Shah Rukh Khan represents the middle class boy who achieved it all: Aanand L Rai

Agencies
March 4, 2018

Mumbai, Mar 4: Aanand L Rai believes Shah Rukh Khan may have become a superstar but the actor still is the same Delhi boy at heart with humble beginnings and it was this quality that made him even more endearing for the filmmaker's next Zero.

In Zero, the 52-year-old actor, popular for portraying characters in love stories set abroad, plays a vertically challenged man who travels from Meerut to New York.

"I always felt he is a very basic Delhi boy. Whenever I saw him in those valleys of Switzerland, I felt 'Oh Delhi boy wahan tak pahuch gaya' (the Delhi boy has achieved great heights). I never felt he didn't belong there.

"That is the reason why I think he has a great connect in our country because he represents a basic middle class boy who has achieved it," Aanand told PTI when asked how does he see this transformation of the actor.

The movie reunites the cast of Jab Tak Hai Jaan with SRK, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif featuring in the film.

For the first time, Aanand has teamed up with a star like Shah Rukh. Asked if the stakes have become higher, the 46-year-old director says, "There were bright chances."

He is, however, relieved to have SRK on board.

"Shah Rukh makes me feel so comfortable and makes you feel like he is the most obedient actor you have ever worked with. I have found a friend, a big brother in him. I am enjoying the process and he is letting me fly," he says.

As of now, Aanand is gearing up for the Christmas release of the film which, he says, is "shaping up great" and is a "lifetime of experiences".

Besides direction, Aanand is backing a string of new films under his company Colour Yellow Productions - from the sequel of Happy Bhaag Jayegi, Anurag Kashyap's next Manmarziyan to a project helmed by Rajkumar Santoshi.

Talking about his production spree, he says, "I will never do a film just for the sake of it. If I have nothing to contribute, I won't do it. If I don't have anything to bring on the table something which will make it easier for the director or the team, there is no reason to make it."

"I am not doing films to make money. If you make a good film, you will make money but that is not the prime reason to go for a film. My prime reason is what am I bringing new for my audience," he adds.

For the Raanjhanaa director, the success or failure of a film does not account to much, but what matters is the intention with which it was made.

Aanand's turn as a producer happened with the hit Tanu Weds Manu and he says the decision was largely driven by the idea to back the content he believes in.

"Producing a film was not to make money but only to get the freedom to make the kind of films I want to. I don't look at my bank (balance) in terms of what I am getting or not getting," he says.

"I am just enjoying the process of telling the stories I always wanted to be a part of. As a director I know I can do very few, but as a production house, I can tell more stories, which is fun," he says.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 30,2020

Mumbai, Apr 29: Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor is not keeping well and has been admitted to a city hospital here, his elder brother Randhir Kapoor said.

The 67-year-old actor was taken to H N Reliance hospital by his family on Wednesday morning.

"He is in the hospital. He is suffering from cancer and he has some breathing problem, so he has been admitted to the hospital. He is stable now," Randhir told PTI.

The actor returned to India last September after undergoing treatment for cancer in the US for almost a year.

In February, Kapoor was hospitalised twice due to his health issues.

He was first admitted to a hospital in Delhi where he was attending a family function. At the time, Kapoor had said that he was suffering from an "infection".

After his return to Mumbai, he was again admitted to a hospital with viral fever. He was discharged soon after.

Kapoor, who has been quite active on social media, hasn't posted anything on his Twitter account since April 2.

The actor recently announced his next project, a remake of Hollywood film "The Intern", also featuring Deepika Padukone.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 10,2020

New Delhi, May 10: While people across the country have been spending a lot of time at home owing to the lockdown, superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Saturday provided a unique platform for all the aspiring filmmakers to produce some 'fun, creative and... spooky' video.

The 54-year-old actor shared a statement on Instagram, detailing about the opportunity for the filmmakers to channel their inner "filmmaking ghost to make a scary indoor film with an element of horror in it."

Taking it to the captions, the 'Don' actor wrote: "Since we've all got a bit of time on our hands in quarantine, thought I can get us all to work a bit... in a fun, creative and... spooky way!"

In the post, titled with a hashtag 'SpookSRK,' the actor has listed down the rules to be followed while making the video and shared the email link to submit their work.

The 'Dilwale' actor also announced that the selected "three winners" will get a chance to video call the star himself.

Wrapping the post on a lighter note, he added: "I will be sending in my film as well...P.S - Ghosts are welcome to send their entries too."

This comes a day after the first trailer launch of Shah Rukh's new Netflix horror series 'Betaal'.

SRK's Red Chillies Entertainment is producing the horror-thriller. The new series also stars Vineet Kumar, Aahana Kumra, Suchitra Pillai, Jitendra Joshi, Manjiri Pupala, and Syna Anand.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.