Usually when children become famous, the famous parents are known as their parents. Rarely it happens that despite a child attaining stardom the star father still retains his identity. Take the case of #ShaktiKapoor and #ShraddhaKapoor. Shakti Kapoor has been a huge star and now his daughter is a young superstar. But Shraddha, most of the time is referred to as Shakti Kapoor’s daughter and not vice versa. And she takes pride in that. Shakti Kapoor still has an aura around him and is fit even in his advanced age of 70. He doesn’t look his age which underlines a fact that he takes care of his health very well.

Shakti Kapoor was destined to become an actor. Hailing from a business family from New Delhi, Sunil Kapoor (Shakti Kapoor’s real Name) was reluctant to join the family business. He graduated from #KiroriMalCollege which boasts of names like #AmitabhBachchan, #DineshThakur (who died in 2012), #SatishKaushik (who expired just a few days ago) in it’s students list. Getting selected to #FTII (Films & Television Institute of India) was no less than a miracle. As he never was interested in a 9 to 5 job, he grabbed that God sent opportunity. And the rest is history because Shakti Kapoor has done more than ‘700’ films and is still going strong. He has also worked in #Malayalam, #Bengali, #Oriya, #Nepali, #Telugu, #Kannada, #Assamese and #Bangladeshi films. Shakti Kapoor has always avoided groupism in the film industry and believed in hard work. He never behaves churlishly. He has always been passionate about his work and maybe because of that he worked with #MithunChakraborty in 100 films and with #Jeetendra in more than 70 films. In earlier era film’s Hero-Heroine jodi used to be talking point but when Shakti Kapoor and #KaderKhan jodi got famous they got discussed even more. He has done more than 100 films with Kader Khan. Shakti Kapoor and #Govinda’s jodi too was audience’s favourite. They worked together in almost 50 films. Their last film together was Rangeela Raja which was produced and directed by #PahlajNihalani which released a year before pandemic which circumvented quite a few obstacles. Our Sr Editor Mr. Keerti Kadam, along with magazine’s Guest Editor Ms. Nisha Verma met Shakti Kapoor at his plush sea facing residence and interacted with him.

Shraddha Kapoor’s latest outing ‘Tu Jhooti Main Makkar’ has been doing good business at the box office.

What are your views on Shraddha’s ‘Tu Jhooti Main Makkar’ doing good business?
It definitely is a great feeling. It’s a good news for the film industry because it has been going through crisis and not many films are doing good business. Earlier Shahrukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’ opened the floodgates and now ‘Tu Jhooti Main Makkar’ is getting audiences back to theatres. Though it’s a double celebration for me because it’s my daughter Shraddha’s film and secondly I am part of this beautiful industry, so I am bound to be extra happy. I am proud of my daughter and congratulate the makers, cast and crew. I hope the film does stupendous business.

What makes the film tick with audiences?
I think that you ought to make a good film. These days more thrust is given to the script. The star system is getting faded and the viewers have become ruthless. Any mediocre stuff won’t stick today with the audience. They have become very choosy now. In our times their used to be 4-5 heroes and 4-5 heroines and the entire industry used to function around them. But now the times have changed. Now the competition is huge. With the advent of television and OTT platforms audiences have huge choices to get entertained. They are exposed to everything around the world and in that case if we keep on dishing out the old stuff, they’ll not support you.

You were one of the most good looking villains Hindi film industry had…
I am still a good looking guy…(laughs)

Yes, of course, but did you not try to become a ‘Hero’ after attaining stardom?
In those days, all actors used to be a victim of typecasting. Most of them were not accepted in other roles by the then audience. Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha were established villains. They successfully transitioned to protagonist roles. I too was keen on playing protagonist in films. And I did a film as a Hero. It was ‘Zakhmi Insaan’. But unfortunately it bombed. The producer and the distributor became seriously ‘Zakhmi’. (Laughs) Then I consoled myself and started doing what I was good at, villain roles. In fact, later I realised that there’s more scope for villain’s roles.

You shifted gear and turned to comedic roles…..
Yes, I was offered Satte Pe Satta (remake of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) by Romu Sippy and I am happy that I did that film. I think it is being remade once again. But it definitely changed the course of my career. It opened other doors for me. Many filmmakers realised that I have potential to do comic roles. Mind you, comedy is the most difficult genre. Judwaa, Bol Radha Bol, Taqdeerwala, Andaz Apna Apna, Hero Hindustani, Coolie No 1, Gunda, Hungama, Chaalbaaz, there are so many of them in which I did comedic roles. Raja Babu was the icing on the cake. I received Filmfare’s Best Actor in a Comic Role award and it has very special place in my life. It so happened that, that year my mother wanted to accompany me to the Filmfare awards show. I was nominated for Raja Babu and I was continuously praying to God that I should win for the sake of my mother. She has been my support system right from the time I had decided to go to FTII. It was her dream to see her son receiving an award in front of her eyes. I profusely prayed to God and that trophy was bestowed on me that year.

Tell us about how you met Shivangi ma’am and how things got furthered….
We met, we fell in love and we got married with everybody’s blessings. It’s as simple as that. And of course we have two beautiful children. Frankly I do not talk about it.

Shraddha calls you Bapu. Anything specific on that?
She has been calling me Bapu since childhood. I do not remember anything connected to it.

You and Shraddha made a reel on ‘Thumka’, something about it….
I really loved the ‘Thumka’ song from Shraddha’s ‘Tu Jhooti Main Makkar’ and we decided to make a reel on that. I enjoy dancing and it was an impromptu dance. It went viral and has more than 3 million views.

Shraddha told me that there were 20 retakes and all were because of her and you did not complain once…
See, to get a good shot I have given 50 retakes also. So it’s a question of end product being good. I don’t agree with Shraddha that all the retakes were because of her mistake. I feel that it was a collective effort and we had fun doing it.

OTT is getting prominence these days. Have you been part of that platform?
Yes of course. A lot good stuff is being made on OTT. I did Bravehearts – The Untold Stories of Heroes. This anthology celebrates the stories of unsung heroes and their journey. I was paired with Suchitra Krishnamoorthi. I also did Parchhayee: Ghost Stories by Ruskin Bond which was premiered on the Zee5 platform. I was part of the Ashley Ka Intezar episode. At the moment I have three scripts with me, which I am going through. And If I like my role I’ll definitely do it.

Your life has been quite interesting. Any plans to write a memoir or making a biopic?
No. No. If I want to write a biography, I’ll definitely come to you. But I haven’t given a thought for biopic. I am content with my life. Mumbai has given me ‘star ki life and a beautiful wife’.

The post Shakti Kapoor : Mumbai gave me a star’s life and a beautiful wife! first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

Akhtar was greatly inspired by Pakistani author Ibn-e-Safi’s Urdu novels, which he grew up reading as a child. He was influenced by their fast action, tight plots, economies of expression, fascinating characters with catchy memorable names, and speaking styles.

Javd Akhtar was at Bombay Central station with just 27 paise in his pockets. Was happy that if can be able to add another paisa to his riches. He will be the winner and life a looser.

With just enough money to either grab a bite or a bus ride. He buyed some gram and started walking. He had got an assignment to write dialogue in another film. He reached the directors’ home with the scenes. He saw the director having pineapple in breakfast as the director takes and reads the scenes. Throwing the papers on his face. The director dismisses Javed by saying “he would never become a writer”.

The Bombay Monsoon was at its worst fury. Sitting under the pale light of a weak lamp on the steps of Khar Station’s portico. And thought people must be sleeping in their homes. His father too ……. To Read Full Interview CLICK HERE

The post Javed Akhtar : The Talented and Multi-faceted first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

I can vividly remember my childhood when we had the chance of watching films on Sunday evenings on Doordarshan channel. This is a part of childhood that most of the kids of the 1980s and early 1990s would remember. The streets would go deserted when the lord of actors, Amitabh Bachchan’s films were telecasted; the next day, everybody would sing the tracks from that film. Young boys would recite the dialogues of Agneepath “Poora naam, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, baap ka naam, Dinanath Chauhan, maa ka naam, Suhasini Chauhan, gaon Mandwa…” (“full name Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, father’s name Dinanath Chauhan, mother’s name Suhasini Chauhan, village Mandwa”), or  one of the famous dialogues  from Sholay “Tumhara naam kya hain Basanti?” (“What’s your name Basanti?”) or of Namak Halal “I can talk English, I can walk English…”.

