Ajay Devgn's Singam to beat Salman's Dabangg?

Move over Salman Khan. Come 2011, and Dabangg could be passé. Instead Ajay Devgn’s Singam could well be the action comedy to watch out for. Helmed by Rohit Shetty, the film is the Hindi remake of southern superstar Suriya’s Singam...

Move over Salman Khan. Come 2011, and

HT Image

Dabangg

could be passé. Instead Ajay Devgn’s

Singam

could well be the action comedy to watch out for. Helmed by Rohit Shetty for Reliance Big Pictures, the film is the Hindi remake of southern superstar Suriya’s

Singam

, and is scheduled to start in February.

Earlier this year, Devgn had reportedly also obtained rights to the Malayalam action thriller

Puthiya Mukham

, to be remade in Hindi by Shetty. “We’ll make that later.

Singam

will be made first because it’s a fabulous script,” he enthuses.

Considering the fact that he started as an action hero, and has done a number of comedy films and played intense characters in recent times, one would think action thrillers don’t intrigue Devgn much any more.

Stunts were indeed few and far between, as seen earlier this year in

Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai

,

Aakrosh

and

Golmaal 3.

And that is perhaps also an important reason why the actor’s now doing Rohit Shetty’s remake of

Singam

.

Devgn is unperturbed by questions about comparisons. Point out to him that many people felt Aamir Khan was not as great as Suriya in the Hindi remake of the Tamil

Ghajini

and the actor asserts, “Rohit and his writers have re-written and turned it around fabulously. It’s the right kind of light action movie that I’ve been wanting to do. Rohit is planning some amazing action sequences and there are also light moments in the storyline.”

With four certified hits to his credit this year, Devgn was recently presented the most profitable actor of the year award by an entertainment channel. Ask him about the remake of

Puthiya Mukham

and he concedes, “It’s an out-and-out action film and requires considerable preparation, which will take time.

Meanwhile, interesting subjects came up and I got busy with them. And now that

Singam

also has come up, we’ve put

Puthiya Mukham

on hold for the time being.”

Interestingly, his seven-year-old daughter Nysa doesn’t like action, he says, when asked about her thoughts on his onscreen

stuntbaazi

. Devgn says that she likes comedies and loved his just-released

Toonpur Ka Superrhero.

However, unlike the live animation film, in which his character’s children question his heroism since a duplicate does his stunts, the situation at the Devgn household is different. He says,“Whether I’m beating someone up or someone is beating me, Nysa doesn’t like action and gets upset,” he says.

Point to him that the film didn’t start on a high note and he concedes, “We didn’t expect it to take a great start, but it’s got better with word of mouth. And with the feedback I’m getting, I’m happy our effort is being appreciated.”