‘Hoichoi Unlimited’: Everything you need to know about the comedy caper

He was a boxer in ‘Chaamp’, a pilot in ‘Cockpit’ and a terrorist in ‘Kabir’. Dev will now bring on the funny side with a ghar jamai avatar in his fourth home production ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’. His huge fan following has already made the comedy flick one of the most anticipated commercial potboilers this year. Ahead of its release on October12, here’s a look at some of the interesting facts related to the film.

It’s clash of the Titans at the Bengali Box Office this Puja. As many as 6 films are releasing this Friday. Among them one is Dev’s next ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ which faces a tough challenge from biggies like ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’, ‘Byomkesh Gowtro’ and ‘Kishore Kumar Junior’. However, a confident Aniket Chattopadhyay believes Dev has his own niche of fans and they will lap it up for sure.

“This film is pure entertainment and has all the masala elements. It’s a complete family movie and believe me I have watched it already; it will not disappoint the audience. We know what a crowd puller Dev is. So go and watch ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ for a laugh riot,” said the director.

He also claims there’s no such tension about the Box Office clash. “Frankly speaking, I was much more tensed during ‘Kabir’. Dev took a brave decision to make some experiments. We didn’t have any idea if people will accept it. That’s not the case with ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’. It’s pure comedy and a comfort zone for both me and Dev,” added Aniket Chattopadhyay.

Dev will play a ‘ghwar jamai’ to a rich industrialist and Kaushani Mukherjee will be seen as his wife who is busy with religious rituals and doesn’t give enough time to her husband. Kharaj Mukherjee is a promoter and he has two wives played by Manasi Sinha and Konineeca Banerjee. Kharaj’s character is having a tough time to maintain this secret. Saswata Chatterjee plays an unmarried middle aged man who is threatened by a lady don. Beside this, actor Arna Mukhopadhyay also plays a key role. All of them visit Uzbekistan for vacation and meet a beautiful guide played by Puja Banerjee. In Uzbekistan, their plane gets hijacked and the situation becomes worse for them. But some comic twists and turns ultimately saw them rescued by a mysterious man.

When it comes to giving razzmatazz around a Bengali movie release and taking the promotions to a whole new level, to a crescendo, it seems no one can beat actor turned producer Dev. He has become a pro in the game of film marketing and the brouhaha around His Puja release ‘Hoichoi unlimited’ has literally reached its zenith with every step he has taken to make the promotional events super successful. Starting from the flash mob during music launch, teasing fans with unique animated posters or the hilarious trailer – the comedy caper has created a lot of buzz.

Last year also he alleged that his film ‘Cockpit’ was taken out of the theatre even after raking good business. This year Dev is once again facing hall issues. During a recent media interaction the Tollywood heartthrob said: "A North Kolkata hall-owner simply informed me on my face he won't give me shows.” The entire fiasco has made the popular actor upset. However, he is all set to accept any challenge. "I also have to fight for the showtimes as well," he added. ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ faces a major Box Office clash this Puja with 5 more films are releasing on the same day. So, it will be quite difficult for him to get halls.

Recently, a video of Dev thrashing a young man went viral. While people were wondering why Dev beat the man, the actor called a press meet to clear out all the doubts. It was nothing but a strong message. "As soon as we released the video, everyone started to ask why Dev is beating the person. Nobody was interested to find out the truth behind what they are watching. This is what social media does to us. People blindly believe what they see there," he said. It’s a unique initiative from Dev to make people aware against spreading fake news.

The censor board had some objections for the use of the word ‘Uttar Pradesh’ in the film and they suggested omitting the particular word from the film. Obviously this hasn’t gone well with ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ director Aniket Chattopadhyay as he says there are no such dialogues that hurt the sentiment of Uttar Pradesh. There is only one scene where one character says something about the moral police and the other character in reply says it’s in Uttar Pradesh. While Aniket is furious with censor board’s decision, producer Dev has agreed to mute the word ‘Uttar Pradesh’ in his film.

Recently a renowned journalist was questioned by the Kolkata Police for tweeting that Dev’s ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ has been copied from a Pakistani film. It all started after the teaser of the film, directed by Aniket Chattopadhyay, was released in August. ‘Jawaani Phir Nahi Ani’, directed by Nadeem Baig, happens to be the third-highest-grossing Pakistani film ever. It’s the story of a divorce lawyer taking his three married friends to a trip in Bangkok to help them escape their wives. After watching the teaser many alleged that some of the sequences have similarity with the Pakistani film. However, Dev has quashed all the rumours.