Why Riteish Deshmukh No Longer Has to Choose Between Box Office and Creative Satisfaction
Why Riteish Deshmukh No Longer Has to Choose Between Box Office and Creative Satisfaction
For years, Bollywood has operated on an unwritten rule. If you chase creative fulfilment, you risk losing your mass audience. If you chase box office, you're often expected to leave experimentation behind.
Riteish Deshmukh seems to have found a way around that. In the same year, he has delivered Raja Shivaji, one of the most ambitious films of his career as both director and actor, and followed it up with Dhamaal 4, a full-blown commercial entertainer that is racing towards the 100-crore mark. The two films have almost nothing in common except the man leading them.
Raja Shivaji wasn't a safe choice. It demanded years of preparation, the responsibility of portraying one of India's most revered...