think that whenever you have a great line, you should deliver it with nonchalance. By that, I mean that a lot of actors believe that if they have a good dialogue, they should stretch it to make it more dramatic. I feel that when you deliver such lines subtly, they work out better. In Raid, Amay Patnaik is real; he doesn’t become aggressive or resort to violence. He is not a cop, he is an IT officer who is honest and retaliates silently.

Well, OTT also works well for the audience, like in a film like Singham, where you play a hotheaded cop…
Yes, OTT works very often in our films, but it doesn’t work for every character. It can get irritating, too, so you need to strike a balance. In case of roles that demand a subtle performance, you have to express a lot through your eyes and body language. Sometimes, when people do it, there are chances that it could look like they are sleepwalking. There is a very thin line. Being cool and calm does not mean that you are performing well either.

You have always said that you don’t spend too much time getting into the skin of the character. You simply understand your character and let the cameras start rolling. Have you ever made an exception to that process for any of your roles?
I still can’t do all that prep work. I am just spontaneous, so I either feel the character or I don’t. I don’t know of any other process, or let’s say that I can’t explain it. I can understand it for myself. I start thinking and feeling like the character. My body language and thought process change and I start thinking what the character would do or wouldn’t do. Yes, I do put a lot of thought in to how I would play a character differently. For instance, after Ram Gopal Varma’s Company (2002) got a lot of appreciation, I had to think about how I would play an underworld don again in Milan Luthria’s Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai (2010). The cop in Prakash Jha’s Gangaajal (2003) is dramatically different from the cop in Rohit Shetty’s Singham (2011), though both the characters have similar beliefs.

When you are doing a film like Golmaal vis-à-vis a film like Raid, as an actor,is the ultimate feeling of creative satisfaction similar?
There is a lot of satisfaction in doing both kinds of films. Doing a comedy is tough business; the energy and timing has to be perfectly tuned. People think that it is easy to be stupid on screen, but it is not. I realised that while working on Golmaal Again (2017). On the first day of the shoot we performed a few scenes and we realised that there was something missing. We had shot the last Golmaal movie seven years ago. Since then, we had all grown up. Then Rohit (Shetty, director) played a few scenes from Golmaal 3, and we saw how stupid we were in that film. The energy was on a different level. And while shooting Golmaal Again, we were trying to be stupid, but there was a little maturity in it. So, we had to take the stupidity a notch higher and when that worked, it was as satisfying as anything else.

What was the turning point for you? Was it Mahesh Bhatt’s Zakhm (1998), a film where you received immense appreciation? For the longest time, you were asked why you didn’t do more films like that…
I don’t think that there was any turning point in my career, it was all a process. I am glad people have started doing such films now; in the 90s no one attempted these films. What we call niche films today, I was doing those films in the 90s when no other mainstream actor was doing them. I did films like Raincoat, Dil Kya Kare, Thakshak and Zakhm. Thank God, I did those films because you learn a lot from directors like Bhatt saab and Govind Nihalani, as their thought process is very deep and different. The learnings from those films can be applied in commercial cinema too, and it can work differently. I have done all kinds of cinema, because I never bothered about things like how it would affect my image as an actor. Yes, I had an action hero tag, which I think changed with films like Ishq, Pyaar Toh Hona Hi Tha and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which were in a different zone. It was never a conscious choice; it all just fell into place. I don’t plan most things in life; I simply follow my heart and instinct.

Did you ever go through a mid-life crisis in your career wherein you were confused about the direction in which it was heading?
Given the fact that I didn’t ever plan my career, and I didn’t take things too seriously, I think I have been very lucky. I’ve been around for 27 years and there has never been a situation in my life where I have had one or two bad years. If I have had three releases in a year, if two have not worked, one has always worked out. Even in my low phase, I had one hit a year. I have never gone through a phase jahan mujhe kaam ki kami rahi. Everyone gets films, but it gets difficult for actors to get the kind of films that they want.

Looking back, do any of your films from the past make you cringe now?
Yes, I have done so many films just for the sake of relationships with people in the industry. Not just me, I think many other actors from my generation have done that. We knew that the film was not going to work (I won’t name them), but we still went ahead and did it for emotional reasons. I don’t regret doing it. Back then, we didn’t bother, but today, we obviously won’t do the same.

In that sense, would you say that today the industry has become far more professional and practical? Is there a certain emotional quotient missing?
That emotional quotient, which was there in the film industry in the past, has gone. Everything has changed and business has taken over. In some ways, it is good for the industry, but we also miss the old times and sometimes we wish things would go back to the way they were. Back then, we could talk and say whatever we wanted, and we would walk into each other’s sets whenever we wanted. We were like a close-knit group, which is not the case anymore.

