Sidharth Malhotra, who is gearing up for the release of A Gentleman, believes that it is essential to keep the budget of a film under check and that an appropriately budgeted film will seldom fail at the Box Office. The actor also said that A Gentleman is a quirky action film and the makers have made a deliberate attempt to keep the action as real as possible.
In a group interview in Mumbai, the actor spoke about the film, love for action genre and a lot more.
Excerpts
The film was initially titled Reloaded….
(Cuts in)..Reloaded was the working title as this was an action film, but we kept thinking as to what the title could be. At the last leg of the film shoot, we thought to name the film around Gaurav’s character as he was a nice man. So that’s how the title ‘A Gentleman’ came in.
Also read: Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez talk about their ‘longest kiss’ in A Gentleman
Do you think in today’s time it is important to make a film on a tight budget?
That is something I am very conscious of especially in the recent times. I would like to share an old school thought which Yashji had told Karan Johar ‘Films don’t fail, budgets do.’ It is very difficult to keep things intact in an action film, but we have kept the budget in check over here as it has real action with more of hand to hand combat. It doesn’t have a lot of CGI, big building blowing off and all those stuff. With satellite, music and other stuff already sold, we are pretty much in the safe zone. Our film would be safe if we get Rs 20 to 25 crore as the theatrical share.
How is it like to play a double role in A Gentleman?
It was very interesting to play two different characters in a film. It is not a typical double role film as the whole film is not based on double role. There are a lot of twists and turn around the two characters. When we started the film last year, no one was making a double role film, but right now, we are coming in between two double role films (Mubarakan and Judwaa 2). Our film is very different from other films releasing and the two characters I play belong to two different worlds.
Can we expect you doing more films in the action space?
I love this genre as I grew up on action films. I love the James Bond series, but in India, sadly we don’t make movies in that space. Bachchan Sir (Amitabh Bachchan) and Dharmendra Sir used to act in such stylish films, but in today’s time, not many actors are doing stylish action films. I would definitely make an attempt to do at least one action film in two years. I am hoping that if A Gentleman works, we would make an interesting franchise out of this. Having said that, I love this genre (stylish action comedy.)
Also read: Jacqueline Fernandez wears ugliest joggers ever and the price will make you want to jump in a well
Among the younger lot of actor (Varun, Arjun, Ranbir, Tiger), you are the only one to have made it big in the industry without any filmy connection. How does it feel?
Whenever I look back to see my journey, it gives me a sense of confidence. I had a very odd journey from being a guy from South Delhi to being a guy sitting here at Mehboob Studios giving interviews. Since I have started from zero, and by any chance today if I stop acting, I would still be one position up from where I started off. So, it is a sense of achievement.
What kind of roles excites you the most?
I would get bored playing same kind of roles or look the same for an entire year. So, I thrive to play different roles that require me to look different. I had a new kind of hairstyle and physicality in A Gentleman and the same is drastically different in Ittefaq wherein I have this soft personality.
What do you have to say about the current state of industry wherein many films have proved to be huge flops at the Box Office?
It is pretty sad that recently, none of the films are going into the big number. Baahubali and Dangal are the only two films that emerged blockbusters in the past six months. But I think, it also tells us that audience is interested in good stories and it puts a pressure on us to come up with good stories. We have a dearth of writers who only write. We often meet writers who want to be directors or directors who are also writers, but there are a very few people who want to be recognised as ‘just’ writers in this industry. The writers need to be employed by agencies and production houses and their job should be to explore different ideas. Today, the audience is rejecting anything that is a little sub-standard.
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