Macho hero Ajay Devgn known for his action-thrillers (‘Singham’) or wacko comedies (‘Golmaal’) is now playing what he tags a “realistic dare-devil honest senior income-tax officer Amay Patnaik” in an upcoming Bollywood ‘period’ movie ‘Raid’, directed by the eminent Rajkumar Gupta and co-produced by Bhushan Kumar.
‘Heroes don’t always come in uniform’ proclaims the tag-line of the movie, which has Ileana D’Cruz playing Ajay’s homely de-glam wife.
Shot mainly on locations in Lucknow it’s releasing in mid-March. Enthuses Devgn, “The excitement is all the more because I am portraying a real-life strong character and with competent support from the entire crew, my performance I guess should connect with the masses. Even my punch-lines have that realistic impact. The challenge was to bring back the authentic ambiance of the 80’s, as the ‘true-story’ movie is set in 1981.”
Interestingly, Ajay who completes 27 years in Bollywood as a lead actor, having made his debut in this action-thriller ‘Phool Aur Kaante’ (1991) feels it’s been quite a fulfilling yet demanding career-journey. Reacts ‘Shivaay’ hero Devgn, “Of course it’s difficult. You can’t afford to be complacent. You have to keep struggling and working hard to retain your position and popularity and move ahead. There will be a point when you may start moving in the reverse gear. If you achieve something, it’s not going to last forever. That’s how life is,” he shrugs.