Mumbai, Feb 4 (IANS) Director Aneez Bazmee, who has a penchant for making comedy films, is working on another comedy but also writing scripts of a suspense thriller and a romantic love story.
“Work on numerous projects is going on. But it will take some time to make an official announcement. I’m writing a comedy film – the kind of films I make like ‘No Entry’, ‘Welcome’, ‘Singh Is Kinng, ‘Ready’. I’m also working on a suspense thriller, and on a romantic love story. I’m very excited because I had made a film, ‘Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha’ long back and it is similar to that,” said Bazmee present at the screening of film “BHK Bhalla@Halla.Kom”.
After a string of comedies, a suspense thriller from Bazmee sounds like an unlikely development.
But he says: “It’s not a new genre for me, I had earlier made the film ‘Deewangee’ with Ajay Devgn, Akshaye Khanna and Urmila Matondkar… people had loved the film, so I hope they like this one too.”
“People liked it so much that numerous producers told me that I could make only suspense thrillers and they wanted me to make suspense thrillers for them. I wanted to make a comedy, so I didn’t make that film then,” the writer-director added.
His last film “Welcome Back” was a challenge for him since superstar Akshay Kumar wasn’t part of the sequel. But still, the film lived up to the challenge and earned close to Rs.100 crore at the box-office. “It was a beautiful film which people loved and appreciated and it was a big hit, so I’m very happy,” he said.
Sex comedies have been ruling the roost with “Mastizaade” and “Kya Kool Hain Hum 3”, but Bazmee has always kept his comedies clean. “Honestly and personally, I feel that making a comedy film is not comedy. It is quite difficult, especially clean comedies. My fans love these films, so the endeavour is to keep on making such films.”
Oscars have bigger controversies: Anil Kapoor
Actor Anil Kapoor has defended the controversies that surround award shows in Bollywood, saying even the Oscars have its share of controversies, which are sometimes even bigger.
“As they say, the grass is always greener (on the other side). Because you are here (Indian film industry), you don’t know what’s happening there (internationally). So the kind of controversies that happen here, sometimes the controversies there are more than that,” Kapoor said on Thursday at a press conference to announce the Zee Cine Awards, where he will be performing.
“And this year too, at the Oscars, there have been big controversies, certain sections feel that they have not been fair, that it’s not been that diverse in their choice of nominations. These things keep happening, lobbying also takes place,” the “24” actor said.
There has been a controversy with the all-white nominations at the Oscars this year with numerous artistes voicing their opinions on the issue.
Kapoor, who was a part of Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire”, recently won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor for his performance in “Dil Dhadakne Do”.
“Ultimately, you can see that this year I have received an award but it’s after so many years and that doesn’t mean that I didn’t want to get awards. So somewhere it is genuine that I didn’t get the award. My work in all films is good, tell me in which film I didn’t do good work.”
“All big stars do good work every year, but we don’t get awards every year, so somewhere there is a certain integrity in the awards. And you are not in America or Los Angeles, and even there all kinds of controversies happen. The ones who win feel it is genuine and the ones who don’t win find something fishy,” the actor said.
The Zee Cine Awards ceremony, to be held on February 20, will be hosted by Shahid Kapoor and Karan Johar.
Zee Cine Awards 2016 to have jury awards
The Zee Cine Awards 2016, India’s “first Integrated National Award” for cinema will introduce ‘jury awards’, a company official said.
With the jury awards being instituted this year to ensure a high degree of fairness and transparency in the selection process, it is Zee’s goal to ensure that the awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner, said Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd MD & CEO Punit Goenka.
“Reaching out to various cultures this year, Zee Cine Awards 2016 is India’s first ‘Integrated National Awards’ with a special feed of exclusive regional content in Bengali, Telugu and Marathi that will air on Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu and Zee Marathi respectively.
“This is in sync with our positioning ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (The world is my family). Even as we celebrate extraordinary achievements in cinema in Hindi and regional languages, we have also ensured transparency in the voting process with the aJury Awards’. I’m thankful to every Jury member and artist present here as they bring a distinctive element to the stage of Zee Cine Awards,” added Goenka.
The awards will be telecast simultaneously on Zee Cinema, Zee Cinema HD, Zee Anmol and Zee Tamizh on March 5 to reach out to 959 million viewers across 169 countries.
Also present on the occasion were ZEEL chief business officer Sunil Buch, actors Anil Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Kriti Sanon and jury members Leena Yadav, Ravi K. Chandran, Resul Pookutty and Shantanu Moitra.