Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn says he enjoyed playing the role of a don (Haji mastan) in the film ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai', but it was different from what he did in ‘Company'.
Devgn was in the dock in this week's episode of Rajat Sharma's long running talk show Aap Ki Adalat on India TV.
‘'I will not like to comment on the court case (involving Haji Mastan's faimly), but I can say this movie is not completely based on Haji Mastan's life but draws inspiration from his life in parts. It was fun doing the role as it required going back to the 1970s wearing bell bottom trousers and doing the typical mannerisms of that period.”
Asked why he stayed away from film award functions, Devgn replied, “ I don't like to blow my own trumpet. I don't attend awards functions because many undeserving people or even non-actors manage to get the award. Myself and Aamir Khan are not in the habits of manipulating awards.
Devgn recalled how he missed collecting his first national award for the movie ‘Zakhm' as he was then shooting in Ooty and there was only one flight to Delhi from there. Eventually his mother flew in from Mumbai to collect the award.
Asked why he was so superstitious that he stopped speaking to people before the release of ‘Jaan' 16-years-ago, Devgn was evasive. On why he changed the spelling of his surname, the actor said, he did so on his mother's advice.
Q: You are your own enemy. In 2000, when you were on the top as an actor, you made the mistake of becoming a producer and suffered huge losses with Raju Chacha.
Devgn: It hurts. I still don't know why the film did not work. I hate doing postmortems. In any case I am proud of having tried. Try, try till you succeed, right? I will keep on making films I believe in. Whether I am successful or not is beside the point…. Yes, Raju Chacha was a huge loss but it's a lesson for the future. We are back on track and planning for another film.
Devgn reveled how Anil Kapoor advised him to defer the release of his debut film ‘Phool Aur Kante' because his film ‘Lamhe' was to be released, “Anil advised me as a good gesture because he thought that ‘Phool Aur Kante' will not do well but when it became a hit, Anil told me, ‘yaar yeh to sab ulta ho gaya'.”
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