Chit-chat with Ashok Thakeria

By Super Admin

Courtesy: IndiaFM
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Ashok Thakeria and Indra Kumar"s friendship transformed into partnership and together they formed the production house, 'Maruti International" in 1983.

Ashok Thakeria"s first production, Mohabbat was directed by Bapu in 1985. He has given the film industry some award winning films, like Beta, Dil Masti, etc.

His latest flick, Pyare Mohan, made last year starred Vivek Oberoi, Fardeen Khan, and Amrita Rao and Esha Deol in lead roles. Today Ashok Thakeria talks to us about his upcoming production, Dhamaal which releases on September 7. Dhamaal stars Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, Reteish Deshmukh in lead roles.

What is the USP of the film?
I think star cast is the main attraction of the film. Arshad and Sanjay have come back again after Munna Bhai. Javed has been appreciated in all his films and Reteish has been loved by people a lot. Laughter is guaranteed.

You have been doing only comedy films for a while now. Why the inclination towards this genre?
We felt that action, drama all these things are not working. And thought doing something new and light which turned out to be Masti but then again Rishtey was an emotional one which unfortunately didn"t work; though it had a beautiful storyline.

Why don"t you experiment with other genres?
See, question here is not about genre. We decide to make films based on subjects which interest us. Even, Dhamaal was something which we had thought of long back with a path breaking decision that there would be no heroine in the film. So, it"s the subject which interests us and not genre.

What is the budget of the film? How many prints are you releasing?
Budget of the film is 15 crores and around 400 prints will be released.

Have you signed any corporate house for the distribution?
I would like to stick with my individual distributors. They have been with me since 23 years it would not be right on my part to suddenly stop associating.

Moreover, my last film Pyare Mohan didn"t do well so I want to overcome the loss to my old distributors. As for corporate houses, it will depend on the terms they offer me.

What relationship do you share with Mr. Indra Kumar?
We have been working together since long, that itself speaks a lot about our relationship. He"s like more like a brother to me.

Will the Sanjay Dutt factor help your film?
Sanjay has been sentenced for what he has done. People love him and honestly Sanjay"s presence in the film makes a difference. He is a rock star.

Do you think film promotion in a right manner helps to elevate the positioning of the film?
I believe films get their deserved share of acknowledgement on the very day of its worldwide release. So, promotion does not really work. It"s the concept and how well it is presented to the audience that matters.

Are you working on any new projects?
We are done with one Bhojpuri film which has Ravi Kishen as the main lead set to release soon. We have signed four directors at present and are working on our plan to do three more films.

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