Rohit Shetty: South is making Indian films

We should start with 11 years of Golmaal. It was 11 years ago, in 2006, that the first instalment from the Golmaal series released, from then to Golmaal Again…

Rohit Shetty (RS): (Laughs), 11 years of Golmaal, yeah it's like a full circle. While making Golmaal, we never thought this would turn into this series. We were just making a comedy film, we didn't know it would become a cult film one day and we would be making so many parts. It was just a regular story. And even that had happened accidentally. I was working with Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd, I was making a thriller with Ajay Devgn, and Neeraj Vora said to me, 'I want to narrate a script to you.' He had done a play then and he narrated the play to me. I liked it. Then, Neeraj gave the same narration to Ajay, who also liked it and said, 'Haan, let's do this.' So the thriller was set aside and Golmaal was made. That's how it started. So Golmaal was actually an accident, which turned out to be a fruitful accident for me.

When you decided to make Golmaal Returns, sequels were not really a trend. What prompted you to make a sequel?

RS: I just felt like it. People were saying I should continue with this franchise and when I got a script, I was, like, 'Okay let's make this and see what happens.' So we made Golmaal Returns, and when that did well, we thought ab isko nahin chhodenge.

It must have been challenging to put all of them together and make sure that everybody had good screen presence…

RS: More than that, what was challenging was shooting with them. 18 actors multiplied by 4, just imagine in one frame there are 100 people standing, then you shout at them and run around. Throughout the shoot, I was doing just that, shouting at them and running around. You will rarely come across a film with so many characters and so many favorite characters. They know who is Pappi Bhai, they know who is Vasooli Bhai, who is that snake guy… so I wanted to bring everyone together.As it is, we are coming back after a long time and luckily the way we have written the script and the way it turned out, everyone has a great role.

Over the years, all these characters acquired their own fan following, apart from the lead characters there are fans of Vrajesh Hirjee's character, Mukesh Tiwari's character, Sanjay Mishra's character… You have to fulfill all those people's expectations too.

RS: Yeah, that's true. In Golmaal 3, Hirjee was not all that strong, Mukesh Tiwari was not all that strong but in this film everybody has a strong character. I would say, in Golmaal Again, they are stronger than they were in the first Golmaal. Whether it is Mukesh Tiwari or Sanjay Mishra or Johnny Lever… Johnny joined us in Part Three or Vrajesh Hirjee, for that matter, all of them have strong characters.

In these last three months of the year, October, November and December, expectations are really high from three big releases – Golmaal Again, Padmavati and then Tiger Zinda Hai…

RS: (Cuts in) Even Judwaa 2 this week has opened big. I think Judwaa 2, Padmavati, Tiger Zinda Hai… I hope all these films do well along with my film. And why only these biggies, I want others movies also to do well. It's not that I just want my film to do well. Padmavati should also do very well and Tiger Zinda Hai should also do very well. These films should break all the records so that we are even, at least at the box office. Nobody thinks of the exhibitors and distributors… if all these films do well, it will make for financial stability.

In such a confused scenario, you continue to make comedies, which is already a difficult genre to deal with and ensure that each film is better than the previous one.

RS: All we can do is try and work hard. The rest is up to the audience. All we can do is try and take a risk. Even though trends have changed, you can't suddenly imagine that all these characters have become serious. Then what will happen to Golmaal? All you can do is try hard and see that you are giving the audience what they want.

Golmaal Again has this interesting ghost element…

RS: The ghost is the new element and because of the ghost, we could expand the genre and the visuals. I think the kids will love it, everyone regardless of age will like it. We were wondering what we could do with Golmaal Again. We tried to crack different stories but we couldn't come up with something satisfactory. It was not like ki, okay, it is going one notch up but here we are very confident that it has actually gone one notch up and people will like it.

You often work with Ajay Devgn. While it can be comfortable working with a friend, the equation could also get awkward...

RS: No, we have never felt any such awkwardness. During Singham Returns, we shot a whole scene on the first day and edited it that same evening. I showed it to him and we agreed that it was not working out and did it again. After so many years of working together, I trust that if he has something to say, it is coming from his vast experience and nowhere else.