Ghanchakkar director Raj Kumar Gupta on whether the Vidya Balan-Emraan Hashmi film was ahead of its time: “I made a dark comedy then and…” | Exclusive

The label “Ahead Of Its Time” is a very tricky one because there is no clarity on what time we are talking about. Will it ever come? Will there ever be a time when almost everything is relevant? Filmmakers often hear this label because there is always some project that gets it once in a while. Raj Kumar Gupta, a filmmaker who has found his niche in stories that were ahead of the curve in his time, is a filmmaker who has heard that compliment (if we can call it one) more than once. The filmmaker who gave us films like Aamir, No One Killed Jessica, and Raid, is surely aware of his traits that make him stand out in a crowd. One of his most interesting experiments was Ghanchakkar, which stars Vidya Balan alongside Emraan Hashmi.

Raj Kumar Gupta on Ghanchakkar

Raj Kumar Gupta, who recently ventured into the streaming space with Pill, joined OTTplay for an exclusive candid chat. The filmmaker spoke to us about a lot of things, including Raid 2, the Telugu remake of the first film, and more. Meanwhile, we also spoke about the box office, failures, and his movies that were labeled ‘ahead of their times’. This is when we asked him if Ghanchakkar would have fared well if it was released in today’s day and age. The filmmaker had an interesting approach to it. Read on to learn everything you should know about the same.

Ghanchakkar, starring Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan, Amar Kaushik, Namit Das, Rajesh Sharma, and an ensemble cast, was written and directed by Raj Kumar Gupta and was a dark comedy. The nature of the movie was more relevant to the style of films we are watching now. When asked if he thinks the movie would have been more relevant today than in 2013, Gupta said in our exclusive chat, “That is what people tell me now. For me, I felt it was relevant; that is why I made it at that time. But because of the situation, people tell me, and I am also observing that with streaming coming in and with the kind of films being made, probably it would have gotten more resonance now creatively as well as a dark comedy.”

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He added, “I made a dark comedy then, and a lot of dark comedies are being made now, and they are working. I do not know; that's also an assumption. But, yes, the audience would be very different if the movie was released today. And I am sure they would have appreciated it more.” One of the core highlights of the film was pop sensation Altaf Raja’s return to the screen. Talking about it, Raj Kumar Gupta said, “I really loved him. I remember in childhood we used to groove to his songs. So when the opportunity came, I thought, what better than to figure out if we can work together.”

Raj Kumar Gupta on Re-Release Trend

In the conversation, Raj Kumar Gupta further discussed the trend of re-releases with us and how he is loving it. When we asked the filmmaker which of his films he would like to bring back to the big screen, he said, “Yaar, this is a very difficult question. I would like all of my movies to get a re-release. The rest of the movies, like Raid, it's just been some five years since the release. So re-releasing it now doesn't make any sense. It was a big hit, but it is too close. But if I had to choose, I would say Aamir or No One Killed Jessica because those movies were a decade ago. So that would be something great. But as I said, as a filmmaker, you cannot choose from your filmography; you want all the movies to have the limelight.”

Raj Kumar Gupta is set to return to theatres with Raid 2, which stars Ajay Devgn in the lead, and the movie is set to be released on November 15, 2024. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.

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