The first quarter of the year coming to an end brought with itself some gloomy expressions on the faces of most producers, distributors and the entire casts as films could marginally round off well, the box office numbers not withstanding! With just one film racing it up to the coveted 100 crore brigade, the first quarter was just another dull show of films at the multiplexes and single screens.

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, David, Inkaar and Special Chabbis 26 Movie Poster

With twenty one releases in the first three months, almost half of it drowned within the shackles of flops, buried deep for its lack of a convincing storyline and half baked performances. Expectations were sky rocketing since January saw the release of the hyped and publicized Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola which despite having some marvelous performances could not live up to the expectations. Films with unconventional themes might have worked wonders last year but this year, there was a completely different story. With largely off beat yet highly commercial films like David, Inkaar falling totally flat on the face and Special 26 just managing to maintain a steady income rate, 2013 has taken a spin around the orbit. Although Special 26, being an Akki film was anticipated to do a lot better than how it fared at the box office.

Jolly LLB, Kai Po Che, ABCD – Any Body Can Dance and Race 2 Movie Poster

As always, there were too many films with the likes of Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story, 3G, Zila Ghaziabad, and Rangrezz which tanked at the box office without a trace, much to everyone’s expectations. The sole runner of the race would definitely be Race 2 which, in spite of mixed reviews and gibberish twists and turns managed to reach the 100 crore target, courtesy the hype and the excitement generated by its prequel’s super successful run! And when there were major shocks, there were some brilliant surprises too. With small budget films like ABCD- Any Body Can Dance, Kai Po Che and the satirical Jolly LLB raking in a lot of moolah turned out to be the biggest money spinners of the first quarter. While ABCD was the only super hit film, Kai Po Che tugged at people’s hurts with its beautiful treatment and turned out to be another hit feather in Abhishek Gattu Kapoor’s hat! Jolly LLB, which was produced on a stringent budget with less famous but hugely able names managed to bring in the most jolts, scoring in with a dream run of 32 crores, a number that might look tiny yet is mammoth for the entire Jolly LLB team.

Himmatwala, Chashme Baddoor, Commando and Nautanki Saala Movie Poster

And the biggest showdown Award of the first half definitely goes to the (as you expected it!) Sajid Khan Entertainer, err Brain-buster No brainer Himmatwala, which failed to even match up to the hype enveloping the film. The dynamic first time duo of Sajid and Ajay were defin itely the pick of the season with crowd expected to shower in huge numbers, but this film could do nothing to back the loud mouthed Sajid’s virtual oaths and promises. Audience likes variety, not a typical gibberish and nonsensical remake and that is what has been proved from how Himmatwala upseted its producers and distributors with no profits at all.

Bromance being the flavour of the season, Chashme Baddoor helped David Dhawan register his first hit after ages. Whilst the Fate of the recently released Nautanki Saala and the action stunner Commando: A One Man Army are being decided, we look forward to the next quarter with films like the hugely dynamic and innovative Ek Thi Daayan, Aurangzeb, Bombay Talkies, Shootout At Wadala, Ghanchakkar and other films up for release!! Hopefully, it wouldn’t be much of a showdown anymore (consult Sajid Khan to know the real meaning!)

Race 2 Movie Poster

The film is now a biggie for Abbas-Mustan after the debacle of Players. John Abraham and Deepika Padukone have further consolidated their position at the box office, Jacqueline continues to be a part of hit films while Anil Kapoor and Ameesha Patel have benefited from being associated with a commercial success as well.

Vishwaroop Movie Poster

On the other hand Kamal Haasan too has now seen his biggest box office earner since Chachi 420. Though it was a much more universal film and continues to find good eyeballs on satellite re-runs, Vishwaroop is a bigger grosser (at least on an absolute scale) with approx 11 crores coming in. This is marginally better than Rajinikanth’s Robot that had earned 11 crores after its first week. The film stayed on to do decent business over the weekdays though it would now face challenge from a slew of biggies arriving one after another.

David Movie Poster

David, after taking a poor opening and not really being helped by the word of mouth, saw a decline over the weekdays with hardly any collections coming in. The film netted 3.5 crores after its first week and would end it’s lifetime run around the 4 crore mark. It is a major flop at the box office.

However even bigger disasters are Midnight’s Children, Deewana Main Deewana, Listen… Amaya and Mai… which couldn’t even see the combined collections of 1 crore!