Such performance by the actor would make people roll on the floor laughing. Bachchan’s way of romancing actresses would bring young girls, itch inside the women, smiling and scratching their legs as if it’s happening in front of them, while young men would go euphoric. Bachchan was a larger than life icon, a fashion icon, an idol for both the wannabe fans and other actors within the film industry.

For years people have adored Bachchan as an evergreen hero; he comes back, again and again, to fit into those roles carved for him, romanced most of the actresses, some of whom were much younger than him and it was a dream come true to work with him in a film for many.

Like his screen life, Bachchan’s personal life was ever interesting, nail-biting and adventurous as well. The actresses he romanced, the people who were his friends, etc, became ingredients of Bollywood gossips. Who can forget Bachchan’s shifting interests in the film industry? Who can forget the allegations of his romantic hookup with Rekha, or Parveen Babi, who, in her last days, blamed Bachchan for her miseries.

Similar was Bachchan’s political preferences and stunts; shifting with time and need. The friendship between Bachchan and the Gandhis was the talk of the town in the 1960s, and it remained the same throughout the 1970s and early 1980s too. Who can forget his controversial speech after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, when Bachchan raised his arm shouting  “Khoon ka badla khoon se laengey” (Blood for blood) twice,  provoking people to kill Sikhs? It’s so similar to Yogi Adityanath, the present chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, vowing to take revenge on protestors against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, or CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in his state and penalising the Muslims heavily for the vandalism done by the state.

Then in the early 1990s, the relationship between the Gandhis and Bachchans soured, especially after Bachchan’s name came out in the Bofors scandal and after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. A few years later, the Big B, found another political lever due to another prominent politician called Amar Singh who would call Bachchan his brother. But the relationship could not sustain for long after Amar Singh was expelled from the Samajwadi Party. Even Singh accused the Bachchans for his falling out with his party leadership.

Bachchan is the same person who spoke up before 2014, made jokes on onion price, falling rupee rate and high prices of petrol too. Moreover,  his wife and former actor Jaya Bachchan, who is an MP of the Samajwadi Party, advocated mob lynching for the accused of the Hyderabad veterinary surgeon’s gangrape and murder.

However, when the whole country has hit the streets to protest against discriminatory CAA, NRC and National Population Register (NPR), Bachchan, like the majority of film industry honchos, has decided to remain silent. There are memes on social media doing rounds that caricature him, the mouth of Bachchan is shown gagged in one. Even after a lot of requests from his fans, especially Muslim fans, to speak up, Bachchan didn’t dare to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on the CAA, NPR and NRC.

All my childhood memories came back, as I started witnessing another favourite movie, but this time, Bachchan is in the green room. Preparing to deliver his dialogues, grimes after the shot is over, thinking how tactfully he played the character of Vijay Dinanath Chouhan and made people believe in the euphoria he created. Bachchan is paid handsomely and he is preparing himself for on-screen roles that can earn him money. He isn’t bothered about off-screen roles, to be a real hero in real life.

A whole bunch of fans want him to speak up, rise for them, for their rights, as the angry young man, his typical image that has imprinted in the minds of his fans. Yet it is too much of an expectation the fans are yearning from Bachchan. It’s imperative to remember that he and other actors actually entertain us, they act perfectly, they play the on-screen characters, take us to the surrealistic world. That’s where these socially-divorced actors are confined to. Bachchan or such famous actors like him aren’t revolutionaries, they aren’t the rebel they portray on-screen, they are mere actors, trying to make money by pleasing the powers that rule India and the film industry.

Bachchan’s dialogues are written by some writer, the film scripts are written by other writers; Bachchan follows the director, signs the film for a producer, who explains him the whole idea of the film and convinces him how it is going to evolve and what effect it will have on the audience and his career. After the shooting is over he gets paid a hefty amount, then we put a portion of our savings to buy tickets in a theatre to watch his films and feel euphoric.

So it is our fault, not his; Bachchan is doing his job, it’s we who drain ourselves into the character he played. Bachchan never told anyone to admire him or follow him. He is an entertainer, that is it. So is every actor associated with the film industry. Expecting them to show courage in real life is too much to ask for in the era of the fascist rampage.

Now I recall what my parents used to say when I skipped my studies and other important things to do, to watch his films. They used to tell us that these actors are here to earn money and live a luxurious life, wasting our time behind them is our loss at the end of the day.

It is us who have to protest, we have to fight for our rights, they are mere entertainers, making their money; it’s important to ignore them. They don’t care about people.  The people for them are just agents of their business endeavours, mere ticket purchasers for them. Bachchan isn’t in the film industry to become a role model, he has been there for himself, for making money and a career. Even the late Om Puri used to vent out his frustration over why Bachchan keeps on getting awards and films when there are other actors. It didn’t matter to the film industry.

These celebrities, actors, stars like Bachchan are no better in this country more than entertainers, who openly vow to support the party in power for their petty gains. Lest we forget that, it is better we shun them to make them silent forever in our minds too

The post The Silence of the Stars at the hour of Fascism, “Amitabh Bachchan are no better in this country more than Entertainers”. first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

Bird and Unforgiving are the most profoundly surprising and the most personal of his films. The former, a biography of Charlie Parker, the self-taught, self-destructive musician making his way up out of rural poverty to play his revolutionary music in the jazz clubs during the ‘40s and ‘50s, is Clint’s weightiest movie. At once compassionate and objective, the film provides a meditation on the life and work of an artist that the director, himself a self-taught musician and a passionate devotee of modern jazz, admired from the first moment he heard him in concert in 1946. It pays full tribute to the man’s genius and the sweetness of his spirit, yet offers no easy excuses or sentimental explanations for his suicidal behavior. Bird is ultimately as Clint sees it, a tragedy about a man refusing to take responsibility for himself and his gifts–a quality that often elicits Clint’s puzzled reflections, precisely because it is the opposite of his own way.

Unforgiving can be read as a movie in which Clint acknowledges responsibility for certain aspects of his own life. In essence, it is a story about the ways that men drift into violence–through misunderstanding, through careless machismo, through misplaced pride and moral rigidity–and the costs, unacknowledged in most movies, including (as he said when he was making it) some of Clint’s own, of that behavior. It represents not an act of atonement, but rather a statement of self-awareness-brooding, ambiguous and, in the history of the western, quite singular in its immensity of emotion.

The first time he spoke lines to a camera, he blew them. A couple of pictures later he spoke his lines perfectly, but he was buried so deep in a dark scene that he couldn’t be seen. Toward the end of his first year as an actor, he had a nice little scene with a major star on a major production, and he found a good-looking pair of glasses that he thought gave him a bit of character. But Rock Hudson thought the same thing when he saw the kid wearing them, and Clint had to surrender his specs to the leading man.

Clint has never been given sufficient credit for the imaginative leap this undertaking represented, for the courage it required to willfully subvert his safe, boyish image of the time. By taking this long shot, he not only ended his long apprenticeship, he became a true rarity–an entirely self-made star.

Westerns
“I never considered myself a cowboy, because I wasn’t,” Clint Eastwood once said. “But I guess when I got into cowboy gear I looked enough like one to convince people that I was.”

When he went off to Italy to make A Fistful of Dollars, he was thinking “the western was in a dead place, encrusted with myth, poetry, stale pictorialism and simple moralizing.” The thing that drew him to this unlikely, low-paying project was the quality that earned it and his other Leone films so much disapproval when they first appeared–their straightforward, darkly comic insistence on the primitive and entirely ignoble nature of frontier life.

Clint Eastwood became a star in westerns, but he became a superstar playing cops. One can even identify the exact moment when it happened. It is early in Dirty Harry, when a gang tries to rob the bank across the street from Inspector Harry Callahan’s favorite hot dog stand. He looks up irritably as sirens sound, guns fire, cars start crashing. Then he strolls out into the street, still chewing his food as he unlimbers his .44 Magnum, wounds one of the miscreants and opens his immortal dialogue with the man (“I know what you’re thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five?”

