Remo D’Souza on why Race 3 didn’t receive positive reviews
Race 3 director Remo D’Souza has admitted that there were some “glitches” in the script of the film, which is why despite entering the ₹100crore club, it failed to get positive reviews from the audiences and critics. Remo believes that their decision to not show the leading man in a grey role, which was the case in the previous films, may have gone against them.
“When Shiraz Ahmed wrote the script it had the grey role. Race franchise is about grey characters, but we can’t show Salman in a grey character, and other things were also happening. Because of all that... It just went little..,” says Remo.
The film may have been panned by the critics but it did good business at the box office, he adds.
“If it was a disaster then it wouldn’t have done ₹180 crore business and ₹300 crore worldwide. I am still trying to come to terms with it, and concentrating on my next film,” he shares.
The first two films in the Race franchise were headlined by actor Saif Ali Khan, whose character had shades of grey.
But with the third instalment, the producers roped in Salman in the lead role, and Remo replaced Abbas-Mustan as the director. The action sequences in Abu Dhabi were choreographed by Tom Struthers, who has previously worked on movies such as Inception (2010), The Dark Knight (2008) and Dunkirk (2017).
“Entertainment-wise we had great action, songs, 3D, etc. People loved the action but then suddenly the trolls started... Story-wise, I agree there were glitches. But I have seen worst films becoming hits,” Remo says.
He goes on to add that one should be “ready with the script before one starts shooting, and not think that the release date has been announced and let’s shoot it and we will make the script.” Asked if the script was modified during the shoot, he shares, “There were a few changes that happened during the shoot. The script got modified after Salman came on board.”
The ABCD (2013) director says that after the release, Salman came to his house and said that “it is OK” and he was like “the film is earning money and I should be happy as it did well...”
Remo shares that he and Salman are really kicked about collaborating for a dance-based film Dancing Dad, which was supposed to be their first project together. “I spoke to him two days ago. We both are busy with our respective projects. I will take time and make this film. It’s a beautiful script. It was this film that I first wanted to do with Salman but Race 3 happened.”