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

“The audience here is more evolved, they watch a masala film, enjoy it. At the same time they can enjoy a serious film. They are able to appreciate (everything), you can make a biopic and still have audience liking it. For actors like me that is fantastic,” the 46-year-old said here Tuesday in an interview.

Earlier seen in Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, Vikram is all praise for the way Hindi films are being made and is especially happy with the presence of a large number of script-writers and the variety of stories.

Vikram

“What is most enchanting about Bollywood is that all of you have so many script writers and so many variety of cinema which is not there in the south,” he said and specified that there are two types of cinema.

“There is very good cinema and there is cinema that runs. The very good cinema is not the one that runs always. The audience here is like we had a tough day at work and we just want to relax and laugh. Now the trend is comedy, they don’t want to think.”

“We don’t have scriptwriters, we only have directors. Here you have so many scripts to talk about,” he added.

“The audience here is more evolved, they watch a masala film, enjoy it. At the same time they can enjoy a serious film. They are able to appreciate (everything), you can make a biopic and still have audience liking it. For actors like me that is fantastic,” the 46-year-old said here Tuesday in an interview.

Catch Vikram’s Interview right here:

Vikram

David proved to be a dud at the Box Office and is not expected to sustain business hereafter. Its 4 Days collections stands at 2.80 Crores at the Domestic Box Office.

Vikram and Tabu from a Still from David

The movie will be out of theaters this Friday itself and will make a lifetime box office collection of maximum 4 Crores.

MKS tweets at @mksmukulsharma

Let’s first talk about David, a film that at least released as per plan but didn’t have much going for it as far as marketing and promotion is concerned. Add to that an overall content that didn’t catch fancy of many means the film turned out to be a big downer commercially. Yes, critically a select few did have good things to say and no one bashed it in particular. That was fair as well since the film’s content did have sparks to catch one’s attention. However that was diluted by the fact that the opening was much lesser than a bare minimum 30% odd that one expected. That reflected in around 2.5 Crores that came in which is poor.

David, Vishwaroop and Race 2 Movie Poster

In comparison Vishwaroop still managed a decent opening of around 30%-40%, which was on predicted lines, and saw some decent escalation over the weekend as well. A well made film, though not as spectacular as the hype created around it, the Kamal Haasan starrer benefited from the controversy as well since it’s collections were better than Robot in the Hindi belt. That’s saying a lot since Rajnikanth is a much more popular name up North when compared to Haasan. Though 8 Crore weekend is still not a very huge number, it is still face saving enough. All eyes are on how it sustains for rest of the week.

Other releases of the week, Midnight’s Children, Deewana Main Deewana, Listen… Amaya and Mai… have proven to be disasters at the box office. Not even finding a proper release for themselves, they were not reviewed by most and were criminally ignored. Though a select few reviewers who saw Listen… Amaya and Mai… appreciated them for the content, zero visibility factor pulled these flicks down in a major way.

All of this benefited Race 2 which, in its second weekend, boasted of collections that were one and a half times more (15 Crores) than the sum total of all new releases (10 crores) combined together. With over 90 crores already in its kitty, the film is now comfortably headed towards the 100 crores mark, courtesy underperformance of the newer releases.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

Neil Nitin Mukesh in a still from David Movie

Vishwaroop on the other hand seems to be doing better than all the new releases of this weekend. Race 2 in its 2nd week, is still leading the box office with way better collections than that of new releases.

MKS tweets @mksmukulsharma

Chiyaan Vikram and Isha Sharvani in a still from David Movie

Though the movie performed poorly on its 1st Friday at the box office, it will expect a turnaround on Saturday and Sunday.  One of the reasons for the poor performance can also be the competition it is facing from the other movies like Race 2 and Vishwaroop.

MKS tweets @mksmukulsharma

There is hardly any hope from Mai and Govinda & Priyanka Chopra’s Deewana Main Deewana. However, Vishwaroop and David have good chances to see a decent jump on Saturday and Sunday.

David, Deewana Main Deewana, Mai and Vishwaroop Movie Poster

Meanwhile Race 2 continues to lead the box office with major collections across the country. The question which remains is whether the new releases will offer any resistance to Race 2 on Saturday and Sunday?

MKS tweets @mksmukulsharma

Vinay Virmani, Neil Nitin Mukesh And Vikram In David Movie Poster

Rating: 3.5/5 stars (Three-and-a-half)

Star cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Monica Dogra, Vinay Virmani, Lara Dutta, Nasser, Rohini Hattangadi, Chiyaan Vikram, Tabu, Isha Sharwani, Nishan Nanaiah, Saurabh Shukla.