Dirty Harry tapped into popular resentment of what many felt at the time was an excessive judicial concern for criminal rights. In those days, the liberal intellectual community felt that these protections, most famously expressed in the Miranda decision, had been late in coming and required defense against critics in law enforcement. When Dirty Harry appeared in 1971, the spirit of the sixties–generally anti-establishment, specifically anti-police–was still very much felt in the land.

But Kael gave him a bad, or at least excessive, rap. It is certainly true that Harry Callahan’s attempts to capture a psychopathic killer who is terrorizing San Francisco are constantly thwarted by a police bureaucracy bowing to liberal pressure and that he fails to observe all legal niceties in this case. Granted, Harry is not always–to put it mildly–careful in the way he expresses contempt for this caution, and he is not often delicate in his handling of suspects.

As we look back on the film almost a quarter century later, we see two things: that at every level of society sympathy has switched decisively toward victim rights and away from criminal rights, which makes Harry Callahan look almost like a prophet; and that the violence of the movie, also much criticized at the time, looks mild in comparison to the preposterous firepower now routinely released in urban action films (Die Hard or Lethal Weapon films or almost anything starring Sylvester Stallone).

Clint Eastwood understood this character. He had been raised in blue-collar Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco, gone to a trade and technical high school, knew (and continued to respect) working-class people–their virtues, their frustrations, their outrages. Ultimately, that is what he thought this movie and all the Dirty Harry movies were most essentially about. And the other cops he has played–whether it was the drunken loser Ben Shockley in The Gauntlet or the sexually confused Wes Block in Tightrope–partook of these same characteristics. They were never smooth guys, or articulate guys. They weren’t even too smart. They just had good, sound instincts. These figures flattered them with understanding, but never toadied to them. Or talked down to them. No wonder Clint’s audience could never get enough of them.

Man of Action
“I’ve never thought of myself as a leading man,” Clint Eastwood once said, somewhat surprisingly, “though I guess at one time I was considered one… being one of the young guys bopping’ around town on a television series. But I always tried to be a character actor even then.”

Maintaining this identity was hard for Clint-casting directors couldn’t see beyond his good looks. Later, when he had established himself with Rawhide and the spaghetti westerns, agents and studio bosses wanted him to play straightforward heroic leads. That’s where the money is, after all. For a time, he obliged them–with Where Eagles Dare, Kelly’s Heroes, and The Eiger Sanction–though he always alternated these big pictures with smaller, anti-heroic ventures like The Beguiled and Play Misty for me (the first film he directed).

The more expensive, expansive films fulfilled their function of helping to establish Clint’s credentials as a star that could carry a big movie. Yet he always seems shy, almost self-effacing in these contexts, an actor is more serious about his craft than he sometimes chooses to let on, in search of an author who will be capable of giving him a real character to play. These movies–among which one should probably list Joshua Logan’s action less but pricey musical, Paint Your Wagon–wear poorly precisely because they do not intelligently count the costs of heroism, of machismo, if you will. This is a subject that deeply interests Clint Eastwood, though it is not something he talks about much. But in these pictures, it is just an unexamined premise.

Clint meant to look into this matter more deeply in his own Firefox, but plot and special effects largely overrode his efforts. He did much better a little later with Heartbreak Ridge, which raucously, yet poignantly, asks what a lifelong soldier is supposed to do when he gets too old to fight in wars that are increasingly meaningless anyway. The same is true of White Hunter, Black Heart, in which a macho movie director must reexamine the noisy, careless audacity by which he has lived his life and managed his career. In these movies, the character actor has real characters to play–characters that in some ways subvert, or at least cause us to question, common (and superficial) assumptions about Clint Eastwood’s image. In his mind he has never been an action star any more than he has been a leading man, and without talking about it directly, he would like us to understand that.

Back roads & Barrooms
Not in grown-up life, certainly. But as a child of the Depression, he was obliged to move about constantly as his father looked for work–most of it marginal–all over California. As a young man trying to find himself, Clint spent a couple of years drifting around, doing hard manual labor-lumberjacking, working in steel mills and aircraft factories. Moreover, his lifelong passion for jazz drew him at an early age into the low dives where the music he loved was played. All of this did not give him the sympathetic sense of working-class life, patronizing nor indulgent, that marks some of his best, and possibly most enduring, work.

The post Clint Eastwood “Directing for most movie stars is a sometimes thing, and more often than not is a form of self-indulgence. For Clint Eastwood, directing was something he was determined to do from his earliest days as an actor, and something he now perhaps needs to do more urgently than he needs to act. Woody Allen aside, no star has directed more often than he has–20 films–or with greater professionalism of the old-fashioned kind, which specifically rejects pride of auteurship. He is always on budget and usually ahead of schedule. Actors love working with him because, being an actor himself, he allows them to find their own way with just the occasional, supportive suggestion.” first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

Your last film as a director was Krrish 3 and your last film as a producer was Kaabil. Why are you lying low?
I am not lying low but constantly reshaping and rewriting the drafts for Krrish 4. I have kept aside two drafts and am working on the third. I work till I am satisfied and sure of what I am going to make, whether I am producing a film or directing it. I am not at all in a mad rush and there is no compulsion to make a film and prove myself. My thoughts are always open as I am never in a mad rush and there is no pressure of any sort at all. Each idea is different. You get a good idea but sometimes you realize that only of the story line is correct, and the rest of the film fits in and you do not go ahead with the making of a film.

How do you manage to reinvent yourself as a filmmaker?
I watch a lot of films not only in Hindi but also in different languages keep on learning from them. I saw Toilet Ek Prem Katha and was zapped and even though I did not at all know the director Shree Narayan Singh, I tried to get his number and rang him up to congratulate him and even predicted to him that it would turn out to be a successful film. Till date, I have not at all stopped learning because I do not at all feel that I am the best. I concede that most of my colleagues are making brilliant films and I want to compete with all of them in a healthy manner.

In what way has cinema changed over the years with the advent of digitalization?
Negatives may have given way to digital prints but let me tell you that filmmaking continues to be the same and you still set out to make a film only if the screenplay is perfect and the actors also suit the roles.

Do you think that the content is being given more importance than the form now?
Content alone always runs. Yes. There are times when content can fail because after all it is an artistic job and you just cannot be right all the times. One works out of the way to make a good film.

Why do you call your son Hrithik Roshan a double barrel for you?
Fortunately Hrithik became a star right from his first film Kaho Naa Pyar Hai. He was the first hero in Indian cinema to be launched with a double role in his very first film. I make movies for and around Hrithik and he is a double barrel for me. I want to make movies which challenge me as well as Hrithik Roshan as a maker. Even today, my hands and feet turn cold and I turn nervous on the first three or four days of my shooting on the sets.

Hrithik was your assistant before he took up acting. Do you think he will shape up to be a good director eventually?
Hrithik was assisting me on the sets of three of my films- Koyla, Karan Arjun and Khel. Hrithik is not only a good actor but is also a good editor too. If he chooses to direct films, he would prove to be very good. I first learnt editing and only then took to direction.

How would you describe Hrithik Roshan as a person?
Hrithik is basically a very intense and emotional actor who fits into his characters very well. Hrithik is a quiet and straight forward and honest guy. The best thing about him is that he goes on improving with every film of his. I think he is the only actor today who has in a span of just 16 years proved himself with different roles in films like Dhoom, Koyi Mil Gaya, Jodha Akbar, Krrish 3, Guzarish, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Kaho Naa Pyar Hai in a double role in his debut film and Kaabil. Hrithik does not at all shy away from attempting to take up roles which do not suit his image.

Can you cite an example?
In his forthcoming film Super 30 directed by Vikas Bahl, he plays a Bihari mathematician and believe it or not, just to prepare himself for the part, he started working on mastering Bihari language for six months and is even texting his friends in Bihari and speaks with a Bihari accent. He is also a family person who likes to spend the maximum time with his kids.

