'I saw death very closely in Luck'

One of the leading stars in Bhojpuri cinema, Ravi Kissen crossed over to Hindi movies after his stint in Bigg Boss. He will be seen in Soham Shah's Luck, also starring Sanjay Dutt, Imran Khan, Shruti Haasan, Mithun Chakraborty, Danny Denzongpa and Chitrashi Rawat.

He talks to Patcy N about how luck held during his journey from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, to Mumbai.

This is your second innings in Bollywood.

I came to Mumbai in 1990 to try my luck in films. But I did not get any success. My work was appreciated in Tere Naam but nothing happened. So I moved to Bhojpuri cinema. Now, I have got a chance to work in Bollywood again.

I did not think I would get to work in Luck and Mani Ratnam's Raavan. After Shyam Benegal's Welcome to Sajjanpur, I got another film with him, Abba Ka Kuan. I am not only getting to work with big filmmakers but am also getting better roles.

What do you think went wrong the first time?

When I came from my village, I was not very smart. I thought it was more important to survive. But if you sign one wrong film, you go back five years in life. Besides, I did not have a godfather or any help from anyone. So it's natural to make mistakes and fumble. But I have learnt because of this failure. My dreams are coming true now.

I have done 140 films in total -- 100 Bhojpuri and 40 Hindi films. Before I would work in 13-14 films a year but now I plan to do four to six films a year.

It Needed a Lot of Luck

Soham Shah's Luck is up for release soon. Going by the promos, one realizes that it is a movie which is high on action and thrills. But what is not really known is that most of the dare devil and death defying stunts in the movie were performed by the members of the cast themselves.

It seems that lead actor Imran Khan got his famous bushy eyebrows singed during an action sequence in the movie, which involved a burning train. For debutant Shruti Haasan, the action scene involved being in the water with live sharks, a fact which almost scared the life out of character actor Ravi Kissen, who also stars in the movie. He is also going to be seen soon in a prominent role in Mani Ratnam's Raavan. One will also see Chak De! girl Chitranshi Rawat in the movie. This young actress had to get over her fear of the water and the sharks during an action sequence in the movie. It seems that Luck was on their side and the stunts turned out well enough. Now it remains to be seen if their Luck will hold on and do wonders for the film at the box office.