Award at New York fest inspires Suniel Shetty

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MUMBAI - Bollywood producer-actor Suniel Shetty is elated at winning the best actor award at the South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF) in New York for his performance in “Red Alert - The War Within” - a movie that deals with the Maoists - and says he is inspired to do better work.

“Winning an award at such a big film festival is a big high for me as an actor. Now I really want to do good films and work harder and better. The film is on Naxalites (Maoists)…,” Suniel told IANS.

“I am very happy because it had also won the critics award at the Stuttgart Film Festival in Germany,” he said.

Directed by Anant Mahadevan, “Red Alert - The War Within” also stars Vinod Khanna, Ashish Vidyarthi and Sameera Reddy. The film is yet to release commercially in India.

Suniel, who excels in action flicks and comedies as well, says he has always been keen to do serious cinema.

“I am always inclined to do this kind of films. My film ‘Hu Tu Tu’ was one of this type.”

The actor started his career with the 1992 movie “Balwaan”. In the last 17 years, he has featured in over 100 films and experimented with different genres, but a few could do good business at the box office and none of them could get him any awards except Dharmesh Darshan’s “Dhadkan” in 2000.

He won the Filmfare Award for the best villain for the triangular love story that also starred Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty.

Asked if the Indian film industry has failed to recognise his talent, he said: “I have no complaints about the Indian film industry because if it had not recognised my talent, it would have been impossible for me to sustain for so long.”

Suniel’s next is “De Dana Dan”, which is set to release Nov 27. Directed by Priyadarshan, the comedy also stars Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal, Neha Dhupia and Sameera Reddy.

Talking about the film, he said: “It’s an out-and-out comedy. In the film, we had to shoot under water which was again an experience of its kind.”