How strict are you as a director on the sets? Are you open for suggestions from your actors and other unit members?
I listen to not only my actors but also the spot boys on my sets, if they have any suggestion; I give an ear to all who come to me with their own suggestions. If I feel that they are not right or they are not able to convince me, I explain to them if their suggestions are not acceptable and if they are right, I accept them without any ego as a filmmaker.

In what way do you think your job as a producer on your sets different from your task as a director?
I know exactly what is required of me as a producer. I know that producing is a different job completely. A producer has to be a jack of all trades and not only be a financier, but direction is an absolutely different ball game. Not many actors become directors. It was only direction which gave me a new lease of screen life. Direction is a 24/7 job unlike acting. As a director, I think of my film even when I am not on the sets. I don’t keep a vanity van, because I do not have the time to go and sit in it. Today the film industry has opened up in big way because of the social media and when you go to a studio there is absolutely no room at all because there are many vanity vans and along with the vanity vans there are a lot of ego and problems.

To what extent do you interfere with your directors on the sets?
Do you know that I go to the sets only on the day of mahurat of my film to sound the clapper board if it is directed by another person before the shooting of my film begins? I discuss with my director before the shooting of my film starts but once the film goes on the floors, I do not interfere with my directors.

How much importance do you give to casting as a producer and director?
Casting an actor who justifies the role is very important. Casting can make or mar a film. I would say that good casting is half the battle won after the right script.

You have till date acted in around 80 to 85 films. Which are your five best films as an actor, according to you?
Kaam Chor, Khel Khel Mein, Dhanwaan, Khoobsoorat, Aap Ke Deewane, Aakhir Kyon etc are my best films till date as an actor. I should confess that as an actor, my career was over when Kaam Chor was released and I did not get any good offer even though it was a hit at the box office. So the actor Rakesh Roshan made the producer Rakesh Roshan and the producer Rakesh Roshan made the director Rakesh Roshan when I decided to change my gears as a director with Khudgarz after which I did not look back

You are the son of the illustrious music director Roshan Nagrath. Like Hrithik, do you also sing?
Music is a God gifted thing or else every musician in the world today, whether he is a guitarist, a table player or a bongo player would have become a music director. Not everyone can make a tune. As the son of a great music director like Roshan, I have a good ear for music, but cannot sing at all, though my brother Rajesh Roshan is a good music director. My mum also used to sing. Like Hrithik, Raju also sings.

Why has music has changed over the years?
It isn’t music which has changed over the years. It is the generation as well as the situations that have changed. Today the beat and the groove are more important than the lyrics unlike in the years of yore and that is the reason that the songs today are short lived especially since there is no depth in them. If the screenplay of my film does not need any song, I will make a film which has no song.

Did you always want to be an actor?
My dad expired when I was 16 and in Wadia College. He knew I wanted to be a director. In 1967 I joined as an assistant, first to H S Rawail when he was making Sunghursh and then Mohan Kumar, when he was making Anjaana and Aap Aaye Bahaar Aaye. As an assistant, you don’t have to learn. You have to absorb. It helps you later on subconsciously. No one can teach you anything in the industry. It is your observation and your experience which count a lot.

How did you get your break as an actor?
When I was an assistant to Mohan Kumar, Rajendra Kumar asked me on the sets of Anjaana what I wanted to become eventually in films. I said I wanted to be an actor. He asked B. Nagi Reddy who was making Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani with Prakash Rao as the director to cast me in his film. Man Mandir followed. The break was easy but the going was tough.

In what way does your ability as an actor help you as a director when you direct others?
The fact that I was an actor helps me as a director because I can easily explain a scene to my actors, though I want my actors to interpret me and not follow me. I can explain why a take is not good to my actors. When actors become directors it is good for other actors. I felt I should take a chance by putting in my own money. I knew no producer will give me a break. So I made Khudgarz and have not looked back since.

What is your strength as a director?
I am experienced but still learning. I know what is right and what is wrong but direction is my forte. As a director, I am open to new writers. I can only make good films, not necessarily successful films. My film Kites did not run but no one said that it was a bad film. That is because the concept sometimes goes wrong. You should think ahead of your time because every year the generation changes and you have to be ready today to cater to the audience in 2020.

The post Rakesh Roshan “I can’t Make More Than a Film at a Time” first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

On what after Judwaa 2 as a director
I am chilling out and enjoying myself now. After a month or two, I intend looking at scripts and start directing a film. I do not think I am cut out to be a producer though my son Rohit Dhawan is a director on his own right and Varun sells on his own as a star, because I am of the opinion that production is a thankless job. I just want to give my creativity to a producer and take money. I am the same old David Dhawan who was earning just Rs 22 per day as a temporary staff when I used to edit shows like Laddoosingh Taxiwala starring Paintal, Yeh Hai Asha and Magic Lamp with Doordarshan. I am not on sale even today. I used to wait for the 4 Ltd BEST bus and I would say that I have gone though the grind.

On doing 45 films as a director
It is 41 years since I had passed out from the Film & TV Institute of Pune in 1976. Initially I was directing for almost ten years and later switched over to direction with Taaqatwar in 1987. I have directed 45 films in 27 years till date including Chasme Buddoor. My journey has been good. I have realized that in this industry, if your films run, you are needed and you also get izzat. Many a time I have been pushed against the wall but I have learnt the art of surviving.

On Cinema today
I find the industry thoroughly professional now though it was humane earlier and al of us used to believe a lot in relationship. I shudder to think that at times it has even become out and out cut throated nowadays and no open bothers about the others seriously though all of us rallied with one another in times of need earlier. The corporate have come in a big way. It is good as well as bad. Good because they have a bigger and better hold over the multiplexes unlike individual producers especially since they do not give a new director even a single show and bad because they treat films as subzi.Though I am a director as well as an editor, I think I am one up as an editor over myself as a director. It is a tool that I have mastered over the years. I bet no one can say that my film is loose though it may be good or bad or even worse. I am a better editor than a director. I bet I can cut a film and the editor will not even know. I can change the shape of a film on the editing table.I would say that it is shameful that today the directors do not get paid as much as the stars are though they are supposed to be the captains of the ship. You just cannot help it because stars are stars. Look at the Khans. Though they are above 50, they still rule today. It is a vicious circle and hence it is no wonder that when stars demand high amounts as their remuneration, new comers come to the fore. Like my son Varun, Sidharth Malhotra and Allia Bhatt were introduced by Karan Johar.

On comedies scoring today
Comedies sell in a big way today. Take any film today. It is a comedy. There was a time when the so called critics used to scoff at the comedies which I used to make and call them C grade. Today Rajkumar Hirani’s films are sliced with the comedy tadka. In my time, it was drama ka daur though now comedy too is veered towards realism. My film Judwaa 2 , like its prequel Judwa is an out and out hilarious comedy

On being an Eklavya to Manmohan Desai
Manji was my school of learning. I was like an Eklavya to him. He has always inspired me. I was thrilled when in his lifetime when he came to me to sign me to direct a film for him. I am sad that I couldn’t direct Deewana Mastana when he was alive.Though I was inspired a lot by the craft of Vijay Anand and K. Asif, today I like Raju Hirani’s story telling in 3 Idiots, Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai more than P.K. I was inspired a lot by Raj Kapoor’s grandeur and visual treat and Hrishida’s slice of life films. People tell me that my scenes are being copied by other filmmakers. I do not feel bad. It is good to know that your work is being respected.

On how tough making films has become
Today making films is tough money-wise as the cost of P&A has become very prohibitive. You need 15 to 20 cr to just make a big budget film. The losses have become high but the corporate do not talk about it. Star system is ruling and it is easy to make a film but quite tough to release it. Earlier a producer used to get a minimum of 35% of the budget of his film by way of sale of satellite rights but now it has dried up. Today unless and until an actor comes forward to reduce his price, it is not only mushqil but also namumkin to make a film.I knew Chasme Buddoor could have back fired but it proved to be a sleeper hit. Viacom 18 had the rights and asked me if I could work on the script. It took me 8 months.I made a lot of changes to make it contemporary with a different climax altogether. My life has always been like that of Hrithik Roshan in Lakshya. I was one of the boys who used to enjoy glamour and be thrilled when Anil Dhawan’s heroines became friendly with me on his sets. In went to FTII to become an actor but chickened when I saw other actors. Roshan Tanjeja asked me to chose an alternate and though I did not at all know what editing was, I gave it a try as I was zapped by the way Mohinder Batra used to edit his films. When once I saw Ghatak’s Megha Dhake Tara at the screening at the Institute, my eyes became wet and I decided to take up direction because the film made such a great impact on me.

