I want to dabble in stories that are edgier: Sajid Nadiadwala

With four back-to-back successful releases in 2014, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that Sajid Nadiadwala established himself as one of the most powerful film-makers in Bollywood. With his hands full the coming year as well, the 48-year-old talks about wanting to work on diverse scripts rather than play safe.

With four back-to-back successful releases in 2014, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that Sajid Nadiadwala established himself as one of the most powerful film-makers in Bollywood. With his hands full the coming year as well, the 48-year-old talks about wanting to work on diverse scripts rather than play safe.

Sajid-Nadiadwala

How do you zero in on a script?

There is no hard and fast rule. I just want to tell good stories. When I used to make one film at a time, and then take a break for four years, I had to be more commercial, a bit safer in my choices. But now that we are making efforts to come up with a certain number of films every year, I want to dabble in stories that are different and edgier. I also want to work with people I really like. Earlier, I used to work mainly with friends or give breaks to new people. Now, I want to work with people whose films I love.

What have you learnt from other producers in Bollywood?

A lot… besides being creative, many of them are so hardworking. For instance, sometimes, Karan (Johar; film-maker) would reach my office for meetings as early as 7.30 am.

Was it a planned move to have four films in the same year?

When Kick and Tamasha were getting delayed, Imtiaz (Ali; director) told me that he had a story. That’s how Highway happened. Then, 2 States also had its own journey, wherein big stars like Shah Rukh Khan had agreed to be part of the film… then eventually the role fell into Arjun’s (Kapoor; actor) lap. So, everything ended up releasing in one year. Even for Heropanti, we were not getting the right cast, and then, I came across Tiger.

What’s next?

As of now, I have a lot on my plate — Phantom with Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif, directed by Kabir Khan; Tiger and Sabbir’s (Khan; director) film; Housefull 3 with Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan and Ritiesh Deshmukh, directed by Sajid-Farhad; Tamasha with Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and directed by Imtiaz Ali; Rohit Dhawan’s (director) next with Varun Dhawan and John Abraham.