Suniel Shetty Makes Another Daring Experiment In Rajinikanth's “Darbar"

Ali Peter John

There general belief in the industry that you can be a very good actor and not be a good man and therefore have a short career, while there are actors who are basically good human beings and can last very long the basis of their being good people. The outstanding examples of this category of actors are Ashok Kumar, Pran, Vinod Mehra, Jackie Shroff and Suniel has completed more than thirty-five years in films and has no credentials to prove that he is a talented actor, but he is still going strong all because of his humane nature and his large-heartedness and his not being involved in controversies and affairs. He could have been down and out if he was taken seriously only as an actor, but the fact that he is still busy and is even wanted in the South and is even wanted in negative roles which he loves playing speak was volumes for why he is still around and doing well for himself and even his children. His latest achievements is his being taken on as the badman in Rajinikanth's“Darbar"being directed by A.R Murugadoss.

The shooting of“Darbar"started in mid-April on the streets of Mumbai with leading lady Nayanthara. During the 20-day shoot, the director also filmed an intense action scene with Prateik Babbar, who plays the son of the antagonist, Suniel Shetty, the badman in “Darbar". He was last seen the antagonist 15 years ago in the Shah Rukh Khan starrer,“Main Hoon Na". Incidentally, Akshay Kumar, one of the leading male stars of Mumbai felt honoured to play the badman in Rajnikanth's“2.0".

“Suniel, a corporate giant in real life, will take on Thalaiva’s IPS officer. He will join the team during the second schedule which starts in the next few days in Mumbai and will be there all through,”. The thriller wraps up in another three months, after which Rajni is supposed to be getting active with his political activities all over again.

Suniel has been working on his menacing ‘look’ and bulking up in the gym. “The antagonist’s track has an emotional back-story also featuring Rajinikanth, which makes the revenge all the more exciting. There will be several confrontation scenes between the duo in the film which climaxes with a stylized, larger-than-life action scene,” said the source.

Rajini has previously played a cop in films like“Moondru Mugam",“Geraftaar",“Hum"and“Pandiyan". Speculations are rife that he will sport multiple avatars in the film, including that of a social activist, details of which are being kept strictly under wraps. He may even be seen as the young Rajni in one of his avtaars in “Darbar".

In the second innings of his career, Suniel has taken up several meaty roles down South. He recently wrapped up Priyadarshan’s multi-lingual period drama,“Marakkar: The Lion of Arabian Sea". Also featuring Mohanlal, it is set against the Zamorin war with Portuguese.

He also makes his Kannada film debut with the soonto-release Sudeep starrer“Pailwaan". “There is another big Telugu project which he has signed and discussions are on with couple of directors for his Hindi films as well,” added the source. Suniel had recently acknowledged that talks are on with Priyadarshan to return as the director of the“Hera Pheri"franchise.“Hera Pheri 3"is expected to take off by the year-end reuniting Suniel with Akshay and Paresh Rawal.

And even as he keeps taking up one challenge after another at this stage and age of his career, Suniel is also on talks about doing a Marathi film like Amitabh Bachchan is doing“A.B.C and D"in which the seventy-six year old Amitabh is busy clashing with the giant of Marathi films, the seventy-five year old Vikram Gokhale. It is a known fact that Suniel Shetty is very fluent at speaking Marathi which is the language used by most of his staff in his hotel and other buisnesses and also because of his being a Mumbaikar ever since he was born and his wife, Mana who is the daughter of the renowned architect, I.M Kadri is also a Mumbaikar and so are their children Athiya and Ahan who are both trying to find their places in films.

P.S-I remember the days when Suniel Shetty who was the son of a leading hotelier and who also had his boutique buisness in South Bombay. But he was determined to be an actor and he believed that his muscular physique could get him an entry into films easily. He was introduced to Pahlaj Nilhaani who was considered to be a lucky producer, especially after he made a blockbuster hit,“Aanken"with Govinda, Chunky Pandey and two new girls. He was treated like God by newcomers who met him at airports and other public places. Suniel kept waiting outside Pahlaj's office for several months and Pahlaj kept making promises that were not kept, but Suniel never lost his faith in Pahlaj....

Till Pahlaj found a script and a director in Deepak. S. Anand and launched Suniel in a film called “Balwaan"in the presence of almost the entire industry. The first shot in which Suniel had to crash into a wall of bricks was appreciated by the entire crowd and Suniel was accepted as an action-star. He however had to put up a very tough fight and had to share star space with other actors, but he never gave up hope and that is perhaps the only reason why he is still around, why he is fighting fit and why he can go on fighting and winning, all because of what can only be described as his good and affable nature.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Suniel Shetty Biography, Suniel Shetty, Darbar, Rajinikanth