You have always been a fairly elusive star. You are on social media, but you aren’t too vocal. Do you think that today, actors are fearful of speaking their mind, knowing that they could be lambasted for their views?
Yes, there is a fear of speaking your mind as people start targeting you. You might say something, and they might misconstrue it or turn it into something else. I think people know what you mean, and yet they want to play mischief. Hence, we have to be cautious about what we say. Sometimes, it is not about what you say but how you say it. At times, I use social media to say something important, or voice my opinion on a topic that I feel strongly about. People use social media to promote themselves, not to always make a point.

Talking about promoting yourself, one has never seen you do that aggressively. You haven’t really used the PR machinery to your advantage…
Why should I do it? I have always been this way and I really don’t want to change. I think that my work speaks for itself. If I have to start shouting out loud about myself, I might as well not work and do just that. If there are people who don’t understand this, I don’t care a damn about making them understand (laughs!).

Do you still feel the jitters before the release of a film?
I still get nervous before every role. Even today, before doing a shot I wonder if I will be able to pull it off. I think it is a good thing to feel this way, because if I start thinking… arre yeh toh ho jaayega, then it means that I have started taking things for granted.

The industry is becoming increasingly competitive. Do you ever feel insecure, or do you harbour any fears?
Not anymore. The only thing I want to do is that I want to work till I die. What can I feel insecure about after 27 years? You also have to realise that you won’t be around forever. We are all getting older; I will turn 49 this year. So, I know that I have to evolve and change and take on a different role altogether. In that sense, I am very balanced and realistic.

Sarita A Tanwar (DNA; October 18, 2017)

Rohit Shetty has worked till 5 am the previous night but is looking as fresh as someone who has just returned from a vacay. Which is what happens when you love what you do, as much as Rohit does. The recluse has decided not to do any pre release interviews. But when he speaks, it’s no holds barred. He doesn’t shy away from admitting his last film didn’t work. He has analysed the reasons why it failed, better than the audience or the critics. This man knows the pulse of his audience and that’s why he has delivered more 100 crore films than any other director. Read on for excerpts from our chat....

Horror comedy is the flavour of the season, how was your experience of making one?
Actually we planned it seven years ago, after Golmaal 3. After Golmaal 3, when we were making Singham, we decided that if we make another Golmaal, it will be a horror comedy and we cracked the story then. But it didn’t reach to a level I wanted. Then we got busy with Bol Bachchan, Chennai Express etc. During Singham Returns we started again three years ago and then we cracked the script.

Have you ever had a ghostly experience?
(Laughs) Every morning I see the mirror I do have one, otherwise, no.

Golmaal is one of the biggest franchises today. Did you imagine that, while making the first?
No. Honestly, when I made my first Golmaal, it was for survival. Comedies were doing really well and I thought at least it will be an average to a good film. Even when we were making it we knew where it would land, and my career will be safe.

At what point did you plan the sequel?
I think after three to four months. I was making something else… Hera Pheri and Munna Bhai had done sequels by then and sequels were just starting off. Yunus (writer) came up with some story and I thought can be made into a sequel and that is how it happened.

For Golmaal Aagain, you’ve changed the entire crew from cameraman to production designer. Why?
Actually most of them have been working with me. Like my art director was an assistant art director earlier… The whole look of this film is different. We hardly shot in Goa. We just went to Goa because of ‘I want to go to Goa.’ It was not there in the script of the film. It is a hill station based film. I wanted a total different look for this Golmaal.

Why is that?
Because I think we are done with that kind of a look and I thought let’s not just cash in on the title or the franchise of Golmaal. We have to give the audience something new. This is the costliest film I have made. Costlier than Chennai Express and Singham Returns. If you see the film, the grandness and scale and how we have shot, CGI, you will realise that. Not costlier than Dilwale for sure. The budget of Golmaal Again is almost double of Golmaal 3. I wanted to do that so that the audience gets that kind of an experience, like a comic book experience. We shot the film in five months but the whole planning went on for a year. It’s the first time, it’s happened this way.

So you’ve plunged into Golmaal immediately after Dilwale, which received a lukewarm response at the box office. What were the lessons you learnt?
We know where we went wrong in Dilwale. My mother said, ‘Teri nazar utar gayi’ and I told her, ‘bohot mehengi nazar utri’(Laughs).

