I haven’t set any kind of target for myself to get featured in certain number of films says Ajay Devgn

Actor Ajay Devgn, who marks his 100th appearance on big screen with his forthcoming film ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’, has said that he hasn’t set any target for himself as an actor to get featured in certain number of films.

 Ajay Devgn was interacting with the media at the trailer launch of ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’ along with his co-actors Saif Ali Khan, Sharad Kelkar, film’s director Om Raut, co-producers Bhushan Kumar and Kumar Mangat, and Ajay Devgn’s close friend Rohit Shetty on Tuesday in Mumbai.

Ajay Devgn is widely considered as one of the most popular and influential actors of Hindi cinema. He has dabbled in every genre of film be it romantic, realistic, action, drama, comedy and thriller films. Devgn has also won numerous accolades, including two National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards. In 2016, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country.

When asked Devgn whether he ever thought that he will do 100 films in his career as an actor, he said, “No.. I have never thought that I will do 100th film in my career and I am not thinking about it at this moment as well. I feel it’s just one addition in my filmography. I think the kind of hard work I have put in my first film or my 99th film, similar kind of effort I have put in this film as well and I have to do hard work in my 101th film as well so it’s the same thing for us. I haven’t set any kind of target for myself to get featured in certain number of films.”

‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’ is set in the late 17th century, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (Luke Kenny) declares Kondhana as the capital of southern India. However, The Maratha King Shivaji Maharaj (Sharad Kelkar) orders Tanaji Malusare (Ajay Devgn) to capture Kondhana at any cost, and the mughal emperor sends his trusted man Uday Bhan (Saif Ali Khan) to defend it, thus leading to a battle between the two armies.

At the trailer launch, Rohit Shetty said that Ajay Devgn always wanted to make a big-budget, large scale and high on technology film like ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’, talking about his dream project, Devgn said, “When we watch English or Hollywood films, then we think that why we don’t have the technology that they (Western countries filmmakers) have. I had a dream that one day, I will make a film which will be at par with their standard of filmmaking. If you see, we make such films in half of the budget of Hollywood films but still we are able to reach that level.”

Devgn added that India has got really good film technicians, he said, “I think we have really good technicians and in such small budget, if we can bring this kind of quality in our films then, you have to think that how good our Indian technicians are? Earlier also, we used to make films which used to give competition to Hollywood films but that time, we didn’t had the advanced technology. Now, it has come so, people are working hard and I think all the credit of this film goes to director and technicians who have worked really hard on this project.”

When asked Devgn what are his thoughts about his forthcoming film being compared with immensely successful ‘Baahubali’ series which was also a historical action-drama film, he said, “I don’t want our film should be compared with any other film. Our film is different and it is telling a different story. In this industry, a lot of good films are being made and people are doing really good work so, we are also trying to do good work.”

‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’ is slated to release on 10th January next year, when asked Devgn why he is releasing his film at the beginning of the year which is traditionally considered as dull phase at the box-office, he said, “I think that perception has changed where people not used to release their films in first week of the year. I also agree with the fact that first week of the year is bit slow as compared to remaining weeks when it comes to box-office collections but we are releasing this film in second week of January. Last year, ‘Uri’ released in first week of January but it did really well so, we are not thinking much about that aspect.”

There are number of examples in our country where historical films have got into certain kind of controversy regarding its authenticity when asked Devgn how he has taken precautions on that front for his upcoming film, he said, “I think you have to be very careful and you have to be honest to history. Apart from being careful, we followed the history so that, if tomorrow somebody raises a question about the film then, we can tell them that this is a part of history so, that’s how you do it.”

Directed by Om Raut and produced by Ajay Devgn, Bhushan Kumar and Kumar Mangat, ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’ is scheduled to release on 10th January, 2020.