Writer Milap Zaveri is ready to test waters with his first directorial venture JAANE KAHAN SE AAYI HAI. The film, starring Riteish Deshmukh as a loser and Jacqueline Fernandez as an alien, has had the film fraternity [those who watched the screening of the film] praising it for its simple and interesting narration.
Not many are aware that it was Riteish who prodded Milap to try his hand at direction, while shooting for HEYY BABYY in Australia [Milap had penned the screenplay of the film]. So when Milap returned to Mumbai, he decided to give direction a serious thought.
Milap approached Riteish to head the cast of the film and by the time the story narration concluded, both Riteish and Milap knew that Riteish wouldn’t do the film. Two days later, Milap approached him with a different script – JAANE KAHAN SE AAYI HAI – and also insisted on giving a narration in the veranda of Riteish’s house. “The room we sat for the first narration, I joked, was jinxed,” Milap reminisces.

Riteish Deshmukh believes in multi-tasking. Though currently, he's busy promoting his next release Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai he's also in the process of setting up a state-of-the art educational institution in his hometown Latur in Maharashtra.

His architecture firm Evolutions in partnership with another firm is designing the place.

Riteish says, "There are a couple of things happening with the architectural firm which includes designing concept villas for a holiday home in Alibaug. That's almost complete. The new thing that my firm is in the process of designing is an educational institution in Latur."

Education a priority
Riteish adds, "Education has always been a priority for me and it's important to have schools with good facilities where education is imparted in a newer and different system. My dad and brother run educational trusts in different villages but I want to build an educational infrastructure in Latur, which is as good as or better than the ones in Mumbai. We should start the school by next year."

Actor Riteish Deshmukh, 31, gives out a slew of interviews at director Nikhil Advani’s Bandra office terrace. Sitting hunched at a table, he answers queries on his first solo film in seven years, Jaane Kahaan Se Aayi Hai, which releases on April 9. Riteish studied architecture in Mumbai to practice it in New York. He is still a partner in a Mumbai architecture firm called Evolutions. He also belongs to what can politically be called one of Maharashtra’s first families. His father, Vilasrao Deshmukh, former chief minister of Maharashtra, is now a central minister. Elder brother Amit is an MLA. After his interviews, Riteish lets us into an office. He sits back and talks passionately for one hour with RISHI MAJUMDER — about politics and architecture. And why he chooses cinema over these. Excerpts:

Are you connected to your lineage? What does Latur mean to you?Latur means everything to me. I keep going back to Latur and the Maharashtrian traditions I have been brought up with. My family culture is very much like the Congress culture. There is no exclusivity. We go to the temples as well as the mosques in and near my village. I was born in Latur and came to Mumbai when I was five. From then, till I was about 23, every vacation was spent in Latur. I’ve played in mud, climbed trees, milked cows, run around in puddles and put firecrackers in cow dung to watch it explode. I’ve done everything a village boy could do, even though I grew up in Mumbai. There were always both worlds

My best memories of Gudi Padwa are definitely from my childhood when I used to get very excited to go out and shop and wear new clothes.
Dad (former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh) was very busy with politics, so my mother took care of the shopping bit. As children, you don’t really know why a festival is celebrated, so I used to get really excited with the prospect of wearing new clothes. Celebrations in the village where we hail from were bigger than those in Mumbai but it was a day when we used to seek blessings from elders, go about saying Gode Gode Bola and crack Padwa jokes.

The day also sees us having a family lunch which is absolutely mandatory for all the family members to attend. We all sit together and bond. That’s very special for me as we don’t really get to sit, eat together and talk every day as everyone in our family is too busy with their individual work. This lunch is exclusively for the family. Post this, we meet people who are close to us.”

At a time when actors are doing one film a year, you have three this year — Rann, Naa Jaane Kahan Se Aayee Hai and then Housefull.
I don’t do anything consciously. I don’t think about them too much. When I go on the sets of a particular film, I adapt myself accordingly. As for this year, the timing is such that all three films are releasing pretty close to one another. But as an actor you need to space out the kind of work you are doing. You can’t have films hitting the marquee every second month or the audience will get bored. I try my best, but then deciding the release dates is again not in my hands.

You do a lot of romcoms and lighthearted films...
I haven’t done a romantic film in a long time. When I agree to do a romcom, I look at what it has to offer in terms of variety in the storyline. There has to be humour, romantic scenes, poetic justice, victory of the underdog — the works. That’s what makes it an out-an-out entertainer. And that’s what I want — to entertain the audience.

