Ajay Devgn talks about politics, comedy, producing films and more

Bollywood star Ajay Devgn, who was in Bihar last week to attend a political rally for BJP leader Sunil Kumar amid ongoing assembly polls, says he doesn’t have any intention to join politics.

Asked whether he has any plans to join politics, Ajay, who attended the ongoing CII Big Picture Summit 2015, said: “Not at all, that’s the first thing I said there. I don’t intend to join politics.”

The 46-year-old, who popular in Bihar after his roles in Prakash Jha’s “Gangaajal” and “Aarakshan”, missed the chance to address a rally the Bihar due to an “overwhelming turnout” because of which his chopper couldn’t land. He later urged organisers to have better arrangements.

Ajay also took to Twitter to apologise to the people of Biharsharif and Nalanda for not addressing the rallies.

“Apologies for not being able to reach the rallies at Biharsharif and Nalanda since the administration did not give permission because of the unmanageable crowds,” he tweeted at that time.

The actor also spoke about his film choices and added that comedy takes a lot of energy and timing.

“When you are an actor you do not think about genres… When you are doing comedy you do think, ‘Oh I wish I was doing a serious film as it takes less energy’. Comedy needs a lot of energy and timing. When you are doing action you feel tiring. I like to switch and do different things,” Ajay said.

“I’ve been very lucky. If I’ve tried a comedy it has worked. Or if I tried drama or a serious film, they too have worked. So people are more comfortable coming to me for doing such films, which a lot of people try and if it doesn’t work they get scared” he added.

Ajay was felicitated at the opening day of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) summit by Sudhanshu Vats, chairman, CII National Committee on Media and Entertainment and Group CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd.

During the event, Ajay also stressed upon how we can match ourselves with Hollywood by stopping “piracy and increasing the number of screens in India”.

Asked about his favourite director he most liked working with, Ajay said: “I’ve worked with every kind of director. In the 1990s I was the first actor, who started working in so called ‘art cinema’. Today it is not called art cinema as there are no films like ‘Dil Kya Kare’ or directors like Govind Nihalani, Rituparno Ghosh.

“I had those films where people thought I was crazy as a commercial actor doing films like these. But I learned a lot from these films. Also I’ve a lot of respect for Mahesh Bhatt. The only thing I tell everybody and tell him also is that I wish he could come back and direct again. His last film that he directed was ‘Zakhm’ for which I got a National Award and after that he quit. So I really miss him.

Ajay spoke about producing films being more stressful than acting or directing.

“I won’t say that donning the hat of a producer is my favourite one but I love doing it because it stresses you out too much. Rest as an actor or a director, I’m pretty much comfortable handing both, so I don’t have to worry about that.

“Where direction is considered, I’m very comfortable because of my father. When I was 11 years old, I used to edit his sequences, which were very difficult for people to edit. It was a lot of training at that point of time because I loved my work and learned from it.”