He is the brand!

He has the distinction of being a brand — and his films are known as “Rohit Shetty ki pichhar (films)” irrespective of their genre or star-cast, come Ajay Devgn or Shah Rukh Khan.

The son of the legendary stunt coordinator and actor, Shetty, as a director, is 11 films old in 13 years, and his only real flop was the 2008 Sunday. As he grins, “My debut film, Zameen (2003), did not do well, but is seen all the time on television nowadays. And Dilwale, the only film in which I felt that I was not myself, and tried to do something against my conviction, lost money in terms of investment, but still made 140 crore in the movie halls!”

Audience first
Now that is a phenomenal record given the dicey ballgame of the film industry and the huge shift in audiences between 2003 and 2016, when Rohit is going full-steam ahead with Golmaal Again. But as he puts it when we ask where he gets such audience-friendly filmmaking sensibilities from, “It’s just observation, not just of films, but of where our country is going. It’s about people’s mentality and the need to cater to them. My films are products for a particular audience as it is not possible to please everybody. And the audience that likes my films is quite large.”

He makes light of the fact that for each year since 2010, a Rohit Shetty film has had a 100 crore-plus turnover (Golmaal 3, Singham, Bol Bachchan, Chennai Express, Singham Returns, Dilwale), making him the market-leader of that club, but says, “The masses and family audiences like my films. For years, my films keep coming again and again on television, like All The Best, Singham or Chennai Express, and the three Golmaals.”

‘Singham’, and then?
Why has he not made any serious, new action subject after Singham, apart from its sequel? “I want to make one, and after Golmaal Again, I will, for we are toying with some scripts,” he smiles. Would he like to explore other genres as well? “I did once, as I said, in Dilwale. The story was originally of three brothers, then when Kajol came in, we changed the script to suit the Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol brand, thinking that it was a bigger brand than ‘brand Rohit Shetty’. But the feedback I got was ‘It’s not your film at all!’ I will now go by my conviction. I am in a happy space in Golmaal Again. The same formula of five boys — Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade and Kunal Khemu are on board, with one girl, as in all the Golmaal series.”

Will they play new characters with the same name and similar traits again? Rohit nods, and the next question, of course, is what would be the surprise element?

“There will be no cars flying up in the air!” he laughs. “It all started when we made a couple of such films and people, especially kids, loved that. But now, the media makes it look as if my films are 150 minutes of car stunts. We work hard on our films and these two to four-minute sequences take up all the attention, which is not fair.”

Still, has Rohit never wanted to make anything different? “I do want to, but the prospect of deviating right now is scary, and I’m not confident. I am happy and proud that people like my brand of cinema to the extent that other similar films are also termed by them to be ‘like a Rohit Shetty film’. However, Rohit watches all kinds of films and would like to make them. “I’ve just now set up a production house, and for the time being, I’ll produce films that I cannot direct myself and that cater to all audiences.”

Rohit is probably the only big name today who never writes scripts, and also repeats his entire writing and technical team in film after film. He nods and says, “I don’t take credit for the writing, but every scene and line is a collaborative effort between my writers Yunus Sajawal, Robin Bhatt, Farhad-Sajid, and me. As for the technical team, like my editor Steven Bernard and cinematographer Dudley, I’m comfortable working with them, because we have worked non-stop for the last 10 years, except for a short break after Dilwale.”

How does he benefit from consistently working with senior and the 90s writers like Yunus and Robin? “I need their experience. People say times and audiences have changed, but their inputs and my films prove that they haven’t. This year has the least number of hits in actual terms — less than 10 so far. Every age had variety.

We had Manmohan Desai and Hrishikesh Mukherjee simultaneously making films with Amitabh Bachchan, Arth and Ardh Satya along with Subhash Ghai — so where is anything new happening?

Taking on the business angle, he says, “I’m looked upon ONLY as a business-oriented guy. But that’s important for survival. See how corporate companies are folding up, which again is something I’ve been predicting for five years now. Their approach has caused a major imbalance in the economics. So the producer is making profits, but they are losing out.”

Roots of a friendship
Ajay Devgn and Rohit started off together, as hero and assistant director, on Phool Aur Kaante (1991). Does that explain their long friendship, or is it because they both are sons of famous stunt coordinators? “I can’t really say,” Rohit ruminates. “It’s been almost 27 years since we began working together, and it’s become a habit.

Besides making nine films with him, I have been assistant director, action assistant to his father Veeru Devganji in a movie, and even the executive producer of one of his films.”

Who else would he like to work with now? “I’d like to make a film with Amitabh Bachchan with a proper script for him; he only did a song cameo for my Bol Bachchan. With the rest, if roles come up, I am okay with whether I work with them or not,” he grins.