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The talk hovers around the business that films are doing today at the box office. “If my films like Upkar, Roti Kapada Aur Makaan had been released today, they would have romped home with over 500 to 700 crores. In those days the rates of cinema tickets were in the range of just Rs 2 to Rs 5 and multiplexes had not mushroomed though today the ticket rates have gone up to Rs 800 to Rs 1000. The population then was just around 40 crores whereas today it has spiraled to 130 crores.”

Manoj Kumar says that he does not deride filmmakers today for making films which do not have content. “If films had no content, how do you explain the phenomenal success of Baahubali which was dubbed from Telugu to Hindi that too with not so known faces? Didn’t the film collect over 800 cr all over the world? If we try to make films which have good content, we too can come up films which can do business worth 2000 cr. When my own film Kranti was released way back in the 80’s, no one believed that it could collect a crore and a half in Delhi and UP, since it was then considered a phenomenal figure.”

Manoj Kumar feels that today India has overtaken even Hollywood as far as making good films with emphasis on content. “Hollywood is now making only sc fi films or films with super heros whereas we continue to make films which are rich in content and soaked in emotion. Unfortunately the corporates feel that they cannot make a film without stars. In the first place, till date, it is only films which have made stars and not a single star has made a hit film.”

I had to struggle a lot in the initial stage of my career. I was just 19, I played the role of a 40 year old beggar.

“There is a belief in the industry that I am the pioneer of the trend of multi star films. I do not subscribe to this view. When I had launched Roti Kapada Aur Makan, Zeenat Aman and Moushumi Chatterjee had not become stars to reckon with. Shashi Kapoor was at the lowest ebb of his career, while Amitabh Bachchan had only a couple of films to his credit, since Zanjeer had not been released. However by the time RKM was released, all of them had become stars and hence my film was hailed as a multi star film. While some ‘accuse” me of having started the trend, some “compliment” me on my achievement. To call Kranti a multi- star film, is an insult to my product, because it was basically an artiste- oriented project, where the star had absolutely no role to play. I signed Dilip Kumar, Hema Malini and Shashi Kapoor for what they were worth as artistes and not with the intention of cashing in on their star status.”

“Salim and Javed wrote the script of Kranti and I wrote the dialogues. I suggested the idea of Kranti to them and they worked on it to give me the complete script. I am a slave to my script and I respect my script writers. Though Salim and Javed had given me the full liberty to change the script if the film demanded it, I did not want to misuse the liberty they had given me. I did change here and there but before I went on the floors, I would ring them up and ask them for their permission. They told me not to ‘embarrass’ them by asking them their ‘permission’. Go ahead with the necessary changes and inform us after the day’s shooting is over, they used to tell me.

“Though it is almost 61 years since I had started acting by making my debut at the age of just 19, with the film Sahara, I have acted till date in only 50 films. It has not been a very easy climb for me as far as stardom is concerned. I had to struggle a lot in the initial stage of my career. In the film Fashion, though I was just 19, I played the role of a 40 year old beggar. In films like Picnic, Naqli Nawab and Reshmi Roomal, I was nothing but a glorious junior artiste. It was not until I started acting in films like Anita, Do Badan and Grahasti that I was noticed. Though till then success eluded me and I had to my credit a lot of flops, I can without any hesitation state that my success ratio is as good as that of Don Bradman.

“I never condemned the West in my film Upkar though I had set out to show the contrast between India and the West in it. How can we forget that it was the British who had given us the railways? We say everything is there in our Vedas but why are vedas not taught in schools today? Till date, though it is true that I have acted in roles which have had gray shades in some of my films, not even a single producer has offered me a negative role, thanks to my clean and pure image as Mr Bharat.

“I remember I used to fight in the crowds by braving the heavy rains just to buy a ticket to watch Dilip Kumar’s films. Mera Naam Joker, Kagaz Ke Phool etc did not click at the box office but no one said that Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor are cheats. If you make your film with great conviction, even if you fail, it’s okay. If you don’t, then you can’t make your mark as a filmmaker.

I think that I am totally unfit to make a film in the kind of a system we have today.

“Greed has absolutely no end to it at all. When I came to Bombay, in 1956, I wanted to be a hero and earn three lakhs- one lakh for myself, one lakh for my parents and one lakh for my brothers and sisters.In 1954, I started courting my wife and married her after seven years but was so bashful that I did not even talk to her for a year and a half. Thanks to God’s grace, by the time I married when Haryali Aur Raasta was released in 1962, I managed to get more than five lakhs of rupees”.

You have been away from the camera for a long time. Can we see you staging your comeback as a director? I ask him gingerly. He shoots back honestly. “Why do you guys don’t ask David Lean why he hasn’t directed a film for a long time? I think that I am unfit to make a film in the kind of a system today. My biggest asset was Manoj Kumar the star then. I would not tell you a lie. I have three scripts ready with me but the only problem is my back which keeps on troubling me. I cannot sit on a chair on the sets and ask my DOP to shoot the film. I may produce a film if I cannot direct”.

What is your message to the readers of Cine Buster? I ask Manojji. Manojji signs off. “If people want to enjoy their rights, they should be ready to shoulder their responsibilities too by adhering to the rules and regulations of the nation. Only then, you can feel proudly that every day is Independence Day and need not to wait till August 15 every year to celebrate the country’s Independence Day”.

The post Manoj Kumar “My biggest asset was Manoj Kumar the star then” first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

As far as the Dilip Kumar- Saira Banu prem kahani is concerned, it wasn’t exactly a kissa of boy meets girl: He was the intractable tragedy king. She was the sassy Kashmiri lass in Junglee. Heart-broken after his failed affair with Madhubala, Dilip Kumar fell for Naseem Bano’s daughter Saira Banu. The wedding bells rang on October 11, 1966, when most of the teenyboppers’ hearts were broken when they came to know that their favorite actor Dilip Kumar, who had shot to dizzy heights of fame with the success of his romantic films like Devdas and Mughal E Azam, had married Saira Banu. Saira was literally the flavor of the season in the 60’s with hit films like Junglee, Purab Aur Paschim etc.

Born on Dec. 11, 1922, in Peshawar, Yousuf Khan joined the film industry in 1944. He is rightly considered as the subcontinent’s first method actor and an inspiration for generations of filmstars. Yousuf Khan has been an inspiration behind many generations of actors. His dialogue delivery, flawless Urdu and acting abilities have all endeared him to his fellow actors and fans. In his days, he was the king of Indian film industry and his dialogues in the film “Mughal-e-Azam” — a true love epic — was on the lips of every moviegoer and literature lover. In one of his famous observations, director Mahesh Bhatt says, “Where would Indian cinema be without Dilip Kumar’s heart-wrenching performances in Mughal-e-Azam? The wells from where we drink water were dug by this giant called Dilip Kumar.”

Born on August 23, Saira Banu was the hottest actress in Bollywood in the 60’s and early 70’s when she was the epitome of what is called the look of ‘studied artificiality’ that characterized the bouffant and color blitzkrieg look of that era. Her most famous and enduring roles were those of the blonde NRI in Purab Aur Pachhim and the mermaid in Padosan.

It was the most sensational ever marriage way back in 1966 when a young 22 year old Saira Banu who was the dream girl of every young man in town proposed to the matinee idol Dilip Kumar and got married too. Like today Salman Khan at 52 is, at 44, Dilip Kumar was the most eligible bachelor boy around at that point of time when every other top actor whether it was Raj Kapoor, or Dharmendra or Sunil Dutt or for that matter, Manoj Kumar was hooked, booked and married. Post-honeymoon, they made appearances together in Gopi and Sagina and, Ramesh Talwar’s Duniya. Their marriage has been free of scandal, except when he briefly married Asma. This hardly caused a stir, as Dilip gained much sympathy for his desire to father an heir.

