India, Oct. 15 -- When Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan and Neil Nitin Mukesh entered the Bollywood scene around the same time, industry was of opinion that the trio would turn out to be a similar phenomenon as the Khans (Aamir, Salman, Shah Rukh) had turned out to be 20 years ago. While Ranbir raced ahead with unconventional choice of roles, Imran managed to put his act together after the twin debacle of Kidnap and Luck. However, Neil Nitin Mukesh wasn't as lucky as the others around him kept running faster. Now, he has pretty much announced an open challenge, what with his David taking Imran's Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola heads on.
"What makes this clash all the more interesting is that Matru... was announced a year ago and its release date too was fixed six months back. Still, for Neil's David to suddenly decide January 11 as the D-day is nothing less than surprising", comments an insider.
Incidentally, the two films are as different from each other as chalk and cheese.
"While Matru is a fun film and has a rural base to it, David has an urban set up and expected to carry darker shades, considering director Bejoy Nambiar's reputation after Shaitan", the insider adds, "The clash is going to be really interesting since it won't just set the tone for year to follow, the challenge thrown by Neil to Imran would be at the forefront as well and definitely make headlines. After all, Imran has to continue his winning streak while Neil has to make this one big for him."
Other actors whose fortunes are really waiting to take shape with David are Vikram and Vinay Virmani. While former couldn't justify his South superstar status in Mani Ratnam's Hindi version of Raavan, for young Vinay Virmani this would be his first mainstream Bollywood outing after an impressive debut with Indo-Canadian Breakaway/Speedy Singhs which released last year.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Hindustan Times.
