Rakesh Upadhyay is a multi-faceted personality

Rakesh Upadhyay is a multi-faceted personality. The creative-producer of the recently released blockbuster Khiladi 786 and business partner to singing sensation and music director-cum-producer Himesh Reshammiya, Rakesh has had a long and successful history with Bollywood. In a chat, he talks about his work in Punjabi cinema and future projects

What are you working on currently?
As of now, I'm a business partner with Sunny Siddhu in Canada-based White Hill Productions which is based in Vancouver. We are a known line production and distribution network in North America. We've already completed the production of two Punjabi films Best of Luck starring Gippy Garewal, Jazzy B and Simran Kaur Mundi and Jaat and Juliet Part 2 starring Diljit Dosanj and Neeru Bajwa.

So you're concentrating only on Punjabi cinema?
The production house is now in the process of starting multiple Punjabi films and will soon enter Hindi cinema as well. To top it all, a distribution network is in the offing in London, Australia, Sydney and Dubai. Apart from these, I'm also working busy with Himesh's much-anticipated international album, which will have 15 English numbers and the video will be shot by none other than Roman White who has been a regular video director of Justin Bieber. The album will kick off with the first video being shot in USA very soon.

And you're also involved in production work...
I've been the executive director on board for Baba Arts Limited for the past two years now. In my tenure, we successfully did two films - Life Mai Kabhi Kabhi directed by Vikram Bhatt and My Friend Ganesha. I've also been the creative producer for films like Society which is produced by Smita Thackrey and directed by Rahul Dholakia (who earlier won the National Award for Parzania) and Haule Haule Ho Jayega Pyaar. Apart from these, I've acted in films like De Dana Dhan, and Mumbai Cutting. I even sang a song titled Phir Hera Pheri for Akshay Kumar.