Simmba (Ranveer Singh & Rohit Shetty) - Updates BLOCKBUSTER - Page 6

Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn make an unbeatable combination at the box-office and that was once again proven by Golmaal Again, this Diwali. Now we have come to know that Rohit and his creative team are very keen to have their lucky mascot Ajay on board once again for their next film Simmba starring Ranveer Singh and Rohit has created a role for him in the film. The film is said to be a remake of the Tamil flick Temper and is being jointly produced by Rohit Shetty and Karan Johar. If Ajay says yes, then this will also be the first film that he and Ranveer act in together.

Says a trade source, "Like Temper,Simmba revolves around a corrupt cop (Ranveer in the title role). His attitude does not go well with another fellow cop who is an honest and sincere police officer. The honest cop tries to thwart Simmba's actions and tries to put him on the straight path. Ajay has played an honest and upright officer in Singham and Singham 2 and this would be a kind of extension of that (though he would not play Bajirao Singham). The film is all about how Simmba has a change of heart through the woman he falls in love with and the influence of the honest police officer and gets back reinstated into the service with honour and glory. The director and his creative team are keen to cast Ajay in the honest cop's role. Though the role is not big, it's a powerful one and Ajay with his scorching intensity and screen presence can definitely make an impact. Simmba is not a complete remake of Temper as everybody knows Rohit has his own way of adapting it to a Bollywood film. Everything is all very hush-hush at the moment and Rohit and KJo's teams in Dharma Productions are tight-lipped about it till everything gets sorted out. If Ajay gives his nod then Rohit wants to make the announcement himself with the star.

But the creative team is hesitant to approach Devgn for the role. "Everyone knows Ajay and KJo don't get along, even though the filmmaker and the star's wife Kajol patched up this year on her birthday and have been friends since. Ajay has always made it clear that he has issues with KJo so it's doubtful whether he will do this role and a film produced by his bte noir. But as they say, there are no permanent friends or enemies in Bollywood. If anybody can convince the star to do the role it's either Kajol or Rohit Shetty himself especially after the stupendous success of Golmaal Again. It's a small but very strong role which will go down well with Ajay's fans and anyways Singham 3 won't begin tillSimmba releases.

Ajay and KJo had a fallout a couple of years ago when the actor had heard the filmmaker had apparently passed a few critical comments on Kajol. Ajay had objected to them and called the filmmaker and confronted him where both had exchanged some heated words. Kajol too had stopped talking to Karan till this year when her mother invited him over to Kajol's birthday and both patched up.

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"Ranveer is a unique personality. With Rohit, he will make his own character. There is no actor like him that I have seen so far. He is an energy ball, the way he will explode is going to be good. I don't think anyone would show the explosion like him on screen," - @karanjohar

Director Rohit Shetty says cop films such as Dabangg and Singham have set the bar so high with their box office success and popularity that it is obvious for any police-centric movie to be compared with them. The filmmaker, whose next project Simmba will see Ranveer Singh don the khakhi uniform as Sangram Bhalerao, said he is confident the film will be original in its character.

"What usually happens is that Chulbul Pandey and Singham have become the iconic characters. When we were making Singham, a lot of people told us are you trying to make a Dabangg kind of a film', but the film has its own identity. This will always happen. Whenever a cop film will be made people will either draw comparisons with Dabangg or Singham. If the look and part is serious then Singham, if entertaining then Chulbul Pandey. Our cop (Ranveer) is not a Chulbul Pandey kind of a character, Shetty said, who has directed Singham and Singham Returns.

While Dabangg and Singham have mushroomed into a franchise in the action-drama series, the director said it is too early to say the same about Simmba. Let's see how the first one does (referring to its commercial success). The first one has to work and then we will think (for the second one).

Presented by Reliance Entertainment, the film is produced by Rohit Shetty Picturez and Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. Simmba is the first collaboration among the three top guns of Bollywood. "Ranveer is a unique personality. With Rohit, he will make his own character. There is no actor like him that I have seen so far. He is an energy ball, the way he will explode is going to be good. I don't think anyone would show the explosion like him on screen, Johar said.