Set to play a double role in the upcoming film, Bhangra Paa Le, Sunny Kaushal on juggling characters set in different eras
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 8, 2019)

“I have always been excited about the idea of playing a double role,” starts off Sunny Kaushal when discussing his upcoming film, Bhangra Paa Le. Set to essay characters that belong to two different eras, Kaushal tells mid day, “My character Kaptaan’s story is set in ’40s whereas Jaggi’s is set in the current day and age. The conflicts they face are different. The biggest challenge was to play both characters on the same day. Yet, it was a fulfilling experience. I learnt a lot.”

Even as dual roles have been abundantly exploited in Bollywood, Vicky Kaushal’s brother refrained from studying them ahead of his act. He simply did not want to create characters that were caricatures. “I merely approached my characters as two different individuals. Their ideologies differ a great deal. For example, Jaggi is a rebel. Kaptaan isn’t. But, they’re both passionate about the things they believe in. The first thing I did while preparing for the film was chalk out their differences, and similarities, with my director, Sneha Taurani. Apart from ensuring that their body language and mannerisms look distinct, it was important to know how they feel [about different issues].”

Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 1, 2019)

In 1995, the song “Bhangda Paa Le”, from Rakesh Roshan’s Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan-starrer Karan Arjun, achieved chartbuster status. Twenty-four years on, it is making its way back to the mainstream. The song has been recreated by Sneha Taurani for her directorial debut, Bhangra Paa Le, which features Sunny Kaushal and Rukshar Dhillon as leads. The film is produced by her father, Ramesh Taurani, and Ronnie Screwvala. “Two things led us to recreate this track. Since our film revolves around Bhangra, the song lends itself to the dance form. Secondly, our title itself is a good fit with the song,” says Sneha.

She goes on to add that recreations are not without their share of pressures, particularly when the original is a chartbuster. “But we have adapted it into the film’s world completely, so hopefully, the grooves will get people moving,” she smiles. Ask her about the sequences that build up to the song in the film, and she reveals, “The film revolves around college rivalry between our characters—Jaggi (Sunny) and Simi (Rukshar)—and this song appears as Jaggi works hard to form a team and prepare for an international competition.”

The original was composed by Rajesh Roshan and sung by Sadhana Sargam, Mohd Aziz and Sudesh Bhosle. Has she got a chance to play the song for Salman, Shah Rukh, or anyone else from the team yet, one wonders and Sneha answers in the negative, adding, “Here’s hoping that they will see it and it will bring a smile to their faces. Hopefully, they won’t kill us,” she signs off on a lighter note.

Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 25, 2019)

Mirror had earlier reported (January 26, 2018) that filmmaker Ramesh Taurani’s daughter Sneha is making her directorial debut with Bhangra Paa Le, a dance film featuring Vicky Kaushal’s younger brother, Sunny (pictured) and Rukshar Dhillion that revolves around the evolution of the Punjabi dance form. We have now learnt that the team is recreating the song from which it borrows its title. “Bhangra Paa Le” first appeared on the big screen in Rakesh Roshan’s 1995 action-drama Karan Arjun. It featured lead actors Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, and the former’s love interest, Mamta Kulkarni.

A source informs that Sneha has finished shooting major portions of the Ronnie Screwvala production in Punjab and wanted to add a new song. “The new song will be picturised on Sunny in Mumbai after Sneha returns from London, where the film will be wrapped up in a 10-day schedule,” adds the source.

Penned by Dheeraj Rattan, the writer behind actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh’s hit Punjabi films, Jatt & Juliet and Sardaar Ji, Sneha’s directorial debut is a love story.

The new song joins a long list of recreations after “Paisa Yeh Paisa” and “Mungda” from Total Dhamaal, five songs including “Poster Lagwa Do” and “Tu Laung Main Elaachi” in Luka Chuppi, “Bhumro” in Notebook and more recently, “The Jawaani Song” in Student of the Year 2. 

MUMBAI MIRROR (January 28, 2019)

Having delivered the first blockbuster of 2019 with URI, Ronnie Screwvala continues to back content-driven films and talented directors. Bhangra Paa Le is yet another film coming out of the RSVP stables in 2019 that will be helmed by debutante Sneha Taurani (right) —daughter of music baron Ramesh Taurani.

