Filmmaker Hansal Mehta left an impressive mark on the audience’s heart with his National award-winning film Shahid. It was released in 2013. The Rajkummar Rao starrer garnered immense critical acclaim. Made on a budget of Rs 65 lakh, the film solidified Rao’s stature as a talented actor in the industry. But it had its own share of struggles before its release despite a great round at international film festivals.
Recently, Hansal Mehta’s son Jai Mehta, who was one of the executive producers and the first assistant director of the film, sat down for an interview with Hindustan Times. In the interview, he revealed that a 32-day-long planned shoot schedule for the film got stretched for 1.5 years. Jai said, “We shot a 32-day shoot for a period of a year and a half, and the fact that the entire crew stayed and we pulled off a movie in ₹65 lakh. It’s a very good feat!”
Shahid fetched positive reviews in several prestigious film festivals including the ones in Toronto and Busan. Despite this, the film had no takers in India. Speaking about the same, Jai added, “Even after that, there were no buyers for Shahid. Then the Mumbai film festival (MAMI) happened after quite some time of Toronto, and there, producers Siddharth Roy Kapur and Ronnie Screwvala watched the film, and that’s when the audience really accepted it.”
Co-produced by Anurag Kashyap and Sunil Bohra, Shahid also starred Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Kay Kay Menon in pivotal roles, besides the lead protagonist. It was jointly backed in association with Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur under the UTV Spotboy banner.
Hailed as one of the best works of Rajkummar Rao’s career, Hansal Mehta’s directorial has the actor playing the titular role of a lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in 2010.
Next up for Rajkummar Rao is Stree 2. It is a sequel to the horror-comedy film Stree which was released in 2018. Besides the actor, Shraddha Kapoor will also reprise her role from the first installment in the upcoming film. Additionally, Rao will also be seen in the Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video alongside Triptii Dimri.
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