You said that you know where you went wrong…
From my first film till Dilwale, we never changed our script. If I narrate the original script, you will fall down laughing and it was a typical Rohit Shetty film. But after Kajol came on board, and because Shah Rukh and Kajol coming together is so big, we started catering to that audience. And then the whole 40 minutes of the chunk, which was not there in the original script was added. It is my fault. Nobody told me to do that, to be very honest.

Golmaal 3 was supposed to be the only release this Diwali but now Secret Superstar has also joined in. Does it spoil the party?
Every Diwali, in future, will have two releases. I am happy that the films belong to two different genres; if the genres were the same, it would have been difficult for us and them. We once had a similar Diwali with Golmaal Returns and Fashion and both films did well.

Secret Superstar was considered a niche film. Now, Aamir is going all out to promote it as his film. Does that bother you?
No, not really. It is only about business. Theirs is going to be a critically-acclaimed film and this is going to be an entertainer. Business-wise, what will happen, neither of us knows. But where the media is concerned, and where critical acclaim is concerned, it’s all going to go to Secret Superstar.

Are you worried about critical acclaim?
No. I do not have the recipe for that and I’m not worried about that part. So that’s sorted in my head.

Golmaal is tracking at a phenomenal figure of Rs 28 crore on the first day, are those expectations scary?
During Dilwale, I was scared because I had gone off track, away from the script and away from my audience and catering to Shah Rukh-Kajol audience. This time, I do not know how big it will be and whether it will be a blockbuster, but the audience will come out satisfied, that’s for sure.

In this Golmaal, you took a long time to decide who the actress would be. Why? Were you waiting for Kareena Kapoor?
I never said why Bebo was not in the film. Or we would have revealed the story. But now, it is in the trailer so I can tell you that we needed an age difference between Ajay and the lead actress. When you see the film, you will know why we didn’t take Bebo.

The surprise factor of this film is Tabu. What made you think she would do comedy well?
It was not a sudden plan. I worked with Tabu 25 years ago in a film called Haqeeqat where I was an assistant director. We know each other from those days and she has seen my growth. Then for last five-seven years, whenever we met, Tabu used to say, ‘I want to do a commercial film and I am going to do it with you.’ When we were writing Golmaal, I called her. We narrated the script to her and she loved it.

You’re a director and producer and host of a reality show; what do you enjoy the most?
It is direction. Hosting is fine. I enjoy hosting if it is my genre. Other than that, I get bored. But directing, obviously.

You do not take much of a break between movies. After Golmaal Again, you get on to your next film with Ranveer Singh. The title is My Name is Lakhan?
No, we haven’t finalised the title yet. We’re still working on the final draft. I will be getting time in between because my dates are in May as per now. So I still have time. I will go for a holiday.

You, a workaholic, are going on a holiday!
Yes, I always go. It is just that I do not inform the media so they aren’t at the airport to click pictures.

Are you on Instagram? You can put your holiday pictures.
No, I am happy like this only.

What are your plans for Diwali?
I will be at home.

When are you not at home?
(Smiles) I will be home with family. The film releases the next day. So I’ll be sleeping in the morning and do not want to get up and take the stress. Jo ho gaya, ho gaya.

You have always been very chilled before release.
I do get nervous; it is human nature. I’m pretty chilled out. Jo ho gaya woh ho gaya, main kya badal dunga.

What do you think of the ban on crackers by SC in Delhi? Do you think this should be in Mumbai?
I do not like crackers. I guess it goes with age. I think we have to find a way where kids can enjoy and there’s no pollution. Maybe some Indian company should come up with an idea. If they do, I will take a copyright.

Do you have an all time favourite ghost comedy?
No. There are a lot of black and white films that are not exactly ghost-related but you feel there’s a ghost. There was a movie of Mehmood and R D Burman, Bhoot Bangla. It is quite an interesting film. I feel like a commercial multi-starrer horror film works. For that matter, even Bhool Bhulaiyya works.

Critics haven’t ever been appreciative of the Golmaal franchise. Did that bother you initially?
Initially, it did. But now everybody has come to terms with it. So it is fine now. We are all in a good space. We have mutual respect for each other.

As a director, are you ever tempted to step out of your comfort zone and do a romantic film?
Dilwale, all said and done, reached out to a level. It is still the highest grosser of Shah Rukh overseas, which had great music and won an award for it, too. I get scared. If I do (make an experimental movie), then I will make a very small film. Tomorrow, if it doesn’t work, then what?