What’s Good: The direction; the stories; Vikram’s excellent acting; the screenplay; the stunningly apt music.

What’s Bad: The climax of Neil’s story; Vinay’s story takes time to gather steam; the stories can get a tad confusing.

Loo break: Not in this movie.

Watch or Not?: Definitely. Don’t miss this funny, suave and entertaining film.

User Rating: 

What’s similar to God and underwear? If this has you bemused or offended, David is that necessary kick-in-the-seat of your pants to remind you of what intelligent movies with style and substance look like.

Bejoy Nambiar’s David is the stories of three men, across three time periods and places who share little more than their first name.

Set in black-and-white in 1975 London, David (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is the dreaded gangster Ghani’s henchman. Loyal to Ghani since his father’s death, David protects Ghani with his life while his master holds him more precious than his own son. When Indian officials come to London to end Ghani, they realize that they can’t touch him with David in the way. Dirty secrets have a distinct way of persuasion that even threats don’t.

While this dreadlocked David (Vinay Virmani) spends most of his time strumming the guitar – giving lessons, playing gigs and buttering industry-people to give him a chance – his father (Nassar) is a pious man of the cloth. Though he can’t get enough of his tiffs with his father, David loves his sisters and dreams of getting them well-settled in life. But when the politician Malati Tai (Rohini Hattangadi) targets his father, David starts turning into something even he can’t recognize.

Sloshing his bottle, beating up people at the bar and going on eccentric bride hunts with his mother have made David’s (Chiyaan Vikram) life more than boring. Between talking to his father’s spirit (who possesses the bodies of innocent passers-by just to enjoy drink or two) and dawdling with his friend Peter (Nishan Nanaiah), David falls head-over-heels in love with the Roma (Isha Sharwani). While David loves her despite her “speaker and mike being (switched) off”, the problem is that she’s betrothed to Peter. Poor David only has his “spirited” father (Saurabh Shukla) and super-awesome friend Frenny (Tabu) to go to.

Vikram And Isha Sharvani (David Movie Stills)

David Review: Script Analysis

Bejoy Nambiar and Natasha Sahgal take three not-so-ordinary stories and spin it into an excellent script. While Neil’s story is bleaker than the others, it is also the one that disappoints the most. It starts of stylishly and intriguingly, but gets a messy conclusion. The wedding of David’s love interest Noor (Monica Dogra) is not convincing. Vinay’s story gets a little tiring since it takes time to gather steam and even his “Mujhe jawaab chahiye!” is repetitive, but patience has its just rewards with a finely penned coming-of-age story. Vikram’s story is so lovingly penned that every character in it is worth falling in love with. Whether it’s Tabu with her parlour, the mother who prays for her son’s wedding or Vikram’s drunken antics, the story is just about flawless (Why the Satku Santa part?!).

The dialogues are good, but could have been better. The parts tying up in the end may be a little far-fetched for some, but it’s really enjoyable.

David Review: Star Performances

Neil Nitin Mukesh is mostly stone-faced as the henchman, but when he does get to act, he is very good. Monica Dogra is alright as Noor. Another flooring performance is by Vinay Virmani. He’s so adorable and vulnerable that your heart goes out for him. Even with little screen time, Lara Dutta does well as Neelam. Nasser delivers nothing less than what’s expected from a veteran like him. Rohini Hattangadi is malicious as Malati Tai.

Chiyaan Vikram nails it and gives you the stigmata to not forget it for quite a long time from now. He may be whacking people in drunken stupor or tying up his mother and threatening to kill himself, but he owns it like no one can. If there’s anyone who steals the thunder, it’s Tabu as Frenny. She’s such a catch that you wouldn’t mind if the romance angle went out of the window and just had to see David and Frenny hanging out. Isha Sharwani does well as the pretty Roma. Nishan Nanaiah and Saurabh Shukla are adorable as Peter and David’s father respectively.

David Review: Direction, Music & Technical Aspects

Bejoy Nambiar, you wizard, you! He handles the multiple narrations, stories and timelines with class and style. The gangster intro of Neil reminds you of Guy Ritchie and you can’t get enough of his delicious slow-mo sequences. The music is fabulous: the Mast Kalandar burst of rock at the wedding will give you goosebumps, Prashant Pillai’s Rab Di is lovely and so is Remo’s Maria Pitache. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is fantastic.

