Sunrise Pictures signs Samir Karnik to direct their next

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

April 11, 2008 - 12:00 AM IST

It's a known fact that Sunny Deol doesn't talk to the media. I wish I could change, give interviews, play up to the press, wear a plastic smile whenever I spot a mediaperson and pretend to be someone else in real life. But I just can't do that, the reticent actor tells me, But I've always made exceptions. I do talk to people I am comfortable with.

But the GADAR actor seems relaxed as we discuss a wide range of topics at the music launch of his forthcoming film LAKEER, which co-stars Suniel Shetty, John Abraham and Sohail Khan. Though the conversation extended to more than hour, reproduced below are excerpts from the conversation:

# On home-productions: I hope to put a stop to my home-productions, albeit temporarily, once I complete my current lot. I've realised, I'm a bad businessman. I just don't have the temperament to be a producer. I've lost money in every film I've made, including INDIAN [which fared well at the box-office]. No point burning your fingers again and again. I am off to Bangkok for a week for the next schedule of JO BOLE SO NIHAAL [dir.: Rahul Rawail] and soon after will embark on the final schedule of DEODHAR GANDHI. Yes, we've changed the title of the film [it was initially titled GANDHI] since we wanted to stay away from controversies. We are almost through with the shooting of the film and hope to release it some time in April/May, depending on the elections.

Once DEODHAR GANDHI is ready, we'll get going on my cousin Abhay's film, which has shaped up wonderfully well. Once that's completed, I'll concentrate on offers from other producers.

# On working with debutante directors: I find it exciting. They're brimming with ideas all the while. I've worked with a number of debutantes in the past, but it does hurt when, after they've attained success, they severe all ties and move to greener pastures [other stars]. I really wish I was tactful enough to keep them in my wings.

What really attracted me to LAKEER was the way Ahmed Khan [again, a first-time director] narrated the script of the film to me. I was hooked to it. He's an accomplished technician [choreographer] and I felt if he could interpret what he narrated to me, it would be great.

Vashu Bhagnani was producing this project at a point of time, but when he expressed his unwillingness to go ahead with it, I decided to introduce Ahmed to Vicky [the producer of LAKEER]. Looking back, I think I took the right decision. I am more than happy with the way Ahmed has made the film. He's extremely efficient and I've this gut feeling that he'll 'arrive' with his very first film.

# On his dream projects: It's a dream to make a costume drama on the lives of Prithviraj-Sanyukta. I really don't know when this would materialise. I've been nurturing this dream for quite a while now and I wish to make the film some day. I was watching the trailer of TROY [Brad Pitt] on the internet the other night and I was mesmerised by the spectacular look of the film. Colossal ventures fascinate me.

Another dream project is to make a film with the three of us dad [Dharmendra], Bobby and myself. It's difficult to get the right script that would do justice to each of us. We're in the midst of having talks with director Anil Sharma and writer Shaktimaan [the GADAR team] to come up with something different. We may settle for a comedy film, let's see [however, both Dharam-ji and Sunny have an action image].

# On the strengthening of the Indo-Pak relations and its impact on film business: I really wish the territory [Pakistan] opens up, it would benefit both the sides. Besides getting additional revenue for film producers of both the countries, it would help us [the artistes] to reach out to a wider section of the audience. They've so much talent to offer. Dad and mom were telling me the other day that some of their plays are so amazingly penned, the substance is so strong. If allowed to work freely, both the countries would only gain from each other.

# On Gurinder Chadha, Rajkumar Santoshi and J.P. Dutta: I was impressed with Gurinder's work when I saw BHAJI ON THE BEACH and expressed a desire to work with her. We started work on LONDON [Sunny, Bobby, Karisma], but I decided to scrap the film after we were halfway through with it because I disagreed on certain issues. I wasn't happy and I didn't want to continue making a film that wasn't shaping up to my expectations. I admit, we don't share the best of relations today, but we're cordial when we bump into each other.

With Rajkumar Santoshi, we're in the process of working out a film together. We did talk it over recently, but nothing is on the cards yet. We also have to see who produces the film. I am amused that a section of the audience has felt my absence in L.O.C. Probably, he [J.P.] didn't want me for the film [pauses for a while]. I remember, I wanted to produce BORDER at a point of time, but when J.P. said that he'd like to produce the film himself, I was game for that as well. He wasn't going through a great phase then and I felt that if he wanted to take a step forward by turning to film production, who am I to stop him?