Rohit 'Singham' Shetty

The Shettys from Mangalore, South Canara, Karnataka are best known for their Udipi hotels best known for their ''rice plate'' which is a complete meal and the best meal for anyone earning the most meager income. It was while the other Shettys were busy with their business that a tall, hefty and completely bald Shetty whose full name was M. B Shetty made it as a fighter in Hindi films and was as popular as the stars of the time. He was best known for the most risky action scenes he performed and made some of the biggest stars perform. A film with Shetty, the bald villain was assured of success because the masses loved the action scenes he created for the stars and for himself. He ruled the industry as Masterji or Shetty Sahab for more than twenty years because he had a physique which could take any kind of battering but still be as strong as ever. However his reign came to an end when other fight masters who were inspired by him and even got trained by him became competition for him, a fact that did not go well for him as he believed that he could go on fighting till the end of time. His last days were not very good days. He should have lived today to see his son Rohit Shetty ruling the industry as one of the leading directors who has only known how to make hits and has proved to be the Masterji of hits with the recently released Singham Returns. Among the other big hits which have been hits because of his direction are Golmaal, Golmaal Returns, All The Best.. Fun Begins, Golmaal 3, Bol Bachchan, Singham, Chennai Express and  the biggest hit of his career and also one of the biggest hits in the history of Hindi films, Singham Returns. 

Rohit started his career at the age of seventeen as an assistant director with Kuku Kohli during the making of Phool Aur Kaante (Ajay Devgn's debut film that costarred Madhoo, the niece of Hema Malini). He then assisted Kuku Kohli in Ek Aur Kohinoor, which was never released. He also worked with Kohli in Suhaag (Ajay, Akshay Kumar, Karisma Kapoor), Haqeeqat (Ajay, Tabu) and Zulmi (Akshay, Twinkle Khanna).

He also assisted Anees Bazmee in Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, followed by Hindustan Ki Kasam and Raju Chacha.

Rohit directed his debut feature film, Zameen, as an independent director with Ajay in 2003 when he was just 30. Zameen was a flop at the box-office. He shot to fame after he directed the 2006 comedy, Golmaal: Fun Unlimited starring Ajay, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor andSharman Joshi.

In 2008, he directed his third film, Sunday starring Devgn, Warsi and Ayesha Takia.Sunday was a comic-thriller.  In the same year he directed a sequel to Golmaal, titled Golmaal Returns. The sequel featured most of the original cast, except Sharman Joshi, who was replaced by Shreyas Talpade, and starred Kareena Kapoor. In 2009, he released All the Best: Fun Begins. In 2010, Rohit directed Golmaal 3. Rohit's 2011 Singham also featured Ajay in the title role, as a Police Inspector fighting against corruption. Singham was praised for the action sequences and direction, and Ajay's performance. His next release, Bol Bachchan, was a comedy-drama starring Ajay and Abhishek Bachchan. Bol Bachchan was a commercial success.

Rohit's Chennai Express, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone was the highest-grossing film in the domestic market. The film earned over US$17.4 million to become the third-highest grossing Hindi film overseas. The film also set a number of box office records, for the highest opening-day gross, highest paid preview, highest single-day gross, biggest opening weekend, highest opening week and the fastest film to reach 100 crore and 200 crore in the domestic market.

He is now planning the biggest film of his career till now. He will produce the original Ram Lakhan directed by Subhash Ghai in 80's and will besides producing it direct it  for Karan Johar and Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts. This one film when made will undoubtedly make him one of the most successful directors, a reality his father Shetty, the fighter should have been alive to see.