subject: Sohail Maklai - Bollywood Producer [print this page] Maklai started off his production career in 1993. His first co production venture was Bharat Rangachary action film Waqt Mahara Hai (1993). The film starred Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Ayesha Jhulka and Mamta Kulkarni in lead roles.
The film also starred Rami Reddy, Aruna Irani and Anupam Kher. The film told a story of two friends who are in love with two sisters and wish to marry them. When the father of the girls, who wants a well settled son in laws, does not agree of this relation, the foursomes plan a fake kidnapping of the girls.
The plot goes haywire when the girls are actually kidnapped by international terrorists. Due to the action genre of the film, it was a huge hit with the masses and did good business at the box office. Andolan (1995) was Maklai next co production.
It was a comedy film starring Sanjay Dutt, Divya Bharti, Somy Ali and Ishrat Ali. The film was directed by Aziz Sejawal and written by Anees Bazmee. It was a story of two brothers studying in same college and living a happy life. But on one day, they are thrown out of college because of a mischief played by one of them and have to face a career choice, and choose different paths.
Andolan (1995) was acclaimed by critics, and also received average response from the audience. Maklai took a deviation from his usual genre of action films in 1997, and produced Aur Pyar Ho Gaya (1997) which was a romantic film.
Directed by Rahul Rawail, the film starred Aishwarya Rai and Bobby Deol along with Anupam Kher, Shammi Kapoor and Beena Banerjee. The film was a typical romantic musical, with two wealthy families coming together for an arranged marriage. The film was a debut film for Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai. The film was an average earner.
Rudraksh (2004) was a supernatural thriller directed by Mani Shankar and produced by Maklai. The film starred Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Suniel Shetty and Eesha Koppikhar. With its screenplay based heavily on Ramayan, the film revolved around a Rudraksh which carries the powers that can transmute humans into new species.
Rudraksh (2004) received poor reviews from the critics and got bombed at the box office. Despite the failure, the special effects and stunts were praised.
Dus (2005) was a multi starrer action film produced by Maklai. Directed by Anuhav Sinha, the film starred Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan, Sunil Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, Esha Deol and Shekhar Kapur. The plot of the film was based on a terrorist attack going to happen 10th May and a team of Anti Terrorist Cell agents investigating the suspects. The film was full of stunts, action and chase sequences. The film was well received in its first week in India and abroad but later ended up as a moderate earner.
Recently, Maklai produced another action thriller Knock Out (2010). The film starred Sanajy Dutt, Irrfan Khan and Kangana Ranaut and was directed by Mani Shankar. The film was largely inspired by Hollywood film Phone Booth. It revolved around a corrupt politician who is trapped by a sniper gun man in a phone booth.
The gun man demands that the politician must reveal all his frauds to the community who has elected him as their leader. A young journalist gets involved in the scene as she covers the story and tries to find out the location of the gun man by herself. knock out (2010) received moderate reviews from the critics, and is successfully running in the cinema halls.
