Approached Farhan, not Aditya Roy Kapur: Suri on his next

Mumbai: Filmmaker Mohit Suri is scripting his next, a two-hero film and has confirmed that he approached Farhan Akhtar but denied he was in talks with Aditya Roy Kapur. There were reports that Suri had approached his “Aashiqui 2” actor, along with Farhan for the film and had almost locked the cast.

“Aditya has never been approached. He is a friend of mine, he comes over to my house all the time, it’s not to do with work. But people confuse that with work and think I am working with him,” Suri told PTI. “But yes, I did approach Farhan. But I need another actor for the movie. Until I don’t have that, I don’t have a film. It’s a two-hero project,” he added. The 36-year-old director, whose credits also include “Half Girlfriend”, “Woh Lamhe”, said the movie will touch upon a father-son relationship.

“I am writing it at the moment. I am not sure if that’s going to be my next or not. I still have to submit the draft to the actors and cast the film. It is a personal journey, which I’ve used in a semi-autobiographical way. I hope I get the right platform to make the film,” he said. This year has seen films set in small towns “Badrinath Ki Dulhania”, “Toilet Ek Prem Katha” to “Shubh Mangal Saavdhan” emerge as hits.

Asked his takeaway from the trend of chronicling stories from the heartland, Suri said, “I think that’s always been there in some way. The films which have lasted the test of the times have been the ones which were more inward. It doesn’t necessarily mean heartland, it could mean human.” But the director said it does not mean escapist cinema is is a thing of the past.

“‘Baahubali 2’ was the largest hit this year. I am not saying it was escapist but it did humongous business. It is a larger-than-life film with real emotions. I won’t say it this type of films are done and dusted. Every industry has seen this trend. Both sets of films can coexist easily.”

Suri will be seen mentoring young filmmakers on MTV’s “Fame-istan”. The show aims to give a platform to four aspiring directors to make a short-film and be guided by industry’s bigwigs. The director said he was “subconsciously trying to do” the same thing in his life, as he has given platforms to artistes such as Kunal Kemmu, Shraddha Kapoor, Atif Aslam, Arijit Singh among others.

“Mentoring is like parenting. You can give guidance and platform but you can’t impose your life on them. So when this opportunity came, I jumped at it. After making many films, I feel this is my way of giving something back to the industry,” he said. The first movie from the show airs on MTV on October 6.