When Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty spoke about Bollywood's class divide

Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty are one of the most successful actor-director duos in Hindi cinema. Out of Rohit Shetty's 14 films, 12 starred Ajay. These include all four movies from the comedy series 'Golmaal' and the four films in the cop universe, starting with 'Singham' in 2011 and going up to 'Sooryavanshi' in 2021.In 2014, before the release of Singham Returns, Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty spoke about the class divide in the Hindi film industry during a promotional interview with Film Companion. They referred to a message Ajay had sent to Rohit back in 2011 on Karan Johar’s chat show Koffee With Karan, where he said:"I am so happy that people who abused your kind of movies want to work with you now", the actor and the filmmaker were asked if a class divide exists within Bollywood.The Tanhaji star, Ajay Devgn, said he personally hadn’t faced the issue but had heard people call Golmaal “trash cinema.” He pointed out the irony that those same people later approached Rohit Shetty to direct films for them, realizing that they needed such so-called “trash cinema” to stay relevant in the industry.Rohit Shetty, who also hosts the popular reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi, said he has no ego or arrogance about his work and believes he’s simply making films for his audience. He shared that many people have now come around, saying he's not doing anything wrong or harmful. Referring to the earlier criticism from the elite crowd, Rohit humorously compared himself to Amitabh Bachchan’s “bad guy” character from Deewar (1975), calling the critics Nirupa Roy and the elite Shashi Kapoor. He concluded by saying he’s happy being Amitabh—the so-called bad guy—at the end of the day.In November last year, Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi revived the Indian box office, earning nearly ₹200 crores after theatres reopened nationwide following a two-year Covid-19 lockdown. Rohit and Ajay have also hinted at the next film in their cop universe, Singham 3, though an official announcement is still awaited.