Director Raja Krishna Menon To Produce Web Series For Netflix

Bollywood’s popular director Raja Krishna Menon, who has directed super hit films like Akshay Kumar’s Airlift and Saif Ali Khan starrer Chef, is all set to produce a film on Netflix’s platform. According to a source, Menon’s assistant director on Airlift, Uday Singh Pawar, will be making his feature directorial debut with the project.

“He (Menon) is producing a film for Netflix, which is being directed by one of his AD, named Uday Singh Pawar. The film is set in a startup world. It is about three young boys, who are engineering students. It is about bromance. It is set in Bengaluru and is an original story,” the source close to the project said.

Menon is producing the film via his Bandra West Pictures banner. He is also working on his upcoming comedy web-series.

“Web series is a drama but with a lot of comedy. It is not a slapstick comedy. The shooting will begin this year itself,” the source added.

Meanwhile, Raja Krishna Menon was also set to direct a biopic on former boxing champion and Asian Games gold medalist Dingko Singh, featuring Shahid Kapoor but the project has been put on hold.

A source close to the development told Mumbai Mirror, "Shahid and Raja have been planning to work together for a while now. They had met after the release of Udta Punjab back in June 2016 and had kept in touch, looking for a project to collaborate on. Both agreed on a script that Raja had been working on."

Confirming the same, director Raja Krishna Menon told the daily, "Yes Shahid and I are very keen to do our next film together. We have been working on an idea that we are both excited about and it will be a film based on a true story.

It is being pushed ahead for the time being. It is on hold. By the time the team wrote the film, both Shahid and Menon got busy with other projects. But both of them are willing to work on it, it is just about finding the right time. The team doesn’t have a fixed date when to start this film,” the source said.

Also, Raja Krishna Menon has worked with Saif Ali Khan in his project Chef. The chef is a 2014 American comedy-drama, written, produced and directed by Jon Favreau. It was made in Hindi with Saif in the lead.

“An actor and director’s relationship is something where you really have to become naked as two people. You have to go through a process where you have to shed whatever you are and allow somebody to mold you into something else. You can be deeply insecure and it can be a difficult process,” Menon told IANS here.

“I have worked with big names like Naseeruddin Shah, Akshay, and Saif. What I have seen is that in the beginning, you both are judging each other - ‘Should I trust you or not?’. With all these actors, I have come through a point where they deeply trusted me and I felt responsible. Actors and directors must agree with each other’s imaginations,” he added.

I don’t think anybody would’ve watched Bareilly Ki Barfi or Shubh Mangal Saavdhan five years ago. Now people are not getting dependent on the market because of word of mouth. Filmmakers today have the freedom to explore. We no longer have an excuse. We just have to make good films,” said Raja Krishna Menon.

Menon says the problem is with the people who put money in films. "The audience has always been ready for all types of content. The problem has been the gatekeepers. What happens is that there is a filmmaker who wants to make films, then there is an audience that wants to watch that type of films. But between them, there are people who are scared as they have put money.

If I will put huge money in a project, I will ask others to make something that is working. Production is a very scary job. But what’s happening now is that producers are putting money only on good scripts. So, it’s a good time to be a storyteller,” he said.

Towards the end of 1996, Menon went independent, working out of an office that director Mukul Anand gave him. He started editing commercials and got into the business of creating trailers for Bollywood films, shooting and creating trailers that were not just an edit of the film footage.