The film is set in the world of music and dance. Ronnie who had created the very successful franchise of ABCD in his earlier avatar at UTV is looking to create a similar dance franchise at RSVP with this film.

Bhangra Paa Le bridges the gap between traditional forms of Bhangra from Punjab and western dance forms from all across the world. The screenplay which is written by Dheeraj Rattan transitions between the past and the present time periods and showcases romance, dance and music through the ages.

The music will be composed by Jam8 under Pritam’s supervision.

After having backed Vicky Kaushal very early in his career—with Love per Square Foot, Lust Stories and then the most recent blockbuster URI—Ronnie is all set to bet big on his younger brother, Sunny Kaushal.

In Bhangra Paa Le, Sunny essays the role of Jaggi Singh—part-time DJ, and a full time Bhangri. Through his obsession for dance we discover some of the biggest dance competitions in the world where he finds his match in Simi Kohli—an equally phenomenal and passionate dancer being essayed by Rukshar Dhillon (top) from Telugu cinema.

“What I love about the script is the world it takes you into: where music and dance define its characters and their goals. I am hoping to showcase Bhangra in its authentic form to give the audience an idea of its history as well as its modern-day adaptation through the inter-college competitions. I have always been incredibly passionate about music and through the songs of this film you will see the real and fascinating evolution of Bhangra as a dance form. A young fresh pairing, energetic music and a collaborator like RSVP, I couldn’t have asked for a better debut”, says Sneha Taurani.

“With Bhangra Paa Le we hope to create a successful dance franchise. At RSVP we are looking to tell stories that we love to tell or must be told through the voice of talented youngsters like Sneha. Sunny is one of the most promising youngsters out there and I can’t wait to see the magic they weave,” says Ronnie Screwvala.

“Bhangra is something that is very close to me. Being a Punjabi, I have grown up on Punjabi music and Bhangra and till date it is my go-to jam. I feel very passionately about Bhangra as a dance form, so being a part of a film based on Bhangra is very surreal. And Sneha is such a warm and a wonderful human being. Working with RSVP and Ronnie sir is a great opportunity. I feel very fortunate. I am really looking forward to this journey. It is going to be a lot of fun!” says Sunny Kaushal.

“From Bhangra and the word ‘Balle-Balle’ being the first things I ever learnt about dance as a child, to now getting all prepped up in full swing for a dance film feels like a dream come true. Extremely grateful to RSVP and Sneha for giving me this opportunity, their level of dedication and enthusiasm towards the movie is incredible and I can’t wait to begin this exciting journey,” says Rukshar.

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.

Filmmaker Ramesh Taurani’s daughter Sneha is gearing up for her directorial debut with a dance film that revolves around Bhangra and is expected to roll this year
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 26, 2018)

While her contemporaries are known to gravitate towards a career in front of the camera, filmmaker Ramesh Taurani’s daughter Sneha has decided to foray into films with a role behind the scenes. The filmi kid is set to make her directorial debut with an untitled dance film that revolves around the evolution of Bhangra.

It will be produced by Ronnie Screwvala and has been penned by Dheeraj Rattan, the writer behind actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh’s hit Punjabi films, Jatt & Juliet and Sardaar Ji. Sneha’s debut film is expected to roll in the second half of the year.

The youngster was assisting Akarsh Khurana on the Irrfan Khan-starrer Karwaan, which marks the Hindi debut of Malayalam actor Dulquer Salmaan and actress Mithila Palkar, when one of the associate producers told her about a project Ronnie’s company was developing. “Dheeraj ji took me through the script and I immediately fell in love with it. We are currently working on the final draft of the script. It’s a love story of two characters with a part set in the past and another in the present time. We are gearing up to begin prep soon,” Sneha says, adding that the entire film will be set in Chandigarh.

When prodded on the possibilities of being launched by her home banner, the newbie filmmaker explains, “It was never set in stone that I would make my first film with my father. He was quite excited to know that Ronnie sir is backing my directorial debut. My father understands that I just want to tell stories I believe in,” she signs off.