More than four decades in the industry as a producer and still going strong, Boney Kapoor has massive plans for 2022, what with as many as five complete films which are set to release in quick succession once theatres are back operational. While the festival of Sankranti could well have been an auspicious beginning for the man who struck gold with Mr. India back in 1987, what with Valimai as the blockbuster release that was originally planned, he is continuing to be patient even as he strategises his entire bouquet of films.
These are Valimai (Tamil), Maidaan (Hindi), Nenjuku Needhi (Tamil), Mili (Hindi) and Veetla Visheshanga (Tamil). Out of these, while Valimai and Maidaan are the big ticket original films for which the shooting started much before the pandemic, while Nenjuku Needhi, Mili and Veetla Visheshanga are remakes of three superhit films. What makes it all further special is the fact that each of these films belongs to different genre, be it action, drama, thriller, sports, socio-political or feel-good.
Interestingly, each of these films was started and wrapped up during the pandemic, hence keeping the production house quite busy. This isn’t all as Boney Kapoor also went ahead and released Vakeel Saab (remake of Pink) with Pawan Kalyan last year, which took a blockbuster opening and also made his foray into the OTT space with Amit Sadh led Jeet Ki Zid.
Now 2022 is set to be special with him as Ajith, with whom Boney Kapoor has already made Nerkonda Parvai, leads the show for Valimai which has been unarguably one of the most awaited films of the last one and a half years, what with fans across the globe urging for its release for the longest at time. More so since it’s the superstar’s first pan-India release. In fact last Christmas the trailer of the film was unveiled as well to a bumper response, what with special screenings taking place across various theatres. The promotion was in fact getting into the next gear when theatres started closing down again, as a result of which the films release was postponed. Rest assured, whenever the pan-India film releases in theatres, box office will start ringing huge.
Similar are the expectations from Maidaan as well which is one of the biggest films that Ajay Devgn has started in. A biopic with football as the backdrop, the film was originally scheduled for release last Dussehra before pandemic ended up playing truant. There is a lot that has gone into the film’s production due to its period era setting. In fact a huge ground was procured just for the purpose of this shoot since the demographics back in time used to be different and Boney Kapoor didn’t want to compromise with the aesthetics. This was evident from the fact that when a foreign crew couldn’t travel due to COVID restrictions, he chose to wait for their arrival than go with a local crew. As a matter of fact even the sets were destroyed due to adverse weather conditions but they were all rebuilt to ensure that the mammoth scale of the film was kept intact. Now that the film is ready, there are several OTT players eyeing a digital premiere but both the producer and the lead actor are sure of bringing Maidaan only in theatres.
Meanwhile he has also made Mili with daughter Janhvi Kapoor, which is incidentally also the first home production that the actress is working in. Remake of Malayalam hit Helen which was an instant success due to its premise (a young girl getting trapped in a cold freeze room for the entire night), this one is an escape drama with dollops of emotions imbibed in the narrative. Sunny Kaushal and Manoj Pahwa play her boyfriend and dad respectively who have a good role to play as well in the tense affair.
On the other hand there are two remakes of Hindi films as well that he has made in quick time, Article 15 and Badhaai Ho. While former is a socio-political dramatic thriller, latter is a heartfelt comedy drama. Article 15 has been remade as Nenjuku Needhi with Udhayanidhi Stalin reprising the role of an upright cop. On the other hand Veetla Visheshanga has Sathyaraj and Oorvashi stepping in as parents for the roles originally played by Gajaraj Rao and Neena Gupta, whereas Balaji and Aparna Balamurali reprise the parts of Ayushmann Khurrana and Sanya Malhotra.
While one waits to see when do these movies eventually release, rest assured it is going to be an eventful year for sure for Boney Kapoor. With films across languages and genres, the man has been more active than ever before, and already has plans to bring in at least a couple of more movies on floors before 2022 comes to a close. For someone who led the way when it came to Hindi remake of south films decades ago with Hum Paanch and now going ahead and remaking Hindi films for the south audience, it has truly been a pan-India journey for the man.