Chup: Revenge of the Artist helmed by R Balki is story of a psychopath serial killer who is targeting film critics. After the release of every film, a film critic is killed for giving bad reviews. The idea of Chup was developed from R Balki’s own experience. In a new interview the filmmaker disclosed what happened to him that evoked him to make such a film.
R Balki revealed that there was one such review for his 2007 film Cheeni Kum that dragged him to depression. After the release of Cheeni Kum the director check out reviews and that one particular review shattered him. According to R Balki, it was an agenda-filled review that was very negative and trashed the film. Cheeni Kum is a rom-com film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, and Paresh Rawal.
In an interview with Galatta Plus, Balki said, “In those days, there was one very influential reviewer… When I opened the paper, I saw I was thrashed to pieces, that it (film) was rubbish. Nonsense was written. First, I was so stunned that somebody can be so vicious. Why was somebody so angry with a happy film, I could not understand this entire thing. So I just went into actual depression.”
The filmmaker added, “Amitabh Bachchan later told that many critics have ‘agendas’ and that particular review was ‘agenda filled’. There is decency involved, there is writing involved, if you don’t like it there is a way to say it. But it was a vicious attack. I just felt, how can he get away, I thought we should bump them off. Amit ji started laughing and said, ‘You crazy fellow, what are you thinking, what are you on? What did you drink?’ and we left it at that.” Balki said that incident gave birth to the idea for Chup.
Chup is an ode to legendary filmmaker Guru Dutt. Chup: Revenge of the Artist is one of the aspiring projects of the ace director R Balki. The much-awaited edge-of-the-seat thriller was released on 23rd September 2022. The film stars Dulquer Salmaan, Sunny Deol, Pooja Bhatt, and Shreya Dhanwanthary in the lead roles. It marks the Bollywood return of south cinema superstar Dulquer to Hindi movies after The Zoya Factor. Sunny Deol and Pooja Bhatt made a comeback to films after Blank and Sadak 2 respectively.
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