“Not many are aware of the fact that Dilip Kumar had also released his second home production in Bhojpuri titled Ab To Ban Ja Sajanwa Hamaar starring Ravi Kishen, Naghma and Mona Thiba.”

Not many are aware of the fact that Dilip Kumar had also released his second home production in Bhojpuri titled Ab To Ban Ja Sajanwa Hamaar starring Ravi Kishen, Naghma and Mona Thiba and directed by Arshad Khan under the banner of Sharp Focus. Dilip Kumar’s official attempt at directing a film called Kalinga for producer Late Sudhakar Bokade did not bear fruit and sadly, the film couldn’t be completed.

In spite of having been in the industry for so long, there remain certain underlying facts unknown to most. Saira reminisces how, as a graduate from London University, she had cherished dreams of meeting Dilip Saab during her childhood days. “I had to brush up my Urdu and leave no stone unturned to learn the depth of the language as I heard Saab was too good in Urdu. I am in love with the man right from the beginning. He is a linguistic, I am very lucky to have been with him. In fact all my dreams and aims have been not only fulfilled but have been achieved to the fullest,” the blushing Saira Banu used to gush.

“Way back in 1962 I had actually launched a film titled Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein with my mother and brother. Since we were new to production, everything went well except the dates of the stars and finally the project was shelved. Sometime back, with Saab, we established our own production banner Sharp Focus which has produced content-oriented stuff for television too. Bhojpuri has been used in films during 60’s also and I and Saab have done a lot of films that had an essence of Bhojpuri language. We like this language so I thought of producing a Bhojpuri film. If you remember our earlier films together as a star pair, especially Bairaag and Sagina Mahato also had the flavor of Bhojpuri. Though I have no intention to stage my come-back as an actress as my dream was to produce films written by Dilip Saab, “if only Saab’s health permits him and he agrees to my proposal of acting in any of these films”.

“Today, Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu are an inseparable entity, accorded much respect and adulation in the industry.”

Saira Banu and Dilip Saab were against making remakes and remixes of any kind, as a producer. “Can you make any yesteryear films as they were made then at that point of time? You will not believe a few young boys who were relatives of B.R. Chopra who live in America came to Mumbai and called me and asked me to send the DVD of old Devdas. Though the new version of Devdas with Shah Rukh Khan was being shown here in the theatres, they liked the older version starring Saab,.Saira exults.

The marriage proved professionally lucky with both notching up individual hits soon afterwards. The best thing about Dilip Kumar is that he has never been a male chauvinist who had prevented his wife from continuing to act in films, after their marriage. In fact glamorous roles like in in Purab Aur Paschim and Victoria No 203 came after her wedding. In the mid-1970s, she took on the Mrs Dilip Kumar mantle full-time, and in the early 1980’s the childless couple successfully weathered a storm about Kumar’s clandestine marriage with a woman named Asma.

To the credit of Saira Banu, though a big scandal had ensued Saira Banu had the last laugh. Her perseverance and ability to veer her strayed husband towards her paid big dividends and Kumar left Asma to be with Saira. “When two individuals are living together, misunderstandings do erupt and it is very difficult for this institution to be carried on for eternity. Yes, it is a tough preposition. However, thanks to Allah Taala, our married life has worked out because of one word- it is mohabbat,” was Saira Banu’s refrain.

Vyjayanthimala still recalls her days working with Dilip Kumar. “It was indeed a wonderful experience working with Dilip Kumar. I had acted in almost six or seven films with him including Madhumati, Sunghursh, Naya Daur etc. We did vibe very well and almost all our films together clicked at the box office in a big way. My fighting scenes with Dilip Kumar were also a part of my acting. I had a very cordial relationship with him and we used to vie with one another to be one up as performers. I could learn a lot working with an actor of his caliber.”

Today, Dilip and Saira are an inseparable entity, accorded much respect and adulation in the industry. Saira, who calls him Saab, is fiercely protective of him; and Dilip too actively supports her endeavors — whether it is her desire to produce Bhojpuri films or her popular television chat show, for which he even filled in as anchor, though Dilip Kumar had always disliked the idea of facing the camera for television or endorsing products as a model till date. What with stress dominating and commercial consideration outweighing human emotions, it looks like God up there has stopped making such loving couples any more in Bollywood.

The examples of a long wedded relationship include Dev Anand and Kalpana Kartik (married for 53 years, till Kalpana’s demise), Dilip Kumar-Saira Banu (51 years), Sunil Dutt-Nargis (24 years, till the untimely death of Nargis). Amitabh Bachchan has been married to Jaya Bachchan for over 45 years. Though there was news flashed around in every newspaper about Amitabh’s relationship with Rekha, he still did not walk out of his marriage. Amongst the youngsters, there are Shah Rukh Khan-Gauri, Ajay Devgan-Kajol, and Akshay Kumar-Twinkle Khanna.

“The marriage proved lucky with both notching up individual hits soon in Purab Aur Paschim and Victoria No 203 came after her wedding.”

In spite of having been in the industry for so long, there remain certain underlying facts unknown to most. Saira reminisces about her young age and says she is a graduate from London University. She reveals how she cherished dreams of meeting Dilip Saab during her childhood days. “I had to brush up my Urdu and left no stone unturned to learn the depth of the language as I heard Saab was too good in Urdu. I am in love with the man right from the beginning. He is a linguistic, I am very lucky to have been with him. In fact all my dreams and aims have been not only fulfilled but have been achieved to the fullest,” gushes the blushing Saira Banu.

Saira quips, “Bhojpuri has been used in films during sixties also and I and Saab have done a lot of films that had an essence of Bhojpuri language. We like this language so I thought of producing a Bhojpuri film.If you remember our earlier films together as a star pair, especially Bairaag and Sagina Mahato also had the flavor of Bhojpuri. Saira Banu reiterated that as of now she has no intention to stage her come-back as an actress though she wishes to devote more time on in concentrating on her production.“ No, I am planning to produce more films and have plans to produce films written by Dilip Saab also if Saab agrees to my proposal of acting in any of these films, I will bring back Saab on the silver screen. It will be really a dream come true for me”.

Saira Banu is against making remakes and remixes of any kind, as a producer. “Can you make any yesteryear films as they were made then at that point of time? You will not believe a few young boys who were relatives of B.R. Chopra who live in America came to Mumbai and called me and asked me to send the DVD of old Devdas. Though the new version of Devdas with Shah Rukh Khan was being shown here in the theatres,they liked the older version starring Saab”.

Right from the time when she was just a tiny tot of just 12, Saira Banu wanted to marry Dilip Kumar. When she became a star in the 1960s, it was felt that Saira was too young to be cast opposite the thespian. So one can imagine the surprise when Kumar showed an interest in the young actress and the couple announced their marriage in 1966. Though it looked like the marriage wouldn’t last long and the grand wedding was looked at with some skeptism, because of their age difference at that point of time when Dilip Kumar was 44 and Saira just 22,. 40 years later, the Dilip Kumar- Saira Banu marriage remains an exemplary Bollywood union, worth emulating.

The marriage proved professionally lucky with both notching up individual hits soon afterwards. in Purab Aur Paschim and Victoria No 203 came after her wedding. In the mid-1970s, she took on the Mrs Dilip Kumar mantle full-time, and in the early 1980s the childless couple successfully weathered a storm about Kumar’s clandestine marriage with a woman named Asma.

The Hajj is an Islamic pilgrimage to the city of Mecca (Makkah), and a religious duty that every able-bodied Muslim (who can afford to do so) should do at least once in his or her lifetime.

