I’m scared to make a small film: Rohit Shetty

Filmmaker Rohit Shetty is a name synonymous with larger than life blockbusters. Be it a ‘Golmaal’ series or ‘Singham’, his movies are replete with drama, action and comedy. The filmmaker is all set to direct Ranveer Singh the blue eyed boy of Bollywood next. Yes, Shetty and the ‘Padmaavat’ star are coming together for an action dhamaka ‘Simmba’. The film has the effervescent Ranveer Singh in the role of a policeman and is paired with Sara Ali Khan.

Opening up on the subject of making larger than life films, Shetty in an interview to IANS said that he is “scared” of moving away from his signature brand of cinema. On being asked if he will ever make a small budget film his answer was, “Honestly, I am scared of doing that. If there is a small film with a good story, I will produce it. But I won’t direct a small film. See, cinema is larger than life for me and people know my cinema for that. For my audience, watching a ‘Rohit Shetty film’ is like a festival on-screen. I cannot cheat on my loyal audience.”

He further added, “I drive an expensive car and live a luxurious life and that has come from the love, support of common people. A middle-class man who is playing 10 per cent of his hard-earned money to watch my film, is making me a rich person. So just to prove a point for my creative satisfaction, I cannot cheat on my audience,” he added. (Also Check: Not Madhavan, but Sonu Sood to play the negative role in Ranveer-starrer ‘Simmba’)

Shetty opened up on presenting Ranveer differently in Simmba. He said, “We have worked together in an ad film and that is when we started planning to collaborate for a film. But I couldn’t have imagined making ‘Simmba’ if not for Ranveer Singh, because he is the only actor who has the strength to pull out such a character.

“This is the first time we will see Ranveer playing a policeman in an action film. There are certain colourful elements in the character of Simmba that Ranveer also has. So I really had to change my writing if Ranveer would have said ‘no’ to my film. There is a lot of energy in the character, so as in him.” added the commercially successful director, whose “Singham” film franchise has been taken forward for a TV format.

His banner Rohit Shetty Picturez in collaboration with Reliance Animation has launched a new kids show “Little Singham” on Discovery Kids. It will go on air from April 21. The show is inspired by the character Bajirao Singham from the film. The animated version of “Little Singham” will have short stories in each episode. It is very different from the original script of the film.

Shetty said, “I remember there was four months off after the shooting of ‘Golmaal 3’ and ‘Bol Bachchan’. I just wanted to do a small budget action film with Ajay Devgn, so I told him. He said ‘Yes, let’s do this’. But never had I ever imagined that ‘Singham’ would become such a kids’ favourite character.

He further added, “Here we are targeting audience between 5 to 11 years old. So the subject of stories will be of their age groupm but here Singham is a policeman with all the good habits of the character that he had in the film. He is helpful, active, honest… It is pure children’s entertainment,” Shetty said.

We would love to see Rohit Shetty making a superhero film like ‘The Avengers’.