"I Am In A Quality Space Where There Is A Lot Of Scope For Innovative Directors Who Are Ready To Think Out Of The Box" Rohit Shetty

Jyothi Venkatesh

After giving a decade of hits as a Director, Rohit has proved himself to be a successful producer after doing films like Golmaal again and Simmba under his Production house, Rohit Shetty Picturez. In addition to Hindi films, Rohit Shetty Picturez has definitive roll plans to address the digital content consuming audience with original web series and cater to Rohit’s younger fans with animated content like Little Singham on Discovery kids. Rohit surely knows how to win hearts!  The latest news is that Rohit Shetty who has already announced that Suryavanshi with Akshay Kumar will be his action packed film after Simmba, has now decided to launch a film with Farha Khan as the director very shortly. The film is presented by Reliance Entertainment and produced by Rohit Shetty Picturez.  It will be exciting to see these two creative minds come together to create a larger than life spectacle.

 Is it true that you have signed Farha Khan to direct a film for you?

Yes. It is true that I have signed on Farah Khan to direct the biggest Action Comedy flick for my Production house, Rohit Shetty Picturez.  After the massive success of my films like Golmaal Again and Simmba, my production house is keen on expanding its gamut and with my next film with Farha Khan as the director, my banner Rohit Shetty Picturez is all set to give the audience a new surprise.

How did you get the idea to ask Farha to direct a film for you?

It’s a privilege for My Production Company to have Farah on board to Direct a film for us as she is extremely talented and hard working. It will definitely be a wonderful association. I can’t wait to start work with this extremely talented powerhouse and it would be an understatement to tell you that I am actually looking forward to go on the floors with my film with Farha Khan.

It is for the first time that you set out to do a remake with Simmba which is a remake of the Telugu hit Temper!!

It is only now when there is media explosion that people come to know that remakes are being made. It isn’t something that is new. Nagarjun had made the remake of PHOOL AUR KAANTE and Chiranjeevi had made the remake of MUNNABHAI MBBS. I had planned to make the Hindi remake of the Tamil hit Soodhu Kavvum but the plan has been put on cold storage now.

The Tamil film boasted of rank new comers. Will the remake of Soodhu Kavvum have stars?

Soodhu Kavvum revolves around four misfit kidnappers, a politician's son and a psychopathic police officer, who handles an investigation about a kidnapping case. In the Hindi version , we wanted to extensively tweak the plot in the second half. Rankly we had not zeroed in on any lead pair for the Hindi version. Kannada actor Sudeep's name is also being proposed for the role reprised by Vijay Sethupathi in the original version.

Do you think remakes are safe bets today in the industry?

Even when I set out to make the GOLMAAL series, we did not know that the series will turn out to be a big hit. I was lucky that our GOLMAAL series clicked at the box office, though it is very difficult to predict what the audience will like these days. Let us face facts. No one wants to make a flop. If, out of the 200 films that are being made in Bolywood every year, only 10 succeed and they are either remakes or for that matter sequels, I feel it is a safe bet to make a remake or a sequel.

That reminds me. When are you launching GOLMAAL 4?

I think we should give a gap of at least two years before we come up with a sequel, like we had a gap between the releases of the earlier series of GOLMAAL.

Did you ever plan to take up acting too, like your late father Shettysaab?

I know that in front of the camera I will be a bad and pathetic actor and hence I will never try my hand at acting at all and just concentrate on direction.

Have you thought in terms of casing Ajay and Kajol together in a film of yours?

If I get the right script that would do justice to both of them, I am game to cast Ajay and Kajol together in my film.

Ajay was the producer of your hit franchise Singham. How is Ajay as a producer?

Ajay is one of the finest actors we have in Bollywood, who has to his credit two National Awards for acting in ZAKHAM and SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGH. Ajay is not only a great actor and director, but also a fabulous producer, who does not interfere at all with his director, since he has this open door policy, where everyone in the unit, right from the spot boy to the director chips in with his or her own ideas, though he leaves the director the freedom to implement whatever idea her wants to incorporate in his film.

How happy are you to be hailed as a successful director today in Bollywood?

To tell the truth, without sounding immodest, I am quite happy and consider myself to be very lucky that right now I am in a quality space where there is a lot of scope for innovative directors who are ready to think out of the box.

Can you explain?

If in the earlier era, there were filmmakers like Vijay Anand, Guru Dutt etc in our midst, I am happy that today we have with us brilliant filmmakers like Rajkumar Hirani, Imtiaz Ali etc, who are making films like P.K and Highway, which are different from what people generally make in Bollywood.

Why do you always prefer Goa as your favorite destination for shooting your films, whether it was Golmaal, All The Best or for that matter Singham and Singham 2 earlier and Simmba now?

The reason I have preferred to shoot most of my films in Goa is because Goa has always been my most favorite shooting location as far as India is concerned. I consider Goa to be very lucky for Ajay and me as the films which we have shot together there have turned out to be huge commercial blockbusters. I laud the wonderful move by the government of Goa to establish a nodal system single window clearance for films where film producers can get all kinds of clearances from different ministries through a single window.

Why do you show a marked preference to work only with big stars like say Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan and now Ranveer Singh and not thought of giving a break to rank new comers who are talented?

I would like to reiterate that contrary to the perception that  I prefer only sought after stars like Shah Rukh Khan or for that matter Ajay Devgn or Ranveer Singh to  work with me, the actual truth is that  I am very keen on working with talented rank new comers as and when the story of my films demand. I am also equally interested in working with new script writers who show a lot of promise. If I do not get time to devote to a project as a director, I can always launch a film with another director to encourage new comers

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