What about comedy? The audience seems to love the Ritesh Deshmukh brand of comedy.
There are various kinds of comedy that I’ve done — slapstick, pokerface, village comedy or cool comedy like Bluffmaster. You know it’s fun to be part of such films because apart from making the audience laugh, you end up having a lot of fun acting out the part as well. But the one thing that I would love to do now is a spoof, which I haven’t done so far. So keeping my fingers crossed.

Last few months haven't been too kind for Riteish Deshmukh with RANN, ALADIN and DO KNOT DISTURB not really doing well at theaters. Given the fact that he had invested so many months in these films with a lot of faith entrusted in it, one wonders if it was more of a personal rather than a professional loss for him.

"No, not at all", he says promptly, "I don't treat box office failure as a personal loss. You do films because you like them, you believe in them. All of them are your responsibility and you have to accept the final outcome. When you fail, then you move ahead and put more effort in your next outing. You better yourself next time. I have faith in the people I work with and understand where they are coming from. You can't have control beyond that."

And while his movie is not short on talent, Sajid made sure he motivated his team to the highest level. The actor, for the first time, reveals to us what he wrote in his handwritten letters to his star cast.

“It said Dear Akshay or Dear Deepika..Welcome to the first of the shooting of your career’s biggest hits. I know this sounds a little pompous, but believe me, just as you had faith in saying yes to this movie and trusting me to guide you out…just like that, have faith in what I am saying,” reveals Sajid.

“Let’s have a great time making this film. But let’s promise each other one thing - that we are not making this film for ourselves. We are making it for a ticket-buying audience, and we will give them exactly what they expect…and a little more,” read Sajid’s letter to his star cast, “For that, you have to have blind faith in me – your director – who is also your friend. And let’s just go out there and have fun. But just remember - we work for an audience… and we will not work without them.”

In the last shot of Sajid Nadiadwala and Sajid Khan’s ‘Housefull’ you will see Ritesh Deshmukh deliver a complicated line in a single shot with much ease and even greater comic timing.

The line that reads ‘Teri Biwi Teri Biwi Meri Behen…Teri Hone Walle Biwi Meri Behen…Har Aurat Teri Biwi Meri Behen…How can your luck be bad. Ritesh had practiced so hard that when the time came to deliver it he did it flawlessly.

We come to hear that the first time Ritesh Deshmukh read the dialogue he was thoroughly confused so in order to memorize it he recorded it on his dictaphone and kept listening to it over and over again.

Reveals a source “When Ritesh finally came to deliver his line he did the Biwi line in a single take. It was unblemished.”

If you are looking to soak your eyes into a cache of eye candy on the silver screen, a forthcoming film is set to dish it out to you. Five female actors — Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Preity Zinta, Vidya Balan and Anushka Sharma are slated to do cameos in Milap Zaveri’s Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai.

Apart from these female actors, Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar and Farah Khan are also playing themselves in the film. The movie is produced by Nikhil Advani (who directed Kal Ho Na Ho, Salaam-e-Ishq and Chandni Chowk to China).

A source says, “Nikhil has approached all the five female actors to play cameos in the movie. All these people play themselves in the film. The movie also has Riteish Deshmukh and Jacqueline Fernandes in key roles.”

Nikhil says, “Milap’s film had a requirement of people making an appearance and talking about an upcoming star. So, we have already shot with a few actors and are coordinating dates with others.”

The affable Riteish Deshmukh will no more do sex comedies. The guy whose name got willy-nilly linked with raunchy rom-coms like Masti and Kya Kool Hain Hum has sworn to steer clear of sex on screen.

Buzz up!
Declares Riteish, "I won't do any more sex comedies. It started with Masti. Now five years down the line, Masti writer Milap Zaveri, who's a dear friend, has turned director with Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai and there's absolutely no sex or double-meaning dialogues in it."


Riteish Deskhmukh and writer-director Milap Zaveri have both set a common date. April 9 has been underlined in the calendar. It's the day Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai is being released. Five years ago on same date - April 9 - Masti had been released. Zaveri wanted his film as director to be released on that date.

Says Riteish, "Both Milap and I go back a long way. We've come a long way. We've left our raunchy days behind. Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai is my first romantic film since my debut film Tujhe Meri Kasam in 2003. Milap is the most romantic person I know. So it's only fair that he makes a romantic film with me."