Subhash Ghai Announces His Sabbatical

Bollywood's veteran "Showman" is stepping away. Subhash Ghai announced at the International Film Festival of India in Goa that he will take a one-year sabbatical from showbiz to recharge — and return to direction afterward, possibly launching a newcomer.

"When I return I will direct a Hindi film. I may start the movie with a newcomer," Ghai told reporters on the IFFI sidelines.

The filmmaker, who built the production house Mukta Arts, was in Goa with the Bengali film Nauka Dubi — Rituparno Ghosh's adaptation of the Rabindranath Tagore novel, backed by Ghai's banner.

The break follows a difficult chapter. Ghai directed some of Hindi cinema's biggest hits — Hero, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar — but his last directorial outing, the 2008 Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer Yuvvraaj, failed both critically and commercially. The sabbatical, by his own framing, is a reset before a fresh beginning.