There is a popular belief among younger actors that the audience doesn’t want to see mass entertainers anymore, but the numbers speak a different story. Why do you think there is a disconnect?
Social media. There needs to be a lot of homework. Like the BARC has come. If you see the ratings of what films are doing well, things will change. It’s just that people are saying commercial films are not doing well, but for the last one-and-a-half years; we didn’t have a commercial release. Name one hardcore commercial film other than Judwaa 2? It is just a phase which comes and goes; reading the history of cinema is also important. I have always said that. When Manmohan Desai was making Amar Akbar Anthony, Basu Chatterjee was making Rajnigandha and Chit Chor and Amol Palekar was also a star and Amitabh Bachchan was also a star. Then came Farooq Sheikh and then Om Puri with Ardh Satya. Commercial films co-existed and were not looked down upon.

That is happening even now. For every Shah Rukh Khan, there is an Irrfan Khan...
It has always been there and will always be there. Newton with Rajkummar Rao is also doing well as is Judwaa 2 with Varun. Social media is scary. It is better to keep the phone away and live like a tiger. A star should behave like a star, then everything will be fine.

Do you agree that commercial cinema does not get the respect it deserves?
Yes, 110 per cent.

Who do you blame for that?
I don’t know... Commercial films are not easy to make. A lot of hard work goes into it. It is all about perception. I think the only way to change the perception is if we stop saying the film made Rs 200 crore and start saying 10 crore people or 10 lakh people saw this film, then things will change. It is not about Rs 200 crore, it’s about how many people saw it. That is the kind of cinema people want to see. Ultimately, you are making a film for the audience. If you are not, then it is fine.

It is such a shame that Hindi cinema looks down upon pan-India films when the South is making Baahubali. The south is doing so well. Films from Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are doing well because they are catering to an Indian audience. Here, we are confused about what to do. Pan-India film is the way ahead. It’s not that it will not do well. Look at Judwaa 2.

Speaking of sequels...What about Singham 3?
We will be making it but I do not have the right script right now. We know what space to go in, though.

Hiren Kotwani (BOMBAY TIMES; September 28, 2017)

SRK talks about not knowing yet if he has got it ‘right’ in the last 25 years, why his gift of the gab has been as much of a blessing as curse, and more
Shubha Shetty Saha (MID-DAY; November 23, 2015)

Apart from what’s already being much spoken about, what is your personal reason for picking a film like Dilwale?
I think the storyline is interesting; trailer doesn’t really tell enough of the story. It’s dramatic in the typical Rohit Shetty manner, but what’s more is that he (Rohit) has taken the legacy of Kajol and me as eternal lovers, retained that kind of romance and dignity, and woven a story around it. And it is garnished with his typical madness.

But the trailer doesn’t really highlight that aspect… 
To be honest, I didn’t want the trailer to divulge too much. It is just a montage rather than really telling the film’s story. I am deliberately holding back with this one because I think that aspect should come as a pleasant surprise. You seldom get commercial films that have something beyond what you expect. But having said that, it is a film by Rohit Shetty, who likes blowing up cars. Each filmmaker has a style — Yash Chopra saree udaate the, Rohit Shetty gadi udaata hai. Karan Johar does movies on society, Imtiaz Ali’s films show darkness in love stories and Anurag Kasyap makes edgy films. They all have their own style.

The trailer received a mixed reaction on social media.
I don’t check on that; my office does that for me. But I can say that the feedback we get on ground is very different from what we get on online. Social media is exciting and fun, but you can’t go by that feedback because it can be quite misleading, positively or negatively. Only a minority goes online to check about films. It is definitely not the right way of measuring the real response to anything. I would rather go by what I hear on ground. Like yesterday, I was at Yash Raj Studios and people came up to me to talk about the Gherua song. If you hear a song of yours playing in a rickshaw passing by, then you know you are doing well.

You have the wonderful gift of the gab, and that is evident when you tweet, write or give inspirational speeches. Don’t you think as an icon you could use it for a larger purpose?
My reply will be in two parts. Yes, I think I should. I have an idea, but haven’t been able to put it to practice. I want to create a weekly video where I could present myself to the world. I could be talking about everything, not just films. But then, I also think I should speak less. I talk about something and it is misconstrued, and I get into trouble. That’s a nuisance. Like that thing which blew up recently — I never said India is intolerant. When I was asked about it, I said I wouldn’t like talking about it, but when they insisted, I had just said that the youth should concentrate on making this a secular, progressive country. It is just that people like to believe what they want to believe. Misconstruing my words might or might not suit a particular political agenda, but I am annoyed because I didn’t mean what is being portrayed. I am an actor and make films. This is enough of a job. I am an icon because I can be what I am on screen. I would rather stick to that. I don’t enjoy spending three nights explaining to hairstylists that I didn’t mean to offend anyone by naming my film Barber. These things take away from my source of happiness. I must say I love talking. My experiences in life have been such that I can give away certain nice things. But then you can’t expect everyone to understand your way of thinking or even your sense of humour. That is the reason why I stopped hosting shows… I was offending too many people. One truism in this industry is that you can’t please everyone all the time.

