After making a comeback of sorts with Ram Gopal Varma’s D (2005) and following it up with the success of Apna Sapna Money Money (2006), Chunky Pandey waited for a while and assessed things before moving on to his next projects. In the interim, rather than picking up any meaningless roles, he opted to work in exciting cameos (Farhan Akhtar’s Don - The Chase Begins Again and Firoz Nadiadwala’s Fool N Final).
However, Chunky insists that coming 12 months are crucial since he has not one, not two but a minimum of 9 films lined up for release.
“I want to go all out this time around and work on projects where I actually enjoy shooting for”, says Chunky, “I am looking for decent banners because first and foremost you can be assured of a quality product and secondly, and quite importantly, this makes sure that the film is promoted decently as well. What’s the point of a film being made well if it doesn’t reach its audience?”
Going through an interesting phase of his career, Chunky informs that he is happy to find filmmakers of repute signing him on for important roles.
“There are two projects with Subhash Ghai happening. They are Hello Darling and Paying Guest, both of which feature Celina Jaitley. Then there is Daddy Cool which is produced by Indra Kumar and directed by K. Murli Mohan Rao. The film has just come on floors and has an ensemble star cast of Suniel Shetty, Aftab Shivdasani, Ashish Chowdhary, Javed Jaffrey, Aaarti Chhabaria, Tulip Joshi and Sophie Chodhry. It’s a full on comedy”, informs Chunky.
Meanwhile, Chunky has also wrapped up the shoot of Ronnie & Rocky, a part animation-part live film, directed by Rajiv Ruia, who made a children’s animated film My friend Ganesha some time back, The film, as per Chunky, is going to be a ‘mother of all cartoon films’.
“I have been shooting round the clock for last few months since so many exciting offers have been coming my way. We are more or less through with Ajay Chandok’s Khalbali Hai Khalbali which has the unique distinction of featuring as many as 30 comedians in various roles”, says Chunky excitedly.
“There is another riotous comedy Shortkut which is also through. Can you believe it that I and Anil Kapoor would be coming together 20 years after Tezaab in Shortkut? Sad that he is in the capacity of a producer here though”, Chunky comments with mock disappointment.
How about the Anubhav Sinha production’s Sankat City that he was pretty excited about around a year back? “The film is complete and ready for release in the month of August. I have a double role in the film which means double the suffering for the audience”, winks Chunky.
On a parting note, one can’t help but ask the status of his long delayed Ek - The Power Of One which stars Bobby Deol and Nana Patekar in pivotal roles and is directed by Sangeeth Sivan.
“It is an edge of the seat thriller. I know it has been a year since it was complete but seriously, I have no clue why it is taking so long for the film to release. I am happy with my special appearance role in this edge of the seat thriller which is the remake of Telugu blockbuster Athadu.”
“In any case, I guess after Apna Sapna Money Money, Sangeeth Sivan considers me as his lucky mascot. This is why he has also roped me in for a cameo in his upcoming horror Click”, he concludes.
