MUMBAI: It was a ‘Dharma’ reunion of sorts, when filmmakers and stars associated with Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions stepped out to support his latest small budget venture, ‘Gippi’, at a special screening.
Dharma regulars like filmmakers Ayan Mukherjee, Karan Malhotra, Tarun Mansukhani, actors Siddharth Malhotra and Aditya Roy Kapur, musicians Shekhar Ravjiani and Hard Kaur, attended the special screening the film.
Director Karan Malhotra, who made his debut with Dharma Productions’ ‘Agneepath’ last year, hopes ‘Gippi’ proves that Karan Johar’s banner can even make good quality small-budget films. He said, “Honestly speaking, it’s (‘Gippi’) going to be a new experience for all of us because Dharma has never made such a film. We hope this one proves Dharma can also do small-budget films, but at the same time films that have content.”
Meanwhile, the lady of the evening Sonam Nair looked happy with the turnout. Wearing a cool white tee, yellow blazer and black skinny pants she posed with the heroine of her film, teenage actress Riya Vij (cute, in a short summer dress). Actress Divya Dutta, who plays Riya’s mom in the film, was also present.
Producer Karan Johar was all praises for Sonam as he said, “Talent does not have a gender at all and it should not have a gender. Sonam Nair is a very talented young girl. It does not matter that she is a girl, she is very talented director.”
So far, Karan has launched a bevy of new directors – Nikhil Advani (“Kal Ho Na Ho”), Punit Malhotra (“I Hate Luv Storys”), Ayan Mukerji (“Wake Up Sid”), Siddharth Malhotra (“We Are Family”), Shakun Batra (“Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu”) and Karan Malhotra (“Agneepath”).
“Only in our country we make such differences like, ‘Oh, first time you are working with a female director’….I have been asked this question a lot. I think she (Sonam Nair) is very talented and talent should not have a gender,” said the 41-year-old.
With his last directorial venture “Student Of The Year”, he launched four fresh actors – Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra and Kayoze Irani. Karan believes that it’s necessary to bring in new talents.
“New faces, new stars and the new breeding talents are the only future (of the industry). Today, we will give them platform, and tomorrow they will be the stars. And we have to leverage that star value they bring to the table,” Karan said.
