Filmmaker Rahul Rawail back after long hiatus with new film

Mumbai, Aug 5 (UNI) Filmmaker Rahul Rawail, known for his action and romantic flicks like 'Betaab' and 'Arjun', is back after a long hiatus with 'Buddha Mar Gaya', a black comedy that releases on August 17.

The film produced and directed by Rahul Rawail stars Anupam Kher, Paresh Rawal and Om Puri among others.

His last directorial venture was Sunny Deol's 'Jo bole So Nihal' a few years ago which was embroiled in a controversy and had to be pulled out of theatres.

Talking to reporters here yesterday, Rahul said even though he is more associated with action and romantic films, he had begun his career with a comedy called 'Biwi O Biwi' in which he directed Randhir Kapoor and Poonam Dhillon.

'''Buddha...' is a good story and I felt that it needed to be told,'' Rahul said and added that the film is about how people disregard death.

Speaking about casting Paresh, Om Puri and Anupam together, Rahul said he wanted to get good actors together on screen. Rakhi Sawant, who also playing an important role in the film has essayed her part well, he said.

Anupam plays the dead man whose character is called L K.

Anupam said playing a dead man has been the most difficult role of his career. ''I had to give the same expression -- eyes wide open and smile on the face. My character L K dies in the first five minutes of the film and after that I enact the role of the dead man. My greedy family hides the death for their selfish reasons,'' he said.

Rahul said, ''L K, the character played by Anupam, is one of India's richest industrialists. A self-made man who has risen from selling scrap to become a construction magnate. His conglomerate is on the verge of a Rs 5,000 crore IPO that should make them one of the largest companies in the country. L K's family is immersed in the thought of all that money.

Unfortunately for all of them, fate plays a wicked sense of humour. On the night before the IPO opens, L K dies when he is with a starlet who is aspiring to become the heroine of a film that L K was planning to produce. The family is distraught and horrified, not because of his death but because nobody will buy their shares. So, on the advice of their family guru, they decide to hide the death for two days till all the shares are sold out. Little do they realize the crazy series of events that will follow on account of this duplicity.

Anupam says, ''The audience will either love or hate this film.

The viewer will have to have a sense of humour to digest death.'' Rahul added, ''I would not say that the story makes fun of death. But it is about the people who make fun of death and disregard it because of their greed for money. That is why the film is a black comedy.'' UNI