Ajay chooses horror over holiday

Shaitaan maker reveals Devgn cut short his annual family vacation in July to accommodate the shoot of supernatural thriller in the UK

Certain stories spark so much interest that you’ll do all it takes to translate them on the big screen. Shaitaan was one such movie for Ajay Devgn. The superstar, who hasn’t explored horror often on screen, was so impressed by the script that he decided to not only front it but also come on board as a producer. The dates, however, posed a problem. So what did the leading man do? He cut short his annual family holiday to London to shoot for the R Madhavan and Jyothika-starrer.

After filming Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha, Devgn was contemplating his next when producer Kumar Mangat and Abhishek Pathak narrated the story of Shaitaan to him last April. An adaptation of the Gujarati hit, Vash (2023), the supernatural thriller revolves around how a man protects his family when a sorcerer—played by Madhavan—casts a spell on his daughter. A source from the creative team reveals, “Following the narration, Ajay immediately agreed to play the protagonist. The actor then approached Vikas Bahl to helm it. Though the director was initially hesitant about being able to do justice to the genre, Ajay was confident Vikas was the right man for the job.”

Kumar Mangat

With the cast, script and director locked, next came the question of dates. Like every year, Devgn had blocked July for his month-long London vacation with actor-wife Kajol and his kids Nysa and Yug. The actor was slated to begin filming for Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again on his return. The source adds, “It was getting difficult to find a window for Shaitaan. Ajay, being a producer-actor, understood the financials of shooting. So, he let go of his family holiday and filmed Shaitaan in a start-to-finish schedule, running from July to August, in and around London, including Bedford and Windsor. While Yug was with him throughout the UK schedule, the rest of his family joined him in the last week of August.”

Releasing tomorrow, Shaitaan marks the first of the superstar’s five releases in 2024. Producer Mangat says, “It was kind of Ajay to cut short his holiday and give us his dates immediately for the shoot. His cooperation helped us complete the film in a short span.”

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