Exclusive! Uunchai director Sooraj Barjatya: I want to have the same enthusiasm to climb a mountain in my 60s

Sooraj Barjatya, who is known for making films that revolve around family affairs, probably took the biggest risk of his career by venturing out of his comfort zone with Uunchai. With this film, he also left behind the comfort of shooting on set and ventured into a difficult terrain like the base camp of Mount Everest which has extreme weather conditions, along with a stellar ensemble cast of actors who are more than 60 years in age.

During an exclusive conversation with OTTplay, the veteran filmmaker opened up on what pushed him to take such big a risk at a time when Bollywood is having a tough time at the ticket windows. Sooraj said, "I think one of the core interests that I had and the reason why after hearing the story, it wasn't leaving me is - somewhere I want to live with so much enthusiasm when I will enter in my 60s. I found the enthusiasm of these three elderly men and their intent behind taking the risk to climb the mountain so inspirational. It somewhere pushed me to even get out of my comfort zone."

The story of the film revolves around the journey of three friends in their 60s - who decided to go to the base camp of Mount Everest to pay homage to their friend Bhupen who always wanted to climb the mountain but died of a heart attack. Despite their old age, and physical and health issues, how they take the plunge to achieve their dream - forms the crux of the story.

The three friends are essayed by Amitabh Bachchan, Boman Irani, and Anupam Kher whereas Bhupen is played by Danny Denzongpa. Now that the film has been released in the theatres and has received a positive response from the audience across all age groups, the filmmaker expressed his sense of satisfaction as a creative person.

"Look, the film is a creative space, and hopefully everyone would love and appreciate our effort. But I must mention that this is the one film that I am satisfied with, the fact that I made it exactly the way I wanted. Uunchai is a film that I made not keeping any commercial aspect in mind but purely for telling the story," shared the film director who has delivered five super successful films out of the seven films he's directed in his career spanning over three decades.

Produced by Rajshri Productions, Uunchai which also stars Neena Gupta, Sarika, Parineeti Chopra is running successfully in theatres.