Farhan Akhtar’s forthcoming boxing film ‘Toofaan’ is all geared up to release on July 16, 2021, on the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform.
Not many people may know of Farhan Akhtar’s immense admiration for Robert De Niro’s 1980 biographical sports film ‘Raging Bull’. The film was helmed by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese and was based on the life of Italian American middleweight boxer Jake Lamotta.
In one of his earlier interviews (via News18), Farhan Akhtar had said that ‘Raging Bull’ was one of the most influential films of his life, although he ostensibly took a while to discover the magnificent film. Incidentally, Farhan Akhtar considers Robert De Niro as his teacher.
The character-driven, black and white treatment of ‘Raging Bull’ impressed Farhan Akhtar and the more he watched the film, the more he discovered about the film. The symphony like the screenplay of the film along with De Niro’s spellbinding performance and the character’s physicality amazed him to the core.
There was something restrained in ‘Raging Bull’ movie that he appreciated, and a somewhat similar kind of style and storytelling technique is apparently reflected in Farhan Akhtar’s own ventures as they move at a certain pace.
‘Raging Bull’ was also an influencing factor for Farhan Akhtar which tremendously helped for his performance in the blockbuster biographical sports film ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, also helmed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The script of the film gave him the golden opportunity to act in a movie that belongs to the same genre bracket.
Praising Scorsese’s direction, he was mighty impressed with the subtle but effective camera movements reflecting the insecurities and fragility of the titular character, who is actually supposed to be an epitome of strength.
Moreover, he also loved the way the boxing matches were artistically choreographed. Farhan considers ‘Raging Bull’ a cinematic reference piece with reference to the way it’s edited, shot, and styled coupled with a complementing background score.
It seems that Farhan Akhtar’s immense love for ‘Raging Bull’ and its lead actor Robert De Niro has eventually culminated into the inception of an idea to attempt a film like ‘Toofaan’, perhaps as a kind of homage or in the honor of ‘Raging Bull’ and Robert De Nero.
Farhan Akhtar has reportedly worked out really hard to get into the film’s character and his physicality. Although Toofaan’s trailer has received mixed reviews, we earnestly believe that the film has the potential to take the online streaming world by storm.