“Avatar certainly made me sit up and re-think about Krrish” – Rakesh Roshan

By Subhash K. Jha -

January 12, 2010 - 12:12 PM IST

After partying the whole night to bring in his birthday on Saturday night, Hrithik took a much-needed break from the shooting of Guzaarish on Sunday to spend his birthday with his wife and sons.

“Avatar certainly made me sit up and re-think about Krrish” – Rakesh Roshan

This was the actor's first demand for a holiday from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film. The director gladly complied and shot solo scenes with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

For the party on Saturday night, Hrithik and his wife Sussanne personally called every one of the guests.

Hrithik intends to take a long break after Guzaarish to recover his energies. While he has two other projects this year, there seems to be no sign of the next Krrish film with his father Rakesh Roshan.

Has anyone noticed? Hrithik Roshan hasn't made a movie with his father Rakesh Roshan since 2006 when they did Krrish.

And now it seems unlikely that the most successful father-son filmmaking duo of Bollywood would come together in 2010 as planned earlier.

Says a source, "After he finishes Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish, Hrithik has already allotted dates to two other films - Zoya Akhtar's road film with Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol and Vishal Bhardwaj's next which begins in the second-half of 2010."

Where does that leave Rakesh Roshan's plans of making the third part of Krrish? Says a source, "Hrithik is not sure about the feasibility of the Krrish series any more. Not after James Cameron's Avatar. He wants the project to go through a budgetary scrutiny to see whether they can create effects comparable with Hollywood's Avatar and 2012. Otherwise what is the point?"

Rakesh Roshan doesn't deny the fact that Avatar has indeed put a brake on all his plans to make Krrish 3. "I saw the film in Los Angeles. And it certainly made me sit up and re-think about Krrish. But I don't think it is impossible to create effects on a par with Hollywood. We need to budget Krrish 3 intelligently."

As far as starting Krrish 3 goes, Rakesh Roshan admits there's no immediate chance of it taking off. "I am not even thinking of directing my own film until our production Kites is released on May 14. Only then will I seriously start planning my directorial project. For now the next film I direct is Krrish 3. But it may change if I'm unhappy with the script."

What the patriarch of the Roshan empire leaves unsaid is that the father and son Roshan have sat together and discussed the feasibility of doing a lavish big budget film in the light of Avatar and other Hollywood extravaganzas dubbed in Hindi.

Hrithik has made it clear to his dad that there's no point in doing a Hollywood-styled special -effects film unless there's scope and space for the desi counterpart to make an impact at the box office.

It looks like James Cameron's Avatar has affected our film industry in unexpected ways.