David Review: The Last Word

David is a sleek, funny movie that sews together interesting stories with excellent performances and darn good music. Don’t give it a miss.

David Trailer

David released on 1st February, 2013.

Share with us your experience of watching David.

The battle would be primarily between David and Vishwaroop, the Hindi version of which is actually releasing this Friday!. David has seen decent to good promotions around itself and seems like a quality product in the offering. However it’s genre coupled with the fact that it would be the story (and not the cast) which would result in audience footfalls means that one can’t expect massive numbers on the opening day. Anything more than 30%-40% collections would be decent enough for David to throw in a fight and stay in the ring for word of mouth over the weekend.

David and Vishwaroop Movie Poster

Vishwaroop is expected to see select release for itself. The makers/presenters should be happy if it takes anything more than 30%-40% start though it has only a week for itself to consolidate since there is a flurry of Hindi releases week after week.

This brings one to remaining releases of the week – Midnight’s Children, Deewana Main Deewana, Listen… Amaya, Mai…, Pyar Ka Jalwa and The Unsound.

Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children seems like an interesting film with a good ensemble cast but has been severely under-promoted. Arriving amidst a crowd, it risks getting lost. Govinda and Priyanka Chopra starrer Deewana Main Deewana is a delayed film that has been in the making for a decade. Even an all-India release is a challenge for it. Listen… Amaya has been struggling hard to make its presence felt but in vain. Ditto for Asha Bhosle starrer Mai. As for Pyaar Ka Jalwa and The Unsound, they are releasing without any promotion whatsoever and that would have a telling on their outcome.

In addition, these films would also face decent enough competition from Race 2 which is all set to enter its second week with a good show count.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

However, there is a common thread between Mai… and Listen… Amaya. Both are about relationships.

Mai…, the acting debut of veteran singer Asha Bhosle, narrates the story of an old desolate mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s and is tossed between her four children.

Mai… Movie Poster

When her son and two youngest daughters try to run away from taking her responsibility, the eldest daughter Madhu, played by Padmini Kolhapure, takes a stand against the wishes of her husband and tends to her mother. How the daughter’s family life gets affected by this, and how the relationship between ‘Mai’ and her son-in-law takes a miraculous, life-changing turn, forms the rest of the story.

Directed by debutant Mahesh Kodiyal, Mai… also features actors Ram Kapoor, Navin Kaushik and Shivani Joshi.

The other film, Listen… Amaya, directed by debutant director Avinash Kumar Singh, tells the tale of Leela Krishnamoorthy, played by actress Deepti Naval. She essays the part of a middle-aged widow, who owns a library and runs it. Amaya, played by actress Swara Bhaskar, is Leela’s only child. She is 22, quick-witted, confident and an open-minded writer.

Listen… Amaya Movie Poster

A widow since 12 years, Leela refuses to become a stereotypical wallflower and falls in love again with Jayant Sinha, played by actor Farooque Shaikh. In the film, he is a 60-year-old retired photographer and Amaya’s good friend. The film explores multiple relationships in their own unique ways. It also traces Amaya’s journey of anger, betrayal and disbelief.

A self-funded movie, Listen… Amaya, which has been to international film fests and been awarded too, is also in line to be screened at the 15th London Asian Film Festival in March.

The third film on offer — action-thriller David by Bejoy Nambiar — is in total contrast to the other two options.

David Movie Poster

Starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vinay Virmani, Monica Dogra, Isha Sharvani and southern star Vikram, its story is set in three different time periods and the plot revolves around the lives of three different men named David.

One narrative, set in London in 1975, is about 30-year-old David who works for Iqbal Ghani, a dreaded Mafia don. Another David, a devout Christian, is a 19-year-old musician in the year 1999 in Mumbai, while the third David is a 40-year-old fisherman, who lives in Goa in 2010.

Produced by Reliance Entertainment, the film was shot in Mangalore and Mumbai, among other locations.

Well, of course we also have Kamal Haasan’s much touted Vishwaroop releasing in Hindi this week. Vishwaroop was scheduled to first premier on Direct-To-Home (DTH) platform Jan 10, but the event was called off following stiff protests by theatre owners and postponed to Feb 1 for the Hindi version.

Kamal Hassan in a still from Vishwaroop Movie

The film, which stars Kamal in the title role, also features Andrea Jeremiah and Pooja in the lead. Rahul Bose, Shekhar Kapur and Jaideep Ahlawat are among other actors in the movie.

Last but not the least, it’s Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children, based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Salman Rushdie with the same name.

