Rajiv Rai denies making a comeback to filmmaking with Gupt sequel

Filmmaker Rajiv Rai, who was one of the most celebrated directors in Bollywood in the 90s with super-hits like Tridev, Vishwatma, Mohra and Gupt: The Hidden Truth, has denied news reports that he is all set to return to filmmaking with the sequel to Gupt. The news started doing the rounds when Rajiv’s close friend, writer and associate, Shabbir Boxwalla, posted a message to him on social media, calling for an early start to the sequel of the cult Bobby Deol-starrer that had done record business at the box-office.

No sequel

But Rai isn’t keen to go ahead with it. He says, “Shabbir is keen on the sequel to Gupt, but there is no question of my going ahead with it. Prior to this, there was news that I would be making a grand return to filmmaking with Mohra 2 and Tridev 2, but the fact is, I don’t even think I will ever return to filmmaking. The titles will stay with me, but that is immaterial.”

Rajeev, who relocated to the UK after threats from the underworld post the release of Gupt and later returned to direct two films, the last being Asambhav (2004), said that he did not want to mislead audiences, “A lot of fans, admirers keep asking me about the Gupt sequel on social media, but I don’t want to mislead them by spreading false news. I am at a point where I have lost the motivation to make a film. The confidence is still there, but filmmaking as an art simply does not appeal to me anymore,” he said.

Money matters

Rai, who had distributed and released his films under his father Gulshan Rai’s banner, Trimurthi Films, said that the concept of filmmaking has changed entirely in the last one decade. “To start with, you need to invest crores of rupees in stars to make a film today. You need at least Rs 100 crores to make a good film, apart from the infrastructure, distribution set-up and other things. It is not a one-man show,” he adds.

Box-office equation

He feels that the box-office stakes now are too high and unpredictable, “It’s a scary feeling about a film coming on Friday and leaving on Monday. It is futile. Why work for two years for a four-day run? What’s the guarantee that it would be a memorable film like, say,

Dangal? I don’t want to churn out false dreams and waste my life thinking about it. I simply don’t see spending so much time and energy on it. It’d be a lifelong endeavour and I’m not into it anymore.” When reminded that every passionate filmmaker would want to return to filmmaking at some time, Rai says, “If you ask any filmmaker in the world, whether he would want to make a film again, the answer would be yes. But I’m not doing anything about it. However, like I said earlier, I don’t know whether I would ever return to filmmaking. My life is good without it. I am a happy man and I have a fantastic life in my other business interests. Why should I fool myself into something that’s not going to happen?”

Hollywood tales

The filmmaker, who has also been living in LA and Dubai, did work on a few Hollywood scripts in the interim, “I have done some work abroad in Hollywood in terms of writing, I wrote two fantastic scripts but I didn’t push them because I never looked at a career in Hollywood,” he said. He also admits that he was not in touch with anyone in the industry. “I do keep bumping into some industry people at airports and in flights. Among my true friends is Arjun Rampal but that’s all there is to it,” he said.