Businessman Raj Kundra, who tasted the wrath of the system after his name being dragged in the pornographic scam. Debutant filmmaker Shahnawaz Ali brings out Raj’s life journey in his film titled UT 69 that released on Nov 3, 2023. In an exclusive interview with The Free Press Journal, Raj and Shahnawaz talk about the need for telling the reality through a feature film and more. Excerpts:
How did you react when media trolled you badly?
Sadly, media had to make headlines, good, bad and ugly for numbers. Unfortunately, media doesn’t realise that everything comes at a price. I have seen people committing suicide just because they read or heard something, perhaps they might not be strong internally. Media pulled me to an extent that when I was inside the jail, at times I felt to give up on everything.
Go on…
I feel being in the industry, no one really cares or stands by each other in adverse circumstances. But, I knew my family and well wishers were with me. They all knew the reality. I had faith in the judiciary but I was upset that my actress wife Shilpa was also targeted since we both are married. It was just like a collateral damage. It all made me feel that I was the biggest criminal. Media failed to understand that Arthur Jail is just the detention centre. Being there doesn’t proof anyone guilty.
How did your wife Shilpa Shetty Kundra react to your trial?
She called me up in the jail and told me to be strong. She told me that we will sail through this bitter time together. I was broken but her advice helped me a lot. By the kind of treatment I was given by everyone, I felt that I committed a murder or something.
What was your fixation with the masks?
It was nothing really until it became a thing. Earlier, I used to wear simple ones but later I experimented with the cooler one. By then I even discovered the project so I started playing with my masks. It was funny that trollers couldn’t imagined that why I was wearing those colourful masks. If I would have wore them to feel ashamed, I would not experimented with them (laughs).
Elaborate further.
In our house, Shilpa is a star, I am just a regular businessman and had no identity so the mask was my star. But to act in the film, Shahnawaz convinced me a lot since I thought he would cast a newcomer to portray my life story.
Director Shahnawaz Ali “I knew Raj before all of this happened and we were working on some other project. He wanted to produce a comedy which I was directing before the fiasco. When he came out of the jail, he wanted to author a book and he shared entire experience with me. I thought why not make a film and I was sure that UT 69 was way better idea than the comedy we were working on. Raj was taken aback that I wanted to make a feature on his pain.”
Shahnawaz Ali |
