We want to make socially relevant films that also entertain: Arjun N Kapoor
Arjun N Kapoor and Prernaa Arora’s production company Kriarj Entertainment’s track record has been flawless. Their first film Rustom (2016) was a box office success and was also critically appreciated. Their second film, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha won accolades for talking about a socially relevant issue — open defecation in India. And now, they’re gearing up for their next release — again with Akshay Kumar — Padman.
Talking about the long line-up of films for the year 2018, Arjun says, “It’s very exciting. We are starting the year with Padman, and later there is Pari, Parmanu, Fanney Khan and lots of other interesting projects lined up. We believe these are exciting films. We have three releases in the first quarter of the year; though they’re very close to each other, we are quite happy and confident.”
As a production house, they’ve consciously made an attempt to choose projects that have a social message as this is the need of the hour. “For us if you see, almost all our films have a message. Today is the time when the country is also accepting socially relevant films. So we, as a company, have consciously taken a call of putting out those films that speak about relevant issues in an entertaining manner. Be it Parmanu, which is about nuclear testing or be it Fanney Khan, which is an important emotional fatherdaughter story that also deals with body shaming. Beyond that, it’s the people we work with that are very important. Be it Akshay sir or all our other partners such as Anushka Sharma or Vishal Bhardwaj, it’s important for us that the people we partner with are also on the same page,” says Arjun.
So what’s their goal for 2018? “More work and to work with Mr Amitabh Bachchan,” Arjun replies almost immediately. “We already have a significant line-up and now we need to execute all that. Of course, 2017 was all about setting up 2018, so 2018 will be about setting up 2019. We were accepted in our first two films and we expect the audience to enjoy our work once again and give us a great response for each of our films in future,” says Arjun.