Midnight’s Children Movie Poster

The film features an ensemble cast of Satya Bhabha, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan and Darsheel Safary.

Shot mostly in Sri Lanka, the film revolves around the national emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi from June 1975 to March 1977.

So, what’s your pick this weekend?

With Bejoy Nambiar’s David, set to hit the screens on the 1st of Feb, with a similar concept, Koimoi brings to you some more Bollywood films that intertwine different stories together in one.

Yuva (2004)

Yuva Movie Poster

Directed by Mani Ratnam, Yuva revolved around three stories and characters (Michael, Arjun and Lallan) that were linked in one way or another. Starring some of the big names of the industry including Abhishek Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Vivek Oberoi, Esha Deol and Ajay Devgn, the movie received mixed reviews from the critics. The movie was an entrancing mix of politics, romance and crime.

Life In A… Metro (2007)

Life In A… Metro Movie Poster

A 2007 movie directed by Anurag Basu, Life in a…Metro was a story of unrelated characters that are associated with each other through one unifying sentiment called, love. The film was based in the city of Mumbai, portraying the ups and downs faced by an ordinary individual in a metro. The movie had some big names like Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali, Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja, Kay Kay Menon, Kangana Ranaut, Sharman Joshi, Konkona Sen Sharma and Irrfan Khan in pivotal roles. The movie got good reviews at the Box Office.

Salaam-E-Ishq (2007)

Directed by Nikhil Advani, the movie was a tale of six extremely separate people and their bumpy life rides. The characters somehow collide with each other by the interlinking story of love and marriage. While the movie makes its way from Agra to Delhi to London to Mumbai, characters run into each other as the story intertwines together. The movie starred John Abraham, Vidya Balan, Govinda, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Akshaye Khanna, Ayesha Takia, Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles.

Shor In The City (2011)

Helmed by Krishna and Raj Nidimoru, Shor In The City was a beautifully woven saga of three different people who manage to cross paths with each other and their stories tie together by the climax. With not very big names involved in the film, the movie was adored by the critics.

David (2013)

Bejou Nambiar’s David, which will make its way to the theatres on Feb 1 is again a story based on a similar concept. The movie merges three stories into one, linking characters from different eras and world through a common name- David.  This too is likely to be nothing short of an extravaganza.

Neil Nitin Mukesh

All of a sudden, Neil Nitin Mukesh is all over. With three films (David, 3G, Shortcut Romeo) arriving one after another in three months (Feb-Apr) straight, it is a record of sorts for an A-list actor in last so many years. In the middle of a hectic promotional tour, Neil gets chatting about the record and more.

Guess audience is looking forward to a Neil Nitin Mukesh film festival now, isn’t it?
(Laughs) To be honest, the question that has come to me way too often in the past is that I do one film in a year and then main gaayab ho jaate hoon. Now that there are three of my films coming together, logon ko lag raha hai ki thoda zyaada ho gaya hai. The thing is that I do those films which I really like at the basic concept level. This means that sometimes I may like only one film in an year, do it and then move on. On the other hand at times I may choose multiple films as well. However I don’t work in parallel on many films. I keep them spaced out during shooting at the least.

One thing which is common though is that you are playing someone with grey shades in each of your three movies.
If you have seen my films then right from Johnny Gaddaar till now, I have picked layered characters. Ab yeh aapke upar hai that whether you notice grey, black or black & white shades (smiles). I guess a little bit of something or the other is definitely there in my characterisation. I like doing such characters which are truly different, more so since saturation of grey is very different in my films.

However your films do come with a tag of ‘Made to Thrill’. With ‘David’, ’3G’ and ‘Shortcut Romeo’ promising ample thrilling moments, is this pretty much a niche that you have built for yourself?
Exactly! See, every actor has something special that he only does best. If you ask me, I prefer doing thrillers, reason being that they truly excite me. Moreover, the best part is that the characters I play are so different from what I am in real life as a person. To play an intense character on screen is something that I love. This is the reason why I get attracted to films of this genre that allow me so much of material and mass to eat.

So what was it about ‘David’ that attracted you to the film? Seems like it is a powerful outing for you.
Yes, it is. I am playing this London based gangster who is the son of Iqbal Ghani, an underworld don. The interesting part is that David is a Catholic boy who is born and brought up in a Muslim family. Why I jumped into this movie was because during its narrative, at one point you expect me to be this cold blooded murderer who is very intense and may appear heartless. On the other hand when you look at the flip side, you see the heart of a child in him. When he is in love with this girl (Monica Dogra), it is all so beautiful since along with so much angst, there is also a lot of emotion and drama. I was instantly drawn.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

The 34-year-old married ace tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi in 2011 and the couple became proud parents of daughter Saira in January last year.