Till recently, the Saudi Government had not permitted Bollywood actors from performing Hajj. Bollywood greats such as Mohd. Rafi , Dilip Kumar, Amjad Khan , Ghazal singer Talat Mehmood and few others had expressed their desires to do the Hajj but were not given permission by the Saudi Government. However, the Saudi Government finally made some exceptions to the rule and It was not too long when Aamir Khan took his mother to Hajj, followed by the thespian actor ‘Dilip Kumar’ who left for Hajj with his wife Saira Banu. The couple was accompanied by their family doctor, relatives and close friends. Dilip Kumar (real name Muhammad Yousuf Khan) thanked Allah for giving him four years back the strength to go to Mecca at the ripe age of 90.

I still remember talking to the thespian when I had gone to Chennai to cover the shooting of his film Izzatdaar in which he had acted with Govinda for producer Sudhakar Bokade, when he had regaled every visiting journalist from Mumbai with interesting and amusing anecdotes of his down South in the early days of his career.

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The post Dilip Kumar “The Secret Behind Dilip Kumar’s Marriage” first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

If you happen to bump into him on the street, you wouldn’t bother to look at him a second time. He is very dark and has an aggressive look which can be very off putting. Yet down South today Rajnikant is a super star who has even dwarfed the popularity of his arch rival Kamal Haasan.

Following in the footsteps of Kamal Haasan, Rajanikant is also inching his way slowly and steadily towards the tinsel world of Bombay. He is already working in two Hindi films made by South Indian producers in Madras. In Andha Kanoon, he has been cast along with Reena Roy, Madhavi, Hema Malini and Amitabh Bachchan while in Jawab Ka Jawab his co-stars are Rakesh Roshan and Anita Raaj.

The Bombay producers are waiting for the outcome of Rajanikant’s debut in the Hindi film industry. If he clicks in a big way as Kamal Haasan did, Rajanikant may find himself overnight in the enviable position of being sought after not only in Madras but also in Bombay.

His climb to the top has been a hard one. His is a rag to riches story which perhaps has no parallel. At one stage in his life he has worked as a coolie and lived a hand to mouth existence. He also worked as a bus conductor in Bangalore for five years. Before the acting bug bit him and he enrolled himself at the Adyar Film Institute conducted by the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce, where K. Balachander spotted him and gave him a break in Apoorva Ragangal (Tamil).

Rajanikant’s actual name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad. It was K. Balachander who gave him his screen name. He has acted in almost 50 films down South in various languages including Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam. By birth, Rajanikant is a Maharashtrian by birth. “I do not want to sign films left right and centre and thus overexpose myself to the audiences. By God’s grace, I have had everything that I wanted down South. I will not work in a film only for the sake of money. I should be given a meaty role, which will call forth performance on the part of an actor. I have turned down a couple of offers because I did not want to get saddled with an image of a tough hero. I know I am capable of doing different roles as I have proved in Madras with my Tamil films.”

Rajanikant is honest enough to admit that it was only because Kamal Haasan’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye has turned out to be a big hit that producers have dared to cast him also as a leading man in Hindi films. “I do not deny that Kamal Haasan has been a pioneer in this manner. His success in Bombay has given me the impetus to try my luck in Bombay.”

Rajanikant does not mind calling a spade a spade. He confesses that he does not care much for art films. “Who is interested in seeing boring art films? I’d rather see a film made by Prakash Mehra, Manmohan Desai or for that matter V. Shantaram than sit through a Satyajit Ray film. I enjoyed watching Do Aankhen Baarah Haath, Zanjeer, Amar Akbar Anthony and Muqaddar Ka Sikander. I am in this profession to entertain the audience.”

Rajanikant is confident that he will be accepted by the audience when his maiden venture Andha Kanoon is released.”The audiences always go in for action movies in a big way. I do not mind playing to the gallery. Let’s face facts. I am not a saleable face as far as the Hindi films are concerned though as far as the Tamil film industry is concerned, I may be the Amitabh Bachchan. To play safe, I am making my debut with a film in which Amitabh Bachchan is putting in a special appearance.”

Rajanikant is very fond of Amitabh Bachchan. He makes it a point to see every film in which Amitabh has acted. “Though I am very fond of seeing films with the audience in theatres, I am not able to go to cinema houses only because of the crowds. Most of the time, I have to be content with a video film”, he sighs. To see Amitabh Bachchan at the Breach Candy Hospital and cheer him up, he had come all the way from Madras to Bombay a couple of months ago.

The macho man is not only married but also the father of a daughter, who is now nearly a year old. He has christened her Aishwarya. After his marriage, his popularity has in fact increased. “My wife Lata has proved to be my lucky mascot”, he beams with pride.

I sport a salt and pepper beard and show my balding head off because I like it and I do not see any reason why I should explain this to people

Rajanikant is down to earth when it comes to confessing. If you ask him if he ever dreamt that he would end up as a super star, he will confess that he never had thought that he would. “Let alone becoming a star, I didn’t even dream that, with the kind of face that I have I would even become an extra. Whatever is pre-ordained has got to happen. You cannot change your destiny.”

Rajanikant hates to be dubbed as the Shatrughan Sinha of the South. “I hate to be labeled as somebody else’s duplicate. I have my own individuality. Shatruji and I are good friends. On his visit to Tirupati some time ago, he had even dropped in at my bungalow with his wife and twins. It is only the industry which has typed me. I do not think that the public would dub me as the Shatrughan Sinha of the South.”

Rajanikant is prepared to do the nature of work which he will be called upon to do in Bombay. “I have heard that there is chaos in Bombay, there is no sense of discipline or punctuality. I am used to reporting at 7 am or 9 am on the sets as the case may be, with my make up ready. If Amitabh can continue to be punctual and disciplined in Bombay, tell me why cannot I be too?”

I’d rather see a film made by Prakash Mehra, Manmohan Desai or for that matter V. Shantaram than sit through a Satyajit Ray film

Rajanikant asserts that money actually does not at all interest him. ““I have seen people from close quarters, right from the Prime Minister of our country to the chief Minister. I have also seen almost every top industrialist. Though all of them have money, I find that they are all insecure. Today money does not interest me at all. Though people feel that I have changed, I am at heart the same guy who had worked as a coolie and a bus conductor in Bangalore 33 years ago before K. Balchander Sir spotted me at the Adyar Film Institute and offered to cast me in a cameo role in his Apoorva Ragangal which had Kamal in lead”.

What does stardom mean to you? I ask him. He shoots back, “I am aware of the fact that stardom isn’t eternal. I know that this so-called super stardom will not last long. What goes up has got to come down sooner or later. I am more concerned about retaining my current position. Stars in the past too have fallen the same way they rose to fame in films. I should say that I am extremely lucky that I have been able to retain my position for the last twenty-seven years”.

Rajanikant confesses that his ability to dance or to be precise his inability to dance is his weak point.” I am jealous of Chiranjeevi who simply mesmerizes the cinegoers with his graceful steps. The credit ought to go to my dance directors for having made me perform my dances on the screen so well though I feel I have two left feet”.

Rajanikant confesses that he is not at all a power broker. “I do not have any power. I am just an ordinary citizen who is happy with what he is doing as an actor. I have no ambitions, political or otherwise. It is only when you are insecure that you’d look for some other field. And by God’s grace, I am secure. I have told this to you many a time before and let me tell this once and for all that I am not at all interested in joining active politics. If only I wanted to, I could have joined any political party or floated my own party but I am not interested in the dirty game”.

Why, even in Chennai I am working in only solo hero projects. I do not think I can be comfortable working in multi starrers in Hindi”

Rajanikant cares two hoots about his image off screen. “Today I am in a position to see through people and know what they expect from me. Honestly I am not at all bothered about my image off screen. I sport a salt and pepper beard and show my balding head off because I like it and I do not see any reason why I should explain this to people. However as an actor of the masses, I will certainly live up to the expectations of my fans on the screen”

Rajanikant admits that it is true that these are the times when he sincerely wishes that he should have been known only down South and not all over the country thanks to his stint in Hindi Cinema, because whenever he goes to Swami Dayanand’s Ashram in Hrishikesh to seek salvation and peace, he is often a major problem for the other inmates.

