'Cheers' marks Dharam's 50 years in B'wood

Apr 2, 2009 Robin Bansal

New Delhi, April 2 (IANS) After "Apne", Sunny Deol is once again teaming up with dad Dharmendra and younger brother Bobby for "Cheers - Celebrate Life". The actor-filmmaker says the film is a celebration of his father's 50 years in Bollywood.

"Dad (Dharmendra), Bobby and I are doing a great film with Sangeeth Sivan called 'Cheers - Celebrate life'. Actually, we are trying to celebrate my dad's 50 years in the industry with the film," Sunny told IANS in an interview.

"We are going to start shooting next month onwards now that dad is fine after the knee surgery (last year). Hopefully, we will release it this year itself under our banner Vijeta Films so as to keep fresh the essence of his 50 years," he said.

Besides "Cheers", Sunny is also busy wielding the megaphone for his second directorial venture "The Man" in which he stars with Shilpa Shetty.

"'The Man' is the key thing that I'm working on as of now and it's going to be a good film ... that I can promise the audience. I directed a film called 'Dillagi' earlier and it didn't do well business-wise, but people loved it. Obviously now with my next film that I'm directing, people are going to check if I still have got it (in me) or not," he said.

Considering his diminishing on-screen presence, is the action star now shifting gears to don the director's hat?

"I don't know. I can't say anything right now because things change so rapidly. You never know what is going to happen tomorrow. All I know is that there are lots of things to do," said Sunny, who was last seen in "Heroes" in 2008.

He may not be sure of his future directorial ventures, but he is confident that he wants to produce "good cinema" under his banner.

Apart from his Bollywood career, Sunny, a "fitness freak", has also associated himself with a health club chain - Club Fitline. He was in the capital recently to launch its first centre.

Sunny has been away from the limelight but feels that brother Bobby and cousin Abhay have been making their screen presence felt.

"Abhay is doing very well in his career. Unfortunately his earlier films didn't bring him that popularity, but people who saw him were always fond of him because he did great work from 'Socha Na Tha' (2005) itself.

"Bobby's career is doing pretty well too. It's just his bad luck. He is a great actor and a very goodlooking boy with a great personality. It's just sometimes things don't fall right. Otherwise he has done good cinema," the actor said.

Sunny has no plans to launch his sons in the near future and says he is happy giving his sons Karan, 18 and Rajvir, 14, a chance to "pick their own space".

"They are still young. I want them to study as of now and have their own space. I'll let them grow up to be wanting to be something and then whatever they decide to take, I'll definitely be with them," he said.

Apart from "Cheers" and "The Man", Sunny's other projects include "Right Ya Wrong" and Bhushan Kumar's next project with Kangana Ranaut.