Latest news with #Rakht
Indian Express
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
When Vijay Mallya produced a Bollywood film that lost Rs 4 crore with Suniel Shetty, Bispasha Basu; exited movie business swiftly afterwards
Way before Vijay Mallya was a fugitive and living in the UK, trying to not get extradited, there was a time when he was enjoying the high life. In the early 2000s, Vijay was seen throwing the most lavish parties that often ended up in the tabloids and the industrialist was known to be rubbing shoulders with the most popular actors of the time. He was the chairman of the alcohol beverage company United Spirits, and as a part of their surrogate advertising, they launched an annual fashion calendar and to promote that, Vijay often threw the most luxurious parties. During this time, Vijay also wanted to get involved in the movie making business. In 2004, Vijay decided to produce a film, along with Suniel Shetty, and they decided to get a huge ensemble cast on board. Suniel was also starring in the film along with Bipasha Basu, Sanjay Dutt, Dino Morea, Amrita Arora, Neha Dhupia. Titled Rakht, the film had Bipasha Basu playing a fortune teller, who is also a psychic, and was directed by Mahesh Manjrekar. This was one of the early 2000s films where men were acting violent for no reason, women demanded saving from their abusive husbands and plots came to an abrupt halt because the film's runtime was over. At the time, Suniel described his character to The Telegraph as a 'mentally deranged mechanic'. The film's budget was around Rs 12 crore, as per Box Office India, and it only managed to recover Rs 8 crore. For Vijay Mallya, this was his only time producing a film. At the time, he announced this as his new big venture but soon, his plans changed. He told Economic Times, 'We are going into movie making in a big way.' Around the same time, the Tatas were also investing in the movies as Ratan Tata's company produced Bipasha, Amitabh Bachchan and John Abraham-starrer Aetbaar. As per Rediff, the Tata group lost Rs 3.5 crore in the movie and decided to pull out of Bollywood. Raymond group's Vijaypat Singhania was also trying to get his company's movie arm off the ground around the same time. They made a film called Woh Tera Naam Tha in 2004, which was directed by Kuku Kohli and starred Arjan Bajwa. Arjan recently recalled his meeting with Vijaypat Singhania before he was signed on for the film. Eventually, all he business conglomerates left the movie business. ALSO READ | Sikandar: Anurag Kashyap's right; Bollywood is doomed if stars like Salman Khan enable the Snapchat-ification of cinema For Bipasha, this was the time when he career revolved around films that were somehow connected to the supernatural genre. She appeared in Aetbaar, Rudraksh and Madhoshi in the same year. Suniel Shetty had recently turned producer with his company Popcorn Motion Pictures Private Limited and had already had a flop with Khel, which starred him, Sunny Deol, Ajay Jadeja and Celina Jaitly. This was another flop film for his production house. After this, he produced films like Mission Istanbul and EMI, but none of them made an impact on the box office. Suniel was last seen in Kesari Veer.
India.com
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India.com
Meet actor who purchased the hotel where his father once cleaned tables, has net worth of Rs 1250000000, his name is…, married to…
Meet actor who purchased the hotel where his father once cleaned tables, has net worth of Rs 1,250,000,000, his name is…, married to… Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty is regarded as one of the most successful stars in the industry. Over his 30-year-long career, he has appeared in more than 100 films. Suniel made his Hindi film debut in 1992 at the age of 31 with Balwaan, opposite Divya Bharti. The film was a hit, marking the beginning of his acting journey from which he never looked back. During the 1990s, he was among the highest-paid actors in Bollywood. He also owns the production company Popcorn Entertainment Private Limited and has produced several films under its banner, including Khel: No Ordinary Game (2003), Rakht (2004) and Bhagam Bhag (2006). Born into a Tulu speaking family, his father faced numerous hardships and struggled immensely to support the family. Started by whipping tables, he slowly worked his way up to become a restaurant manager, and eventually became an owner. In a conversation with comedian Bharti Singh and her husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa on their podcast, Shetty delved into his father's difficult journey and said, 'My dad ran away and came to Mumbai as a child. He didn't have a father, but he had three sisters. He found work in a South Indian restaurant at age nine, because that's the thing about our community, we support each other. His first job was cleaning tables. He was so little, he would have to make four rounds of the table just to clean all sides. He would sleep in a sack meant for rice.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Suniel Shetty (@ After Suniel became a huge star, he purchased all the three buildings that his father had once worked in the catering industry, 'Today, I still have all three buildings. And that's where our journey began.' Suniel added. Taking more about his personal life, Suniel Shetty got married in 1991 to Mana Shetty, a businessman, designer and social activist. They have two children, a daughter, Athiya Shetty, and a son Ahan Shetty. One of the most successful actors in Bollywood, he has a staggering net worth of Rs 125 crore.
