Getting Farhan Akhtar Into The Ring

Plan-A doesn’t all the time work out. And, it’s not all the time a nasty factor. Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Toofaan, by which Farhan Akhtar performs boxer Aziz Ali, was slated to hit theatres final October, however the pandemic struck and circumstances modified.

Written by Anjum Rajabali and Vijay Maurya, and primarily based on an thought by Akhtar, the movie has dropped on Amazon Prime Video every week earlier than the start of the Tokyo Olympics. “This is a film about sports and we have a very promising contingent of athletes who are going to Tokyo, including nine boxers. They all did really well at the Asian Championships (in Dubai) and won a lot of medals,” says Akhtar throughout a Zoom name from his dwelling in Mumbai.

Rising From The Fringes

Toofaan (its promo was featured on a billboard at New York’s Times Square) chronicles the transformation of Aziz Ali aka Ajju Bhai, a henchman from Dongri, to a nationwide stage pugilist. While the story is perhaps fictional, Akhtar believes it does mirror the fact of boxers the world over.

Echoing boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard who stated ‘boxing is a poor man’s sport’, the writer-musician says, “Most boxers have come from underprivileged backgrounds; they’ve come from a life of systematic discrimination, crime and poverty. Life hasn’t dealt them a fair hand, and the only way for them to fight back, create a life for themselves and get some respect is by using their bodies and fists. That seems to be a very common thread with a lot of boxers. Even if you look at boxers in India, they are predominantly from the North East, from the villages of Haryana — they’re fighting for something more than just a medal”.

Akhtar isn’t incorrect. Across boxing historical past, there’s a sample of gamers coming from the streets or disenfranchised teams. “There is a lot of money in boxing, but rich people don’t ask their kids to become boxers. I was recently listening to a podcast of Mike Tyson, and they asked him about his son getting into boxing now. With this big smile on his face, Tyson said he had asked his son ‘Why are you doing this? You don’t need to, you’re going to a private school. You’re going to meet some animal in the ring like me who’ll want to bust your face in’,” he provides.

Akhtar’s Boxing Roots

The 47-year-old says he was launched to boxing method again within the early 80s when Mohammad Ali first visited India for a sequence of exhibition matches. This was a couple of years after the well-known Rumble within the Jungle occasion the place Ali knocked out the undefeated world heavyweight champion George Foreman. “One heard stories from people who were lucky enough to meet him. Also, there was Rocky (1976) that put boxing on the cinematic map for everyone.” Though Akhtar by no means stepped into the ring himself, he was fascinated by the game. “I always found something very visceral about the sport. There’s something very basic in the way it is a test of character and strength — it’s brutal but there’s beauty to it, and it’s captivating to see two people in a ring trying to outthink, outlast and outpunch each other.”

Ali may need launched Akhtar to the game however he belongs extra to ‘the Mike Tyson generation’. “He brought a certain X-Factor; he could do anything when he was in the ring and that was exciting to watch.” As his curiosity within the sport elevated, he expanded his data to incorporate former greats like Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston and Jack Johnson and the extra up to date athletes like Manny Pacquiao and Triple G.

The Transformation Bible

This movie marks Akhtar’s second collaboration with Mehra. Their first was the biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013), which gained him the National Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. To painting the late Milkha Singh, one of India’s biggest athletes, the actor skilled for 5 to 6 hours a day for months. It was no totally different for Toofaan. “As much as I enjoy watching boxing and boxing films, getting in there and actually learning to do it is way tougher than you’d imagine.” Unlike BMB, this movie required him to study a complete sport from the start. “Boxing is a lot more demanding than track and field. Also, running wasn’t new to me as I had competed in school, though obviously nowhere near the level Milkhaji performed at.” For Toofaan, he skilled for 3 months first to appear like a boxer after which an out-of-shape father of one. “I definitely felt aches, pains and soreness in places that I didn’t feel when I was just running.”

Produced by Excel Entertainment, a manufacturing home Akhtar based together with Ritesh Sidhwani in 1999, Toofaan can also be the actor’s first movie to go straight to streaming. Excel was one of the primary movers on this pretty new medium once they produced the net present Inside Edge in 2017. They have since discovered success on the medium with Mirzapur (2018- ) and Made In Heaven (2019-). With theatres largely nonetheless shut throughout the nation, OTT platforms have emerged because the saviour for each the leisure business and audiences who in any other case would have been starved for leisure. Akhtar describes the OTT house as a ‘level playing field’. “You can’t hide behind star power, glitz and glamour, good music or a great location. If the story is not engaging, you’ll press that button on your remote and move on.”

For Akhtar, the much-abused phrase ‘content is king’ has lastly discovered its that means once more. “I do hope that when theatres open again, these learnings we’ve had over the past 18 months continue to apply to movie making. Of course, it’s great to watch your favourite stars and have that cinematic experience but let’s do that little bit more. Just because the audience has bought a ticket and won’t leave, it doesn’t mean we should take them for granted.”

Back On The Director’s Seat

Akhtar’s plans for conserving viewers glued to seats are virtually all in place. As a producer there’s Phone Bhoot, a horror comedy starring Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ishaan Khatter; and Rishi Kapoor’s final movie Sharmaji Namkeen. There can also be a documentary the place he’s collaborating with sister Zoya and Salman Khan on their lyricist fathers Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan. As an actor, Akhtar is predicted to begin capturing for director Ashutosh Gowarikar’s yet-untitled up to date motion movie quickly.

There have additionally been tales of him becoming a member of the forged of Ms Marvel from the Marvel Cinematic Universe however he’s conserving mum for now. “My only confirmed plan is to do a film with Ashutosh Gowarikar. Given the pandemic situation though, only time will tell when we’ll start,” says the actor who began his cinematic journey as a director virtually precisely 20 years in the past with Dil Chahta Hai. After helming movies like Lakshya (2004), Don (2006) and Don 2 (2011), he’s been on a directorial break that he hopes to finish quickly. “There definitely is something on the horizon. If it wasn’t for this pandemic, we would have been talking about it. But schedules have gone for such a toss — not only my own but the people I wanted to work with. Now, we’ll have to see when the dust settles, where these pieces land and when we can all come together and decide how and when to do that film. I do look forward to directing; I miss it at times,” concludes Akhtar.