Wanting to be a hunk for all genres

If the trailers of Gumnaam are anything to go by, Dino Morea has another winner coming

To date, 10 films starring Dino Morea have been released. He is now eagerly looking forward to the release of the films Chehra, in which he is opposite Bipasa Basu, Gumnaam with  Mahima Choudhary, and Mahesh Manjrekar’s Deh, opposite Jaya Prada.

Sahara TV is producing Deh, which, according to Morea, is an emotional film. He says he is 100 per cent sure that women in the audience will come out loving him after watching him in it.

The young actor is not at all disappointed with the failure of the film Shhhh. “In the interiors, people did not go to see Shhhh because they thought that it was a English film. However I was not disappointed with the film because I got a lot of appreciation for my performance. I give the credit to the director Pawan Kaul. I played myself in the film — I was also a prankster in my college. Pawan let me improvise a lot.”

As an actor, Morea is keen on doing all kinds of films.

“I do not want to be slotted as an actor with a set image because in that case I feel that versatility will be at stake. I want to prove that I can do romantic, negative, action as well as comedy roles with effortless ease. Every actor has an instinct of his own. My instinct should goad me to do a good film.

“After my films Baaz A Bird In Danger and Gunaah flopped at the box office, I made a conscious decision to choose my films instead of grabbing every offer. Earlier I used to sign on films without any clue as to what I was doing, and in the process I ended up making a lot of mistakes as far as my career is concerned. Insaaf was the last of the lot.”

“I am growing as an actor with every film. I have learnt the hard way that if you do a film with an A-grade filmmaker, you are made for the next 10 to 15 years. You have got to look after yourself and push yourself at all times. This is what experience has taught me.

“An A grade producer makes a smooth film without any financial hassles because he is sound, whereas the B and C grade makers just make proposals. Filmmaking is passion, not just a business.

“I rejected a lot of offers in the wake of the success of Raaz because I was not happy with the subjects narrated to me. Raaz was such a big hit that people started referring to me as Aditya, the character I played in the film, and not Dino. Unfortunately no one remembered me, my character nor the film Gunaah, my next film with Bipasha after Raaz.”

Morea says that money is immaterial when he sets out to do a film with an A-grade maker such as Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai or Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

“You are actually at an advantage when you work with a big A-grade filmmaker. When I did Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, I was like a lost child. At that time I was so desperate that I even went ahead and did a cameo role in the Tamil film Kandu Kondein Kandu Kondein when Rajiv Menon who is a friend from the ad days asked me if I would.”

Hit star pairs

Raaz established Bipasha Basu and Morea as a hit star pair. Talking about Basu, Dino says, “ Bipasha has improved a lot from her performances in her first film Ajnabi, and in Ishq Hai Tumse or, for that matter, Rakht. Bipasha and I are extremely comfortable with each other as friends as well as co-actors. If you do not learn from your mistakes even after 10 films, then something is wrong with you.

“I always tell Bipasha that she should not think of doing only meaty films, which set out to make a point. Instead she should select films which are commercial too.

“Actually it isn’t the star pair which clicks, but a film which establishes a star pair if it clicks. Raaz was a hit but since Gunaah did not click, Bipasha and I weren’t considered a hit star pair. I am sure if Gumnaam with Mahima Chaudhary clicks at the box office, Mahima and I will end up as a lucky star pair.”

Dino Morea has acted on his decision to make his career moves smarter. He will now act in only “banners that matter” and go for “fresh pairings with other heroines”.

Interestingly, his next release Gumnaam , will have him romancing Mahima Chaudhary. Morea plays a stuntman, which explains the display of his well-toned, much-envied physique in the film’s teasers.

“For the first time in my career I get to play a stuntman. Naturally, I have done most of the stunts to get that authentic feel to my character. I have done some really difficult stunts like this one when I am hanging upside down from a cliff at the height of 150-200ft on a cable wire. I didn’t feel doing the stunts myself was a big deal, though I understand now what stuntmen go through. In most of our films it’s they who risk their lives.”

It has not all been just hanging from cliffs though.

“Working with Chaudhary has been a huge learning experience. You get to learn things when you are acting opposite someone who is much more experienced than you.”

Going by the promos of the film, the on-screen chemistry between them is simply fantastic — so much so that we suspect romance is brewing between them.

Career focus

But Morea’s focus right now is on his career. “I wish I were part of films like Kal Ho Naa Ho and Lakshya. I’m certainly working towards that. I need to do some big films now and I want to do them all, in different genres.”

Speaking of genre, Morea wants to go easy with thrillers and also avoid pairing up with Bipasha Basu.

“We starred together in Raaz and after its success, a thousand films were made in that genre, with little or no success. So I think it was time I started signing films in different genres and paired with different heroines. You can call it a career move, which I hope will yield positive results. In any case I think the genre of thrillers is phasing out.”

So Dino’s next film Chehra, with debutant director Sourabh Shukla, in which he plays a psychiatrist opposite Basu should be his last thriller — for the moment.

Coming up next is Fightclub, “an action film directed by Vicky Chopra starring Suniel Shetty, Sohail Khan, Riteish Deshmukh”.

Morea is also in talks with other filmmakers. “There are already two, one an action film and the other a romantic film against the backdrop of dance, but I’m not telling you more.

“There is also Pooja Bhatt’s next film, which is a fantastic subject, but I don’t want to talk about it till we go on floors. I’m superstitious of talking about my films until I start shooting for them.”