Rohit Shetty, the new big man of Bollywood

While producers and directors usually queue up to sign Shah Rukh Khan, and even established directors would love to work with Karan Johar, director Rohit Shetty had both these film industry biggies approach him for collaborations themselves.

While producers and directors usually queue up to sign Shah Rukh Khan, and even established directors would love to work with Karan Johar, director Rohit Shetty had both these film industry biggies approach him for collaborations themselves.

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After delivering five consecutive hits — Golmaal (2006), Golmaal Returns (2008), Golmaal 3 (2010), All The Best (2009) and Singham (2011) — he proved his credibility.

Rohit reveals that SRK called him after watching Golmaal 3 and praised the film. “I was in talks to remake Gulzar’s Angoor (1982) for UTV then,” says Rohit. “They asked me who I’d like to cast, I said SRK.”

The production house arranged a meeting with the star at his Bandra home two days later, and SRK told Rohit: “I want to make a film with you.” Though the actor agreed to work in Angoor, once the script was ready, Rohit felt it was too small a project for them to collaborate on and said so. “I thought that would be my last meeting with him,” he laughs. “But he was okay.”

Rohit’s collaboration with Karan happened in a similar fashion. When he was shooting for the title track of Bol Bachchan, he got a message from Karan saying, ‘I want to meet you because I want an established director to work with Dharma.’

“We spoke for two hours. The next day, though we had no script, we signed a project,” says Rohit, who will start work on Karan’s project after Chennai Express, followed by an untitled action film with Ajay Devgn.