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.