Casting Abhishek and his illustrious Bachchan father as son and father was seen as too predictable. In a film that marks the return of Telugu director Puri Jagannath to Bollywood, Sonu Sood, and not Abhishek, has been cast as Big B’s son.

It was felt by everyone that Sood bears an uncanny resemblance to the young Big B from the early 1970s.

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When ‘Raavan’ opened to below average houses on Friday, it was mauled by the audience as well as the critics and showed no improvement over the weekend, it was certain that this Mani Ratnam film won’t even become a respectable disaster like ‘Kites’. Respectable? Because ‘Kites’, despite all its negatives and nothing much to write home about, still managed a good first weekend for itself that helped it come closer to the 50 crore mark as the lifetime total. This means that the film had the ignominy of being the biggest disaster ever with the highest total for a disaster/flop tag. Before ‘Kites’, the ‘position’ was held by ‘Chandni Chowk to China’, ‘Delhi 6′ and ‘Tashan’ which were the ‘highest grossing flops’ ever with a final total managing to cross 30 crores.

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Raavan has been a gruelling experience for you?

Why just me? Everyone in the film has gone through an equal amount of hardships to create a film we all believe in. There we were, getting drenched in the rain, and Mani Ratnam , Santosh Sivan …everyone was there facing the weather. We were all friends in the project. Everyone was there for one another. We could joke say it was like an adventure sport, or a video game while we were making our way through the most impossible conditions. But we knew what the truth was.

Were you prepared for the severe hardships when you read the script?

It was still a bit of shock and surprise when we had to face the climactic conditions in the jungles. On top of that Mani loves to make on-the-spot changes . He improvises all the time. He doesn’t want to strictly follow the written word. He’s a master of creating magical moments out of the seemingly ordinary. What he does is incredible. Just the pleasure of working with him again (after Iruvar) was amazing.

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Till just a few days back, the industry was smiling with the blockbuster success of ‘Raajneeti’. However, the smiles have vanished all over again with ‘Raavan’ turning out to be disaster at the box office. Wait, before we delve into the box office fate of the film, let’s also talk about the film by itself. The fact remains that this Mani Ratnam directed film is disastrous even from the content and execution perspective. Certain films have good content but get marred by poor execution. Some films have a decent execution but the script doesn’t contain much meat to take them through. However, when the combination of both these factors turns out to be poor, there is nothing that can salvage the situation.

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Mani Ratnam’s much awaited film Raavan released last week after a huge promotion since the last few months. The film opened with a moderate response but the lead actor Abhishek Bachchan, is already in the news, not for his role but for a controversy.

MS Balram, a former national diving champion, has claimed that the actor is lying. He said that Abhishek’s breathtaking dive off a cliff scene was done by him and not by the actor himself. The shot was used in the promotions of the movie many times as a special attraction.

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Just as it happens with all the films that suffer from a poor word of mouth, ‘Raavan’ too, is now bearing the brunt of it all. With poor reviews from critics not helping the cause, the only place where this Mani Ratnam directed film is catching momentum is the world of Internet where it is the butt of many jokes. Twitter, Facebook, SMS – the jokes are all over which is not quite helping the cause much.

Here are some of the most popular ones which are finding far more positive word of mouth than the film itself:

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‘Raavan’ releases today but surprisingly the hype preceding the release of the film has been quite minimal when compared to the tradition. However, there hasn’t been much interest level amongst the audience if the buzz for the last one month is any indication. Call it the surreal feel of the film, courtesy the look of Abhishek Bachchan, the songs which despite being good aren’t aided by flattering picturisation, the fan base of the Bachchan pair which hasn’t seen much escalation over the years or the overall product that has been unsuccessful in pitching itself as the summer blockbuster that audience could be rooting for – the fact remains that ‘Raavan’ hasn’t created a frenzy yet.

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From Pallavi Anu Pallavi in Kannada in (1983) to Raavan in Hindi (2010). It has indeed been a very long and fruitful journey for Mani Ratnam. Most cineastes regard him as one of the most significant voices of commercial Indian cinema. Straddling the world of high aesthetics, mass orientation and some say, simplistic politics, Mani has created a spiral of work whose impact resonates across the face of Indian cinema no matter what the spoken language of his characters…Kannada, Tamil or Hindi. Remarkably soft spoken and possessing a wicked sense of humour, Mani Ratnam who turned 54 on June 2, speaks to Subhash K Jha

It’s been a long tough journey for you. Would you say Raavan was your hardest film to make?

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Mani Ratnam’s much waited film Raavan is being premiered in London and SRK will be attending the event with wife, Gauri Khan and the kids if we go by Big B’s tweets

On Sunday, Amitabh Bachchan, twitted, “Shah Rukh, Abhishek probably spoke to you about the London premiere of Raavan, See you, Gauri and the kids there. Good that you are coming.”

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