EXCLUSIVE! Director Tarun Mansukhani on Abhishek Bachchan, Nana Patekar Akshay Kumar starrer Housefull 5: ‘No ornamentation of women’s roles, not a movie for Cannes…’

‘Housefull 5’ director Tarun Mansukhani has finally broken silence on the film objectifying women and for its sexist tone. It is doing the numbers but it has also been criticized for its blatant objectification. Tarun Mansukhani in an interview with Firstpost, refused to agree that women in his film have been used more like an ornament. In fact, he mentioned that each of the female actors are very big players in this entire game of Housefull 5.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Housefull 5 has given a good box-office number. What were your expectations while you were making the movie? 

I honestly didn’t go ahead making the film with any kind of box office expectations, in terms of, oh, I want Monday to be so much or I want any of those. I just, in the back of my head, kept telling myself I want it to be a big hit, and that’s it. So that’s all you can work with and move ahead with that.

I am very thrilled and happy with the numbers. There’s been a huge acceptance for the film, and that’s all that matters to me. I’m not the producer, so all I care about is whether the audiences are enjoying the film or not.

The movie has got mixed reviews. So, were you expecting that also? 

It’s a complete commercial movie. With Housefull, I’m not expecting to get, what you call, critical review. Right? I know what I’m making. I’m making a masala entertainer, which is meant to be partially for you to just enjoy, sit back, relax, enjoy, laugh it out, have a good time in the theatre, and go home. That’s what the endeavour of the film is. I don’t expect any great critical reviews. I hope as a filmmaker; my filmmaking technique is good. My crew is good. They have done a good job, and that is the silent part of the film that allows a viewer to enjoy the film. It’s not a film which was made to go to Cannes or any film festival.

Don’t you think that Housefull 6 had a little bit of ornamentation of women’s roles? Other than just Chitrangada, who had a powerful role?

I don’t think so, honestly. Each of them is a very big player in this entire game. If you see my three lead girls themselves, Akshay Kumar has an idea to play Jolly and kind of inherit the web. But, actually, he gets backstabbed by Nargis, who creates a whole new plan for herself and calls Ritesh. Ritesh innocently brings Sonam who also backstabs him and makes her own plan and brings Abhishek. Abhishek brings Jacqueline who eventually backstabs him and goes back to Akshay. So, the girls are as important in this chaos as the boys are.

The boys are leading it because it’s the hunt for a son, but the girls are the ones who have background making all the plans happen and change. So, it’s easy to point out and say that that is not the case, and they have been only there for ornamentation, but I don’t agree with that entirely. I think they are important. They are dubious. They are as flawed as any of the men are.

Tell us about this A and B concept of Housefull 5?

Sajid Nadiadwala had this idea about thirty years ago. And he kept thinking that when I make a thriller, when I make a murder mystery or something, I’m going to have a film with two different climaxes. And, it’s something he had in his mind right from then, and he never got the opportunity really to use that idea. And then came around  Housefull 5 , which became this comedy murder mystery, and then he kind of told me about his idea. And I was super excited by it because here was somebody I was working with who’s thinking so far ahead of his time.

But there are logistical issues. There are details that you have to think of while making the film as well, and those kinds of things, complications that come into it, which are all behind the scenes. You don’t get to see that aspect as an audience. And, of course, there were a certain amount of apprehensions. How is it going to be understood? How is it going to be taken?

Everything said and done, the excitement of doing something new outweighs everything else, that we could ever think of would be a hindrance to this kind of endeavour. So, we tried it. We hope we can take things in a newer direction after this. The idea is to keep trying something new and give the audience a different experience.

Cinema has been changing, and so is the way you look at cinema. This A and B is a new thing that you brought about, though that was already there in Hollywood. With so many actors, how difficult was it to flesh out each and every character?

When you take this kind of star cast, I think each of them comes with a very big fan following.  And all of their fans want to know that they have got a great role in this film. They’re not just a cameo appearance or they’re there for two scenes and they leave and those kinds of things. So, when we wrote it, we automatically knew that unless the role is meaty enough, we were not going to approach a big star for it. And when we figured out that we’ve managed to get this kind of cast together, even more so the thing arrives on you is that you have to make sure that their characters stay alive, and therefore, you have to flesh out each person that much more. I think I managed it in very subconscious layers. It’s not visible. It’s not fully in your face for every character.

But I think the one common element that I held for every character in this film is that they are dubious. They are shady. They are flawed. They have different personas to them, which, like, for example, you take, Chitrangda Singh’s character. She has a gambling problem. You take Fardeen Khan’s character. He has done a hit and run, in his younger days. You even take Soundarya’s character who has created fake bank accounts and done offshore account trading. So, each character has their own flaws, which contributed to them becoming a suspect to the murder.

And what’s next? Will we get to see Housefull 6 soon?

Well, definitely, Housefull 6 will be on the cards. But right now, we’ll just enjoy Housefull 5 and all the success that it’s bringing with it. As for me, I would like to do something else before I jump into Housefull 6.

WATCH the trailer of Housefull 5 here: