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RELAXED Ajay Devgan with Ayesha Takia in a still from “Sunday”.

Most journalists knew Ajay Devgan as a man of few words till a few years ago. He used to come across as a very shy guy, having no ‘funkiness’ to boast of except a half-tucked, transparent, trendy shirt with a chain peeping through it. With his cigarette and eyes lowered, he would barely look into the interviewers’ eyes and answer their queries in monosyllables, politely though. A picture of dignity, Ajay would barely lose his cool except when he had to answer the same question again and again to different channels for that “exclusive” shot.

And here is a new Ajay, no longer a man of few words. He may seem to be hurrying up his answers, but he answers them nonetheless. A good speaker is a journalist’s delight and so is an honest and forthright one. One who calls spade a spade. In Ajay, these traits are showing prominently, and hence, now, he qualifies well for this category of a journalist’s delight.

He just proved his worth as a great actor in Raj Kumar Santoshi’s “Halla Bol” in which he matched up to Pankaj Kapoor. “Ours were the only two strong roles in it,” Ajay takes it graciously. Now it’s “Sunday” directed by Rohit Shetty, in which he dons the garb of a cop after three years. Says Ajay, “This is one of the most interesting comedies I have ever heard of. I would call it a conceptual comedy.” The crux of the story is taken from a hit Telegu movie “Anukokunda Oka Roju” staring Jagapati Babu and Charmi Kaur in the lead.

Admits Ajay, “We have taken only a thought from that film, that is, a Sunday goes missing from a young girl’s life, and turned that into a comedy. In Telugu, it’s a serious film with some suspense elements which come when something wrong happens in the girl’s life. In “Sunday”, this missing Sunday is linked with several other small incidents and characters that add spice to the story. Thrill, humour and suspense elements have been added. It’s actually about a girl (Ayesha Takia), who finds she cannot recollect where she was on a particular Sunday when a murder took place. And I make an entry here as cop Rajvir Randhava, to find that missing Sunday in her life. But Rajvir is a corrupt cop who lets the criminal go off after taking a hefty bribe,” laughs Devgan.

This is practically his second comedy film in which he himself is not doing any comic acts. “The fun element in the film is woven into situations. In my role it’s in the part where I dodge the criminal by taking a bribe on the pretext of letting him off but I actually don’t do that. I ‘lighten’ his punishment in lieu of money,” explains Ajay.

These days, Ajay is on a high thanks to the applause he got for “Halla Bol”. Many producers have started looking up to him again. “I choose my role very cautiously now. Earlier I have done quite a few films that didn’t meet the audiences’ approval. Sometimes I regret it, sometimes I don’t. It’s an interesting journey where we all, in the film industry, fight, and reconcile again like members of a good family,” says Ajay pointing at Bollywood’s preferential treatment to only rising stars. And in this journey, he thinks, the entrance of corporate money has made a difference. “But they don’t have an idea of filmmaking. If they knew it, they wouldn’t have come to us for finding producers and directors. They only know business. I think they should keep off the script; else they should become directors themselves. I don’t quite agree with the idea that if some corporate house funds your film, it has the right to interfere in your script too,” Ajay asserts.

Ajay must know, for he himself is turning producer-director for his home production “You, Me aur Hum” in which he is starring, opposite Kajol. The mention of the film brings a chuckle to his voice. “I had certain thoughts I wanted to share with people. Various incidents in life have taught me that one cannot live with ‘I’ or ‘you’ for a long time. Unless ‘you’ and ‘me’ become ‘we’, life treats you sorely. Love in life comes only when ‘I’ and ‘you’ melt into ‘we’. This is the message in the film. This thought is woven in a love story of a couple whose life goes through different stages in time. The growth of the characters comes through experiences and their physical age,” explains Ajay who has started shooting for the film and is planning to release it by the year-end.

Is the idea of being behind the camera scary? “No, for two reasons, One, I have been assistant director earlier, and two, I am taking the entire responsibility of the film. That I am the captain of the ship is not as exciting an idea as it is to realise that there is no interference in what I am doing. I am investing my own money and my own direction skills. Whether the film is good or bad, it is mine.”

If “Naam”, an action-thriller on mistaken identity being in the box for five years because of “some never-ending clash between producers”, saddens him (“I gave lot of time for it”), “Rajniti” brings back the lost smile. “I am very excited about this film by Prakash Jha. It’s about politics between students and local leaders. It would soon go on the floors,” he concludes.

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