Director Mohit Suri keeps eager filmgoers guessing. The verdict will be out when his movie Ek Villain hits the screens this week

Aashiqui 2 has certainly changed life for director Mohit Suri. No, it’s not the success of the film. “I’ve not changed my car or suddenly stashed away cash in the bank,” he smiles. The filmmaker’s father passed away a week before the release of his previous film Murder 2 and Mohit fell into a deep depression. He confesses he kept away from his long-standing girlfriend Udita Goswami (now wife). “I was disillusioned. Aashiqui 2 changed me in the process of making it. It was the story of two people coping with failure in their own way and it helped me overcome my feelings too. I picked up the threads of my life, got married to Udita and let the past be,” he says.

Fresh from the superhit Aashiqui 2, Mohit has Ek Villain produced by Ekta Kapoor up for release on June 27. It toplines Shraddha Kapoor yet again, with Sidharth Malhotra and Riteish Deshmukh. While the teaser promotions have already been attributing grey shades to the two male characters, the verdict is still not out on who plays the villain in this thriller. Asked about his unusual casting, he says, “Both Riteish and Sidharth cast themselves into these roles. I never thought that Sidharth would pull it off. In fact, there is a scene in the film that required Sid to break down and the whole set was mesmerised by that shot.”
While most would assume that thrills work for him, contrarily, Mohit speaks of his emotional quotient and how he needs to satiate that urge over anything else. “All of us pre-judge, don’t we? Honestly, I don’t enjoy a great-looking shot. If my actor delivers a great shot and the unit spontaneously claps, I feel like a proud parent. I think that’s why Aashiqui 2 was a big high. I felt that these two guys (Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur, lead actors) had made me proud. And I say it in a vain way. I am not selfless when it comes to taking credit for emotionally created work.” Elaborating, he says, “This particular frame in Ek Villain where Shraddha draws a smiley on the window to perk up Sidharth was conceived by me in the shower on a particularly depressing day. When I saw the smiley I smiled too and went and told my DOP about it and he did an amazing job of recreating that moment. I like working with inspired people. When I haven’t, it has gone bad.” When prodded to speak about films which he hasn’t enjoyed filming, he adds, “I am not a particular fan of Raaz 2 and in Crook I listened to a whole lot of people but I don’t blame anyone except myself. Awaarapan and Woh Lamhe are films I loved, but they didn’t do well.”
While Mohit defends his film, saying it is not a take-off from the Korean film I Saw The Devil, he admits originality is not a trait he has. “I am not pretending to be original. My films have always been inspired by other films and filmmakers. I don’t make commercially correct films.”
Mohit’s next film is Humari Adhuri Kahani with Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi. “I got my biggest compliment from Vidya who told me that she had never walked up to anyone and asked them to cast her in their film but was doing so with me,” he smiles. “It’s in the league of the BR Chopra and Yash Chopra style of filmmaking.”