Promos have begun for his co-production, Priyadarshan’s Bhagam Bhag starring Akshay Kumar, Govinda, Paresh Rawal and Lara Dutta but Suniel Shetty’s next big project is GIFA — the Global Indian Film Awards to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in early December.
“GIFA is huge this year — as a brand and in terms of performance artists,” says Shetty. Interestingly, GIFA covers films released between October 2005 and October 2006, making it the first awards ceremony to celebrate films released this year.
Besides this, and supporting charitable causes, Suniel Shetty says he is “busy doing nothing”. Apart from completing Apoorva Lakhia’s Shootout at Lokhandwala, he does not have any other film on the anvil this year. He’s just had two releases though: Umrao Jaan and Apna Sapna Money Money.
His big project for next year is a television reality show that he will host and is creating along with channel partners Sahara. “I am taking my interest in health issues forward with The Biggest Loser, a show format from NBC where we encourage people to lose weight. Overweight contestants compete to lose the most weight and win a cash prize."
Besides this, he has three films lined up for next year. “There is the third instalment of Hera Pheri. There’s Sanjay Gupta’s film Saat, with the Kaante team and there is a film called Airport directed by Anubhav Sinha and produced by Sunny Deol and K Sera Sera,” he says.
He has also recently returned from South Africa where he was shooting for Sinha’s Cash. “Yes, that was a last minute fill-in because Anubhav was in trouble. It’s a very high-tech film with lots of stunts and action,” says Shetty.
Ask him about reports that he is remaking Johnny Mera Naam and he says: “We have acquired the rights but we are still examining if it can be made contemporary. Apart from films, my company Popcorn is focussing on building properties, films and television software. I want to be low profile and deliver — not just say I will.”
{{/usCountry}}Ask him about reports that he is remaking Johnny Mera Naam and he says: “We have acquired the rights but we are still examining if it can be made contemporary. Apart from films, my company Popcorn is focussing on building properties, films and television software. I want to be low profile and deliver — not just say I will.”
{{/usCountry}}udita.jhunjhunwala@ hindustantimes.com