Lara Dutta

“(Director) Bejoy Nambiar’s David is out on Feb 1. Have a ‘iity bitty’ (small) part in it. Filmed it when Saira was five months old. Fun to be part of it,” Lara tweeted.

David, a movie transcending three different time zones, was simultaneously shot in Hindi and Telugu. It also features Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vinay Virmani, Monica Dogra, Isha Sharvani and southern star Vikram.

Vinay Virmani

He is the youngest David of the lot in Bejoy Nambiar’s flick which is about three Davids, others being Neil Nitin Mukesh and Vikram. The youngster in question is Vinay Virmani who started his film career with Breakaway which stays on to be the biggest hit in Canadian cinema. Now with David seemingly quite interesting and Bejoy expected to have made yet another film that would redefine the way stories are told, as was the case in Shaitan, Vinay is happy to have stepped into an altogether different avatar.

While one waits to see how the drama unfolds on screen, what Vinay remembers most is the experience of shooting in Mumbai monsoons.

“In Mumbai, there is hardly any shooting taking place in the months of June/July due to rains. However my story required that we shoot in the monsoons. It was indeed a big thing for me to experience Mumbai rains and also shoot in it. The conditions were trying for one and all but Bejoy perked up everyone to just go for it”, recollects Vinay.

Guess this was a one off experience for Vinay and something that he would cherish for long. However since he is based out of Canada and Bollywood is right here in India, how is he planning to manage it all in the long run?

“See, for now I am going to be juggling between the two countries. I have work in Canada and the U.S. as well. Meanwhile I am also talking to more filmmakers in Mumbai”, says Vinay, “In any case, I feel that these days an actor can be international. It is just a matter of one flight. I think it is an exciting process to be a part of both the worlds. I get to experience so much and learn from different kind of filmmakers. I feel blessed.”

Now we look forward to the results once the film releases all over on this Friday.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

Bejoy Nambiar

Though David had initially started off in Hindi, a creative call was taken around turning it into a bilingual and also making an added Tamil version. While this seemed like a daunting task to begin with, the final outcome is two films, both of which would be releasing on 1st February.

“Yes, ‘David’ would arrive in Hindi as well as Tamil version. While former is 2.5 hours, latter is under 2 hours. Reason being that the Hindi version is about three Davids while the Tamil version has one less”, smiles Bejoy.

With so many people in such complex setup, it was quite a task for Bejoy to put together all the logistics, especially since he is also the producer of the film.

“In fact being a producer liberated since I was the one accountable for whatever happened on the sets or behind the scenes. Still, hats off to my kick-ass team and my partner due to which we finished the shoot of both Hindi and Tamil version in 75 days flat”, he smiles.

With Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vikram, Vinay Virmani and Jiiva playing ‘David’ in the two versions of the film, Lara Dutta, Tabu, Monica Dogra and Isha Sharwani as the leading ladies and Rohini Hattangadi, Nasser, Satish Kaushik and Sheetal Menon featuring in prominent parts as well, Bejoy had a lot to put together in a cohesive format.

“Not to forget the fact that there are different stories set in different eras”, chuckles Bejoy, “It was almost akin to making three different films. I had a list of all the people I wanted for my film and thankfully I managed to get them all on board.”

David releases all over on 1st February.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

Neil Nitin Mukesh In David Movie Stills

“This is clearly a record of sorts and no other actor from his generation has found himself in the middle of such outing,” says a close associate, “He first arrives with David (February). After that he has 3G‘ lined up in March and a month later he would be seen in Shortcut Romeo.”

It wasn’t planned this way though but now that the makers have decided to choose this part of the year to bring on his films, the youngster is going with the tide.

“Moreover he is the central protagonist in each of these films,” states an observer, “He played a villain in his last release Players. It was way back in 2010 that he had arrived as a hero in Lafangey Parindey. It has been a rather long wait for him but now he is supremely excited to be back in the reckoning.”

Incidentally he is carrying grey shades in at least two of his upcoming films. While in David he plays a gangster, he is fighting an ugly battle with technology in horror thriller 3G. As for Shortcut Romeo, he would be getting into a quintessential South style action hero mode.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder