Panaji: Kaizad Gustad and Katrina Kaif's first film “Boom” bombed at the box-office but the director says he knew that the hard working actress would make it big in the industry.
Kaizad brought the 30-year-old British Indian actress into films and gave her a new surname Kaif. The director said when he first signed her she could not speak a single word in Hindi.
“I knew that Katrina will be top one actress because she was extremely hardworking and had strong perseverance. Although she was half British, she looked Indian and that's why I signed her for my film. She didn't know a single word in Hindi. I have given her the surname Kaif because KK is lucky for me,” Kaizad told PTI.
After the film, Katrina bagged other projects including “Sarkar”, “Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya”, “Namastey London” among others and gradually made her place to the top. Amitabh Bachchan's performance in the 2003 film was panned by the critics but Kaizad said the megastar had enjoyed playing dark and crazy role.
“He was very happy and enjoying the shoot. People didn't like his negative role because Amitji's onscreen image is bigger than his characters. He didn't make any changes in the script and shot it the way it was written,” Kaizad said. The director took a break post “Boom”. After a gap of a decade Kaizad is making a comeback to films with Sachiin Joshi-Sunny Leone starrer thriller “Jackpot”.
The film being shot in Goa also stars Naseeruddin Shah, Makrand Deshpande and Southern star Bharath in pivotal roles. “I didn't want to make films. I was in the state of semi retirement. I was upset in my life. During those times, I wrote plays and travelled a lot. I wrote ‘Jackpot' for almost a year and thought I should start shooting it,” he said. He feels audience have become mature and even directors are experimenting with new genres.
“Society has changed. Cinema-viewing audience have changed. If I would have released ‘Boom' now it would have got some other response. We are even experimenting with new genres of film,” he said.
