‘Great Grand Masti won’t make you squirm in your seats’ – Riteish Deshmukh

Three young men have their individual family problems. They go out to seek whatever little happiness they can get out of adultery. They step into a ‘haveli‘ which is an ancestral property acquired by one of them after 100 years. They come across a stunning caretaker and fight amongst each other when it comes to scoring with her. Then they realize that she is actually a ghost who is waiting for 80 years to have someone step in with whom she can lose her virginity and gain ‘moksha‘. The ball is in the court of the three boys that who is willing to bow down to her wishes. Also, there are supernatural powers galore!

It is now time for some Great Grand Masti….

Riteish Deshmukh is happy to tattle down the interesting plotline of the third in the franchise right at the beginning of the conversation. Over to the actor who has had the best success rate, especially when it comes to the comic genre.

How much further Great and Grand is this Masti?
It is slightly different this time around as the concept is unique. We have stepped into the horror-naughty-comedy zone. The core plotline, as I just described, is such that naughtiness comes in. I guess it is the first ever horror comedy made in Bollywood, so that kind of ‘tadka’ is new. When Indra Kumar narrated the idea to me, I was quite excited about this core hook of a ghost lusting after the three men. In fact this was the prominent idea Indra Kumar had for the third Masti in the franchise and there was nothing else discussed. The hook point here is the story. We are not relying on gags to make people laugh.
 

Naughty jokes are still on, right?
That’s for sure. You can’t have a Masti which is not being naughty; it has to be there. Yes, zyaada objectionable naa ho, that has been care of in the writing. We knew that there are some elements that we have avoided. We have a funny film and have a reputation to live up to since Grand Masti was the only adult comedy genre to cross the 100 crore milestone. That said, you can’t reach such benchmarks just on the strength of youth; there has to be huge amount of patronage from family audience. I know a lot of ladies who have formed a group of 50 to watch this franchise. You won’t squirm in your seats.
 

Some of the recent adult comedies did make one…
With due respect, I am not comparing our film to that of others. I feel the core strength of our film is the character and the situations. They are strong and made enjoyable for the audience.
 

Still, there was some compromise that had to be made with the Censors, isn’t it?
Not really. We were very happy with the fun element that we have managed to retain. The cuts that we offered to the Tribunal were voluntary. We were happy parting with them, so no worries (smiles).
 

When it comes to such content, guess Indra Kumar stays on to be the youngest-director-at-heart around, isn’t it?
(Laughs) And to think of it, he is the oldest in age in the 100 Crore Club! Also, in terms of ROI too, Grand Masti was perhaps the hugest. It was made for 17-18 crore and look at where it landed.
 

The franchise has also ensured that you, Vivek Oberoi and Aftab Shivdasani continue to have Masti.
In the third part here, you would see the best of our chemistry. We are so much in synch with each other.
 

On the other hand Urvashi Rautela, a relative newbie, appears stunning in the film.
She is an extremely confident girl. Hers is a very complex character to play where the entire comedy zone is on-your-face. It is also very aggressive as it is a mix of physical, slapstick and spoken comedy. On the top of it, this is also naughty genre. It a role which is so important and yet she had played it with great confidence. She has held herself really well. If she wouldn’t have managed to do that, the film would have fallen flat.