It's raining Suniel Shetty Seven of the star's films will release in the next few months

Subhash K Jha

Suniel Shetty is about to set a record in Hindi cinema. In the next few months, Shetty has as many as seven film releases.

"That's right," smiles Shetty. "I have a number of releases tumbling out like Harry Baweja's Karz: The Burden [also starring Sunny Deol, Shilpa Shetty] and Sanjay Gupta's Kaante [also starring Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Mahesh Manjrekar, Lucky Ali, Kumar Gaurav].

"There is also Ravi Dewan's action thriller Annarth [which sees the debut of former India cricketer Vinod Kambli], which is lined up for a Diwali release and Tinnu Anand's much delayed Ek Hindustani [opposite Raveena Tandon], which still looks very fresh in spite of being in the making for some years now. I have a guest appearance in Masiha, which is expected in the two months. I only had a weeks' work in the film though it is being projected as my film. All these films will be out this year.

"In January, I have Kundan Shah's wacky comedy Ek Se Badhkar Ek with Raveena Tandon and Shekhar Suman as my costars and Tinnu Verma's thriller Baaz, with Karisma Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Dino Morea. That is quite a handful."

Shetty is not too happy with this torrent of releases, however. "Producers do not seem to understand that they are cutting into each other's business," he states. "They complete their films at the same time and do not space their releases. I remember a few years ago, two of my films --- Gulzar Saab's Hu tu tu and Shakeel Noorani's Bade Dilwala --- were released simultaneously. Bade Dilwala suffered although it was a good film. Now, everyone thinks the period after Ramzan is a good time to release films."

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Interestingly, Shetty even has two releases on the same day. December 6 sees the release of Kaante and Karz: The Burden together.

He adds that all his films, besides Karz which is a family drama, are action flicks. "After the success of Awaara Paagal Deewaana, there is a renewed demand for my action films," he says.

How much of Shetty can the audience take at one time? His films seem suicidally strategised but the actor pleads helplessness. Says a distributor from Bihar, "In 1971, every theatre in Patna screened Rajesh Khanna starrers. One theatre was showing Aradhana while another screened Do Raaste. Even while these were hurling towards a jubilee run, two more Khanna starrers Amar Prem and Kati Patang were released. All of these were hits. But who is going to watch Suniel Shetty in seven films in three months?"