Saturday, December 18, 2010

'Housefull 2 will start by May end’

The first blockbuster of the year was my film Houseful and the year will end with a blockbuster, my sister Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan that also features Akshay Kumar. It will get the biggest opening weekend in Hindi film history,” asserts Sajid Khan, pointing out that 148 films
released in 2010, of which only six so far — Housefull, My Name Is Khan, Rajneeti, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Dabangg and Golmaal 3 — have hit the bulls’ eye. “This means that 142 filmmakers, along with their scriptwriters and actors, got the formula wrong.”

Sajid says that both his sibling and he have grown up on large-scale star-studded entertainers, the Manmohan Desai kind of movies. “And both of us believe in making films that the audience wants to watch, as opposed to what we feel they need to see. For me, the biggest high is watching a film in the theatre with the audience.”

sajidFarah has her own production house, Three’s Company, but Sajid is happy making films for his best buddy, Sajid Nadiadwala. He points out that there was a time when he was doing around eight shows on TV simultaneously and often advised to turn producer and rake in the big bucks. But he didn’t want to take on the stress.

“A producer’s job is tricky, he’s the one who’s risking his money and reputation on a film. The rest of us are only hired help,” he reasons, sighing over the fact that while Hollywood is ruled by the studios, whereas in Bollywood a few actors and directors are bigger than the producer.

Sajid being the son of a producer-director Dilip Lokande, who lost all his money in films and went bankrupt, insists that despite making his entertainers — Heyy Babyy and Housefull — on a lavish scale, he is careful not to overspend or waste money unnecessarily. Right now, he’s in the process of locking up the script of Housefull 2. “We’ve finished the first draft and in about 10 days should be finished with the second. Shooting starts at the end of May,” he informs.

Akshay Kumar returns to the cast along with Riteish Deshmukh and John Abraham. The rest of the actors are still to be signed on. “Right now the screenplay is top priority. Depending on the characters, we will decide on the actors. But I can promise you that the sequel will be bigger, better and total ‘paisa vasool’,” says Sajid.

He admits that many were disappointed by the climax of Part 1. Though the dialogue was spoken under the influence of laughter gas, there were no pie fights and falling off bridges. “But I wanted a performance-oriented end to slapstick humour. And given a choice, would still go with that one. But for Housefull 2, I will keep the audience’s expectations in mind and serve a ‘thali’ that is appetising for all ages,” he promises, adding that Housefull was filmed in four countries. “Part 2 will take us on a tour of five-seven countries. We are debating over Argentina, UK and Spain.”

Meanwhile, the award season is here and Sajid is looking to host some prize events, around five over the next two months. After that he will be doing a one-off film-based show. He says, “I enjoy TV but once Housefull 2 starts, things will get hectic and I won’t be able to take on too much.”

HT

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