Ex | Enjoy working with young talent: Sunil Shetty, Actor & Producer

He is not just a Bollywood actor but a successful film producer and entrepreneur too. As an actor he started his career in Bollywood in the year 1992 with film Balwaan and since then has worked in more than 100 films so far. But according to Sunil Shetty his first interest always was cricket and that could be one of the reasons of him being the captain of Mumbai Heroes cricket team.

We caught up with Sunil Shetty over an exclusive interaction where he talked about his upcoming production venture, trends in the Hindi film industry and more…

Briefing us about his forthcoming film produced by him - Desi Kattey, he said, “The film is an Indian action drama film which talks about child labour, sports, championship and problems faced by children in India.”

The first look of the film Desi Kattey was unveiled recently and had Suniel Shetty, Jay Bhanushali, Akhil Kapur, Tia Bajpai, Sasha Agha, Santosh Shukla and few others as casts of the film.

“My character in the film is of a rebel who belongs to Indian army but decides to quit the army and later takes up these two boys Jay Bhanushali and Akhil Kapur with a belief of changing them. He manages to change one who becomes shooter but other he doesn’t who follows to become a gangster”, he shared. 

As the film launches young talent, we asked Shetty how challenging or easy it is to work with young talent on which he said, “I always enjoy working with young talent. I enjoyed working with Abhishek Bachchan in Refugee or Akshay Khanna in Border; it’s a pleasure as we also learn a lot from them”.

If we compare the kind of competition which was there a decade back in Bollywood, to that of today’ the levels are very varied. How has this affected the industry? Responding to this, he said, “Workshops, great scripts, stylists and looks are the few big things which have taken place in our industry and in India on the whole. From the time I entered or the actors which entered in the industry things have changed a lot and today it’s a different ballgame altogether.  The industry itself is educated today and grown more professional”. 

With Desi Kattey, Sunil Shetty is back into production after a gap of few years. His past production ventures include Khel – No Ordinary Game, Rakht: What If You Can See the Future and Bhagam Bhag. On asking what made him to be a producer and also what is making actor to get into productions he said, “I think creativity is what makes an actor to be a producer as well, but some way down the line I failed miserably as a producer and I decided that I don’t want to do anymore. I have my son and daughter and may be in coming 2 years if they decide to get into the industry, I’ll take a back seat. I can’t be in front and back end, it’s not only about the film business, but be it any business you have to be stable in your life”.

On asking as a producer and actor do you get tensed on Friday’s and also what makes a film successful in terms of present scenario, Shetty said, “I never got ‘Friday shake’ feeling because I am not scared of it and I know that I feed myself and have security and that’s what actors should have which helps us not to do anything wrong. Thought I don’t get big offers but I decide what I want to do. A film’s success has nothing to do with budget and concept of the film it’s about how you are releasing the film, how many theatres you are reaching out and how much noise you can make about it.”

Speaking on what according to him fails in a film with a good concept and decent budget, he said, “Be it any film small or large budget it’s all about who is releasing the film and how is it done, which is very important. If you get your show in morning 7 am slot, you yourself know that you are already in the graveyard; there should be lot of theatres, tax benefits. I have always said this, almost 10 years back when I started my journey that success of industry is dependent on the release of the film”.

Sunil Shetty’s next film is Shooter with Randeep hooda is expected to  release by end of this year. He is very positive about his film Desi Kattey produced under Popcorn Motion Pictures and expects it to do well for the new talents and the entire casts of the film.

“I am a content actor and I feel we should give everyone chance in the industry and sometimes it’s important to step back and let them be in front and I am comfortable doing that and have done it in 25 years. I enjoy doing comedy the way I do.” shared Shetty. [By Ranjana Gupta | Twitter: @RGrightsreserve]