EXCLUSIVE: “I would love to be a part of the Total Dhamaal series!” – Ajay Devgn

By Upala KBR -

February 21, 2019 - 1:14 PM IST

Ajay Devgn is not much of a talker, nor does he socialise much. Yet the people close to him know that when it comes to bailing out his friends in distress, Ajay is like a rock-solid yet silent pillar of support. For Total Dhamaal (releases tomorrow) filmmaker Indra Kumar, the super star is one such person, who helped him out at a time when he needed it the most. While it’s mentioned in the credits that Ajay is co-producing the movie, few know why and how it happened. Over to Ajay Devgn…

EXCLUSIVE: “I would love to be a part of the Total Dhamaal series!” – Ajay Devgn

When quizzed about why Ajay decided to co-produce Total Dhamaal with Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria, the actor tells us, “I loved the script. I thought it was very funny and to give it the kind of support they needed to make the film. Total Dhamaal is not an easy movie to make in terms of visually and every which way. It’s not a simple or normal comedy. You see the scale of the film, the way it has been shot; we have used lots of VFX as that’s how it needed to be designed. Induji (Indra Kumar) also asked me if I would like to come aboard as co-producer and we should be a part of it and that’s how it all happened.”

Indra Kumar had told us that he couldn’t have made Total Dhamaal without Ajay. Ajay says, “That’s very sweet of him to say but the script is amazing and everybody would have done the film any which ways. Induji was going through a lean phase after piracy happened with his movie Great Grand Masti (2016) where he lost crores of rupees. He needed a little bit of push that’s all. I didn’t rope in the other actors. I may have been the first to come on board but Induji approached all the others and everybody agreed to come on board as the script is too funny – it’s hilarious!”

Now Indra Kumar wants Ajay to be a part of the Dhamaal franchise from now… Ajay laughs and adds, “He said that also because we get along very well. Having said that, I will add that I would love to be a part of the Total Dhamaal series! I had a lot of fun and very happy the way the movie has shaped up. All of us are idiots and silly people in Total Dhamaal and that’s how the movie is. It is two hours of sheer fun. When I heard the script I laughed for two hours and I told Induji to make the film the way he had narrated it to me and when I saw the movie a few days back, I again laughed for two hours so I am happy.”

There are so many characters in Total Dhamaal, in fact more than Golmaal but the star says that never made him feel insecure. “If I felt insecure, I wouldn’t have done the movie or done Golmaal also. I never feel it’s risky doing a multi-starrer movie. I am not doing film because I need work. I like something I will do it, if I don’t like it, I won’t do it. If there was one iota of doubt why would I do it, in the first place? I never discuss my role or scenes with my co-stars or theirs with my director when I am doing a movie. For me screen space doesn’t matter at all. It’s what I can bring to the table in the movie and script as an actor.”

After a spate of serious movies, people are in the need for a comedy like Total Dhamaal today. “I don’t understand this term ‘need’. Everybody needs a film. I know we have been having a lot of serious genres but it’s not that we need a comedy and that’s why we are making one. Whatever genres, if it comes and is good, will work. Nothing can be the need of the hour and that is how I have always worked. If the film is good whatever genre it is, it will work and vice versa. People keep saying that the time for comedies is gone or time for action movies has gone but it’s all rubbish.”

There have been rumours of him doing Prakash Jha’s sequel to Raajneeti with Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor. Ajay squashes the rumours firmly, “The question of me doing Raajneeti 2 does not arise as my character (Sooraj Kumar) died in the first part. I don’t know where these stories are coming from. He might have approached Katrina for the sequel but Prakashji has definitely not approached me for it.”

Coming to production, he is co-producing Hansal Mehta’s next, Turram Khan, starring Rajkummar Rao and Nushrat Bharucha. Ajay says, “The film is almost complete. Luv Ranjan narrated me the script and I found it fabulous so we decided to make it and got Hansal on board. It’s too early to speak about the storyline; all I can say is that it’s an entertainer with a social message.”