By Subhash K Jha
In his new film Daddy Cool Sunil Shetty had to deliver a long speech in memory of his dead character’s father.
Sunil for the first time dug into his own emotions and thought of his own father.”It was a rousing moment for me. I forgot I was acting a part. I became my own father’s son while speaking of my character’s father.”
Though Daddy Cool is an official remake of Frank Oz’s 2007 comedy Death At A Funeral, Sunil Shetty who plays the role of the elder son at his father’s funeral (played by Matthew MacFeyden in the original) says the emotions have been completely changed in the desi remake.
“Funerals are no laughing matter in our culture. So while remaking the original film we had to keep in mind the local sentiments. Ours is far more emotional, far less farcical comedy than Death At The Funeral. In plot and characters Daddy Cool is exactly like Death At Funeral, including my character’s speech for his father at the end, which is what prompted me to accept the role,” says Sunil, proud to be part of one of Hollywood’s first official remakes of a Bollywood film.
All the characters in Daddy Cool are the same as in Death At A Funeral except Javed Jaffrey’s. “That’s right,” says Sunil. “And Sharad Saxena plays the dead dad. He’s a wonderful corpse.”
Others who have played a corpse include Satish Shah in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Anupam Kher in Rahul Rawail’s risqué and raunchy Buddha Mar Gaya, which was uncannily like Death At Funeral although both came out at the same time.
Says Sunil, “Daddy Cool is not the least risqué or vulgar. We’ve kept it clean.”
So proud are producers Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria of there remake that they intend to show Daddy Cool to the makers of Death At A Funeral.
“There’s nothing underhand or unfair in this adaptation. We’ve gone by all the rules. The producers have paid a huge amount of money to get the remake rights. And then Reliance Big Pictures bought the rights for Boney M’s song “Daddy Cool’. You could say Daddy Cool is the face of the new corporate Bollywood. We can’t have sneaky stolen films any more. Everything has to be on paper,” says Sunil, one of the first entrepreneur heroes of Bollywood.
Sunil had a ball shooting for Daddy Cool. “It was like one big picnic, just like Priyadarshan’s De Dana Dan. All of us never knew when the film started and ended.”
Sunil’s other ready-for-release film Red Alert features him in a serious realistic avatar. “Daddy Cool was a good counter-point to Red Alert.”
-Sampurn Media