Rajanikant has a reason for not doing multi star projects in Hindi. “K.C. Bokadia with whom I had worked in three films- Asli Naqli, Phool Bane Angaarey and Tyaagi as well as Ravi Shankar had approached me with offers but I politely declined their offers though they were not really convinced with my reasons for not doing their films. I do not mean to run down the new breed of stars but then after working with senior actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor and Vinod Khanna, I do not think I can bring myself to work with aaj kal ke naye chokre. Why, even in Chennai I am working in only solo hero projects. I do not think I can be comfortable working in multi starrers in Hindi”

The last Hindi film in which he had acted in a cameo role in Hindi was Bulundi. “I did Bulundi which was the remake of the Tamil hit Nattammai though I had not played the lead in the Tamil original because I owe my Hindi break to T. Rama Rao who had cast me in Andha Kanoon with Amitji. I just couldn’t say No to him when he requested me to do Bulundi in which I thought my cameo role was powerful. Though the film bombed, I was happy with the way my role had been built up”.

“In the beginning of my career, I had worked with Kamal Haasan in quite a few films in Tamil, where he had a bigger role and I was a raw new comer. I may work in a film produced by me with Kamal Haasan or it could be even vice versa in the sense that Kamal may work in a film produced under his banner with me. Nothing has been finalized as yet because each of us has his own fans and hence proper script which projects us both equally has to be finalized first before we decide to go on the floors”, he says calmly.

Rajani signs off. “Even if I make it big in Bombay, I will never think of leaving the South, which has made me what I am. I was a zero before South took pity on me and made me a hero. I will continue to do as many films as possible in Madras even if I become as busy as Kamal in Bombay. Like Kamal, I also have plans to launch my own films in Madras”.

In terms of sheer humility and down to arth nature, there is simply no one to beat Rajanikant. I remember in the late 70’s when Rajanikant used to sit with me at the bar of Sea Side Hotel in Juhu, he often used to spout philosophy in his own inimitable style. One one such occasion, when David Dhawan joined our table, Rajanikant deplored the virtue of having ego by stating to us both, “I go , you go , why ego?”

On yet another occasion, when I chided him for agreeing to act in Hindi films at a price which was even one sixth of what he used to charge the prodicers of Tamil films, Rajanikant simply shut my mouth by telling me, “Look here. Today I am known only from Tiruchi to Tuticorin or from Kochi to Kanyakumari or from Vijayawada to Hyderabad or from Bangalore to Mysore. By acting in a film even if I charge less, I make sure that I grow in stature outside India and my fans recognise me even in Canada and Greece. Is money more important or getting recognised all over the world?”

The self effacing guy who I met for the first time almost 40 years ago when he came to Mumbai to attend Kamal Haasan’s wedding to Vani Ganapathy, who is my cousin and Kamal had introduced him to me asking me to escort him to places in Bombay has today grown in stature manifolds. fter the release of Robot:2 and Kaala Karikalan, there are possibilities that the bus conductor of yesterday may even embrace politics in a big way and emerge as the C.M of Tamil Nadu by floating his own political party soon.[/td_block_text_with_title][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post Rajanikant “I was a zero before South took pity on me and made me a hero” first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.

How do you look back at your career? I ask him to set the ball rolling and there’s no stopping Shotgun Sinha. “As far as my career is concerned, I have had my own fair share of ups and downs. When I made my debut as an actor in the industry, every one asked me why I had taken to acting though I was from Bihar. I asked them why not ask me a better question in the form of “Why not from Bihar.?” To begin with, though I had the aptitude as well as the talent, I was not selected for the youth festival in Delhi. I was also rejected outright by the Patna Radio Station when I went for a live play when I mouthed the right words at the wrong time. They caught me by the ear and told me never to return”, he guffaws.

Shatrughan Sinha adds. “Though I had confidence in an abundant measure , it was the Pune Film & Television Institute at Pune which was then referred to as Pune Film Institute that imbibed in me confidence and oratory skills for which I am known for both in films as well as political career. I will always remain indebted to not only Pune but also the Institute both of which have made me what I am today though Patna is my janambhoomi and Mumbai is my karambhoomi.”

Shatrughan Sinha confesses that it was Raj Kapoor who was his idol and he used to see all his films avidly before he got the itch to turn an actor. “I did not think I would be able to become an actor because I did have neither shakal nor for that matter akkal and wasn’t even laayak to be a compounder though in my family, all my brothers are qualified practitioners of medicine.”

“When I made my debut in films as an actor, I decided that I would be able to stand out only if I am different from the rest or better than the best and hence adopted that as my mantra to survive.”

Shatrughan Sinha does not regret his stint in politics unlike some of the other actors who gave up politics and came back to Bollywood, like say Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda, late Vinod Khanna etc. “I am proud to be a politician besides being an actor. I am of the opinion that glamor has limited power whereas power has unlimited glamor. Instead of just being tired or retired, I want to bring a smile on the faces of the masses not only as an actor but also as a politician known for working for his constituency.”

Shatrughan pauses for a minute and continues. “Not many are aware of the fact that though people say that I have a rich and deep baritone voice, when I was in the FTII, I did not have the kind of voice which I developed on my own. I worked on yoga exercises, deep breathing etc and succeeded in changing the texture of my voice. It helped me that I made it a point to try to know the content of the dialogue and also the situation when I am handed even over four pages of dialogues on the sets for delivery. I had also a good command over the language and that also helped a great deal in grasping the dialogues.”

Shatrughan has a grouse against the media. “There are times when even non actors are able to pull off movies, if only their roles are strong enough. And also vice versa, a gifted actor can pull off a movie even when his role is not great shakes. Yet it is sad but quite true that the media often judges an actor by his role and not by his performance. They fail to see the very thin line of demarcation between the role and the performance by an actor. Performance- wise, I think my best have been in films like Kala Paththar and Khudgarz, though vary rarely an actor is able to blow you away with a great performance in a great role like Dilipsaab did in Ganga Jamuna.”

Shatrughan confesses that though he was a perennial late lateef as an actor, after he embraced politics in a big way, he has definitely changed a lot for the better. Wisecracking about himself, Shatrughan Sinha adds, “While I was working on the sets of Manoj Kumar’s Kranti, he used to tell me that I was born as the third son in my family and not the first son Ram because I had arrived on the earth also very late.”(Guffaws loudly)

Talking about the actors of today, Shatrughan Sinha says that each and every one is good in his craft. When asked to cite a few names, he said that Farhan Akhtar is a star material and Irrfan Khan is a very brilliant and unconventional actor. “When I made my debut in films as an actor, I decided that I would be able to stand out only if I am different from the rest or better than the best and hence adopted that as my mantra to survive”.

Shatrughan adds that when compared to his heydays, when an actor used to have a definite aura and was known for a certain mannerism like Raaj Kumar or a signature gesture like that of his, today’s actors are judged by their personality in totality and admits that he does not have any film on the floors as an actor today only because he does not want to be part of films in which he will not be able to project himself at his best as an actor.

Shatrughan Sinha has an advice to people who want to earn a name as actors in Bollywood. “Do you know what ACTOR means? It is Action, Concentration, Timing, Originality and last but not the least Rhythm. You should learn to be original and not imitate other actors. Also today it is sad that though there are good actors like Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, some actors mistake pehelwangiri for acting. When I started my career, I was able to carve my own identity and establish myself only because I did not mimic Raj Kapoor who was my greatest inspiration. I did not ape his mannerisms and hence was able to create my own style and prove myself.”

Shatrughan is glad that his recent biography written by the veteran journalist Bharathi S. Pradhan has proved to be such a money spinner that the publishers Om Publications have also come up with several reprints too.Shatru says that he is proud of his daughter Sonakshi Sinha, because like he inched his way to success both as an actor as well as a politician without seeking the help of any Godfather and became a role model all over the country, Sona ( that is Sonakshi Sinha for you and me) has been able to make it on her own without any Godfather and proved herself as an actor in her films. I am equally proud of my twins Luv and Khush. Luv is now planning to act and produce films whereas Kush is planning to take up direction in a big way”.[/td_block_text_with_title][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post Shatrughan Sinha “Power has unlimited glamor” first appeared on Latest News, Breaking News, National News, World News, India News, Bollywood News, Business News, Politics News, Sports News, Entertainment News - CineBuster.