What other life lessons would you say your experience has taught you?
Clichéd as it may sound, it is that there is no alternative for hard work. What life has also taught me is that you cannot plan a successful film. You can’t write it in a way or think that this will be a blockbuster. I still keep it simple. My only criteria is: Am I doing the kind of film for which I am excited to wake up and go on the sets and wear make up? Longevity and freshness in an actor reflects in how he feels about the work he does. You cannot manipulate anything. I watched Golmaal 3 and really loved it. So I asked Kareena (Kapoor) to get me to meet Rohit. He knows which world he belongs to and doesn’t want to follow a pattern just because it might work.

Popular patterns are fads, not classics. When KJo became successful and we made films together, people used to say, ‘Oh, but he only makes pop culture films’. My reply was, ‘If you think it is that easy, why don’t you try making it?’ When you don’t like people’s success, you want to put them in a box. Being true to your form is the most important thing. I tell young guys to find what they are not good at and try improving on that. Only then you can hope for longevity.

Is it more head than heart for you after these many years in the industry?
No, if I did anything following my head, I would have reached a different level of material success. I still do what my heart says. Even as a producer, Juhi (Chawla) and I started out only to be able to enhance the director’s experience, to let a good director be able to do what he wants to do. I can, at times, afford to tell the director to go ahead with his vision, however big it is. I have suffered in the process, but I am also the only producer who has a nine storey office and 210 people employed in it. Sometimes, I feel bad that I don’t get to do the films I really want to, because my office people tell me to work on something that brings money too. But within those parameters, I do the best I can. I may have the biggest house or the best cars, but none of that is the extension of my manhood or my stardom. Who needs all that when I have my dimples? (laughs)

But don’t more crores feel like bigger toys for you?
Not at all. There is only so much that you can do with money. I have a theatre at home but I have not been able to watch a movie in it for the last year and half. I have a swimming pool, I have not had the time to use it. I practically live in my van for 20 hours a day. I don’t get to spend any money on myself. I am grateful for the amount of money that God and this job has given me, but as they say you can never be too thin or too rich (laughs). Right now, I think I am fat.

Is there any insecurity that lingers on from your struggling days?
Let me tell you something: I am the most under confident, nervous, insecure man who keeps asking himself if he’s got it right. I know it is difficult to believe because I don’t come across like that. I was to watch Fan yesterday and was so nervous. I didn’t want to see it because, honestly, I wouldn’t be able to gauge if we have done a good job. This is my biggest insecurity, but also my biggest asset. In spite of being in the industry for 25 years and not knowing, can work for you.

You mean it stops you from being cocky?
In my profession, yes. This confidence that I show is an act. When I have to make a public appearance and speak, I get really nervous. People say, ‘Are you mad? You just have to be present to make people happy’. But I know my just being there would make me the most boring person; doing something to make them happy will make them happy. When I see actors who come out of their own films and say ‘I nailed it’, ‘I killed it’, I get really curious. How do we know we gave a great performance? You get to know when the audience says or accepts it. Also, you can’t get too confident about these things because you never know why someone liked something you did. It could very well be because of some personal thing that made them connect to it.

Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; January 30, 2014)

The Bombay High Court has stayed the release of Mohan Babu’s Telugu film Pandavulu Pandavulu Thummeda (PPT) which is allegedly the remake of Rohit Shetty’s film, Golmaal 3. The court on Tuesday passed this stay order and appointed a court receiver to take custody of the film.

A source close to the owners of the rights of Golmaal 3 said that the Telugu film producers had initially approached them for the film’s rights but couldn’t close the deal, as the two parties couldn’t arrive at a mutually agreeable price. It is said that the Telugu film’s producers then announced their decision to move on to another script. However, Raju Shah, who owns the rights of Golmaal 3, realised that this wasn’t the case. Accordingly, he moved court in order to stop the Telugu film from releasing this Friday.

When contacted, Raju Shah told HitList, “The producers of PPT were asked by the court to file an affidavit stating that they have not copied Golmaal 3. But they failed to appear in court, which implies they have copied my film with out buying its rights. Also, one of the producers of the film admitted in a media interview that they have lifted scenes from Golmaal 3.”