Mumbai, April 23 (IANS) Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh says his next venture "Aladin", which has superstar Amitabh Bachchan playing the genie and is complete with the latest special effects, will be no less than a "Harry Potter" or "The Lord Of The Rings" flick.
"Our funda was simple, we had to make a movie which is indeed world class. Indian audiences aren’t alien to ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series. We couldn’t have given them anything less. We knew it would cost a lot of money but somehow we had an inkling that we would be able to raise it," Ghosh told IANS in an interview.
He described his film as a visual delight, the kind which he equated to eating an ice-cream with your eyes.
Ghosh, who has earlier made the much-liked "Jhankaar Beats" (2003), said actor Riteish Deshmukh and he hit upon the idea of making "Aladin" over countless mugs of coffee five years ago.
Riteish’s "Masti" (2004) had just released and the actor had won accolades for his comic timing, and Ghosh only had "Jhankaar Beats" behind him. His "Home Delivery" was yet to be made, but the filmmaker was brimming with ideas, one of them being "Aladin".
"I had just come out from watching the premiere of ‘Masti’ and I knew I wanted to work with Ritiesh Deshmukh. His comic timing was immaculate. I got his number and met him that night at the Mariott. And we decided we’ll make ‘Aladin’," Ghosh recalled.
The big-budget, special effects-laden film also stars Sanjay Dutt as a cool villain and marks the entry of Sri Lankan beauty Jackie Fernandez paired opposite Ritiesh, who will play Aladdin.
"Actually, in retrospect, it all seems to be so unreal. Here we were two youngsters who met for the first time and even though we knew that between us we didn’t bring much to the table, we believed we could do it. Instantly, we decided to make a film, which has never been seen before on the Indian screen. There were a few nervous pangs though as it wasn’t easy to translate great ideas into an actual film.