Parvez Damania’s ambitious foray into film production with nine films and nine directors could just well be the tip of the iceberg, reports Saumit Singh

“I’ve always believed in challenges and today Bollywood is where the action is.” Trust Parvez Damania to say that. And sure enough, he’s put his money where his mouth is.

Along with Azam Khan (formerly of K Sera Sera), Damania has launched his own film production company One More Thought Entertainment. They’ve come out all guns blazing — nine films planned with nine different directors.

“It’s just the beginning really,” added Parvez in his typical style.

 “Azam has a lot of experience in producing and distributing films while I’ll be handling the business strategy,” he explains.

“We’re hoping to produce films that are commercially viable and also socially relevant. In fact our first film is a Marathi one produced by Ravi Rai called Tingya. The lead has been played by a young guy, an absolute amateur who stays in the same village where the story is based. The film was awarded at the Pune Film Festival and short-listed for

Indian Panorama section. It’s also scheduled to be screened at the forthcoming MAMI Festival in the competitive section.”

While Tingya is set to be released in theatres on February 29, the scripts and cast for the subsequent ventures are being worked out at a furious pace.

“Our project with Ajay Chandok Khalbali Hai Khalbali is currently on the floors. It has an interesting cast - Nikhil Dwivedi, Sadaa, Rajpal Yadav, Chunkey Pandey, Johnny Lever, Govind Namdev, Shakti Kapoor. The first schedule of the shoot is currently on in Mumbai and then it’ll move to Bangkok. It should be released by August this year,” he says.

Though his company is clearly aiming for no-fuss, quality focussed and quickly executed projects to keep the ball rolling, he’s not averse to doing a big budget money-spinner in the future.

“If the scripts demand so, we’ll certainly approach big stars. In fact we are in talks with a few of them. Though I’m the first to
admit that market forces will determine our choices, at the same time we’d also like to promote socially relevant cinema like Tingya.”

For someone who is as about town as him, does it mean being inundated with calls for roles?

“I wouldn’t say I am inundated with calls for roles, but I’ll be making the most of my goodwill to rope in the best Bollywood talent. Frankly, we’ve come with no baggage and went ahead purely on the merit of the directors and the scripts we liked. The idea was to come up with a bouquet of films that run across various genres. We’re thankful that they have all agreed to be part of this new venture and we’ve even become good friends in this short span,” he signs off with a smile.