Director Reema Kagti on Golds success: Love and gratitude to the entire team for making it happen

Written by Sana Farzeen | Mumbai | Published: August 25, 2018 7:59:04 am One of the prime reasons that Reema Kagtis Gold struck the right chord with the audience was its perfect casting. Related News

“Thank you, of course, it feels great. The entire team really worked hard, so it does feel wonderful,” shared Gold director Reema Kagti as we congratulated her on the films success. Released on August 15, the Akshay Kumar starrer is inching towards the Rs 100 crore mark. Based on true events of free India winning its first Olympic gold in hockey, the movie also stars Amit Sadh, Vineet Kumar Singh, Kunal Kapoor, Sunny Kaushal and Mouni Roy.

One of the prime reasons that the film struck the right chord with the audience was its perfect casting. Thanking her team for getting together the powerful ensemble cast, Reema, in an exclusive chat with indianexpress.com, shared, “Akshay was the first person that we approached. He is a great actor and we all felt he suited the physicality of Tapan Das quite well. Beyond that, it was Nandini (casting director) who was a great help. It was through her that I discovered Mouni, Amit, and Sunny. Kunal and Vineet, of course, are great actors and have done a tremendous job. I love Vineet and I think he was perfect for Imtiaz. As for Kunal, the gravitas that he brought to the role was just amazing.”

Akshay Kumar is one of the most bankable actors in Bollywood today. We discussed whether it was a difficult choice to put him in the backfoot for Gold. The Talaash director shared, “We all went by the script. Tapan Das is the thread that binds all the characters in the film. He holds the entire story together. I remember when we were working on the script, we came to know about a man, who had held the national flag in 1936 Olympics to boost the morale of the players. He then went on to become the teams manager in the 1948 match. In that sense, he was the real hero. I can assure you that all the players in themselves are legends and deserve a biopic each. This was a larger story that we were trying to present, where it was all about a united dream.”

Gold director Reema Kagti thanked her team for being so loving and supporting.

Gold brings alive the passion for sports, but Reema shared that she is not really a sportsperson. “I am not quite active that way but I love watching sports films. I think it is one of the most successful genres in the history of cinema. Theres something about them thats so uplifting and feel good. I have always wanted to do a sports film, for my sheer love towards it.”

When asked to give her opinion on the lack of female filmmakers in the country, Reema said, “I think at this point, we have more women than we ever had. I dont think its a Bollywood issue but in every industry, women had taken a back seat. There could be a lot of reasons for the same, patriarchy being one of them. But its a fact that the trend is definitely changing. Yes, the pace needs to improve but women are finally out there, in every sphere.”

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Thanking her team for being so loving and supporting, the filmmaker shared, “Everybody was just superb and we really had a lot of fun shooting. When you are working with such a big team, it could have really got difficult but they were really sweet. None of them created any problems. And I only have love and gratitude towards them. The boys, headed by Akshay were playing games during breaks, and it just added to the entire bonding.”

While its been just a week since her films release, Reema is already back to work. “So Zoya and I have started a production company. We are all set to launch our first web series Made in Heaven for Amazon Prime Video. It should release by early next year. Also, I have co-written Gully Boy, which I am quite excited about,” Reema signed off with a smile.