Ek Villain has leaped past the Rs 100 crore (1bn) mark and Mohit Suri will now officially be in the league of the hottest directors in town, a club that includes the likes of Rohit Shetty and Rajkumar Hirani. These are men who turn every movie they touch into gold at the box office. But Mohit is unique in doing low budget movies without superstars and then making the profits sing.
Already, after Ek Villain he is becoming the recipient of many eulogies. Shraddha Kapoor, the heroine of Ek Villain, wants to be part of all of Mohit’s films. Vidya Balan, glowing with the critical acclaim of Bobby Jasoos, says she is looking forward to working with Mohit. He himself said in an interview how his position changed in the industry after he moved from working for just the Mahesh Bhatt camp and took projects outside even though Aashiqui 2 was such a bumper hit.
He is also quite candid about admitting that he has made bad films in the past like Raaz 2. Ironically, however, his next movie was supposed to be a Bhatt production Hamari Adhuri Kahani with Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan but there are rumours that Mohit might not do that. It might have something to do with the last Emraan-Vidya movie Ghanchakkar being a big flop. But it could also have something to do with Karan Johar wanting Mohit to do a film for him. When there is so much demand, one can afford to be picky.
Going regional
One person who is unexpectedly turning out to be the most successful character actor in Bollywood is Riteish Deshmukh. He played a serial killer in Ek Villain and was lauded for pulling off the character with élan. The movie is a superhit.
Before that in Humshakals, a universally derided but successful movie, he was the only actor who got any kind words from critics. But the movie that might change his fortunes completely is a Marathi movie called Lai Bhaari. It is turning out to be one of the biggest blockbusters ever made in that language. And it is in exactly the kind of action hero role that Riteish has always been unsuitable for in Hindi.
In Bollywood he has been relegated to character roles or one part of a multi starrer. But in Marathi this is a movie that puts him on the road to regional superstardom. But there is also another dimension to it. Riteish comes from a family of politicians and his late father was the chief minister of Maharashtra.
An identity as a Marathi star also throws open the road for him to get into politics at sometime in the future if he develops a strong fan following. This has been a tried and tested model in southern states of India where actors go on to become regional satraps. As of now Riteish has shown no inclination towards politics but it is an option always open if becomes a Marathi star.
The Hamlet man
The trailer of Haider, cadaptation of Hamlet, is out and it promises to be in the same league as his earlier two Shakespeare adaptations Maqbool and Omkara. To the movie’s hero Shahid Kapoor, Haider might well be a defining moment. He has been floundering slightly, unable to make that leap from big star to a great actor.
Vishal, who is reported to have had problems with Shahid’s interference during Kaminey, their last project together, seems to be all praise for him now. He also revealed an interesting nugget. When they set out to make Haider, both of them decided that they wouldn’t compromise on quality. And it was therefore going to be an expensive movie to make but they also had to keep it within budget.
And so, Vishal and Shahid, took the calculated decision to not get paid their fees. None of the other crew members knew about it. For Vishal too, Haider is an important movie. His last two movies, 7 Khoon Maaf and Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, didn’t do too well and while they were not panned, they didn’t get the kind of rave reviews that he usually gets. And with a subject like Hamlet, if he doesn’t do justice to it, critics won’t be too patient.
The working couple
Next month, when Mardaani releases, once again there will be the same old combination of Rani Mukherji and Yashraj Productions. Both of them never seem to get the realisation that the days when there was any hope of pulling off a hit or making some money from a movie which revolves around Rani is slim.
But gamely, they have gone from disaster to disaster without blinking an eyelid. The reason for that is of course Rani is the wife of Aditya Chopra, who heads Yashraj. And if he is willing to humour his wife by losing a few crores every once in a while who is anybody else to complain.
Being such powerful players in Bollywood, already the movie is getting a lot of endorsement from other stars. When its trailer was released recently Aamir Khan and Karan Johar both tweeted about how amazing it was. But none of this will probably matter at the box office and it won’t be Rani’s fault either. She plays a tough cop in the movie and, while that is something that the audience love Salman Khan doing, such heroine oriented action movies have rarely become hits.
But as long as Aditya is there behind her she doesn’t have to worry. In an interview recently, Rani made an interesting disclosure. She was asked when did the two start seeing each other. She replied that though they had been good friends for a long time, the romantic liaison only started after Aditya’s divorce.
This is probably something of a prevarication. It is common knowledge that the reason for Aditya’s divorce was his relationship with Rani. The two, however, never made it public until the very end. But it was a prudent reply on Rani’s part. She really couldn’t have said that there was an affair happening when he was married.