Big Scoops On Aamir, Juhi, Karisma,And Mahesh Bhatt: Director Dharmesh Darshan Reveals Insights

last year

In an exclusive interview with Lehren Retro, director Dharmesh Darshan, renowned for his work in films like "Dhadkan," "Lootere," "Mela," "Haan Maine Bhi Pyar Kiya," "Bewafaa," "Aap Ki Khatir," and the iconic "Raja Hindustani," shares captivating insights about these cinematic gems. He also delves into his experiences working alongside Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla, Karisma Kapoor, and his association with Mahesh Bhatt, in a candid discussion with veteran journalist Bharathi S Pradhan. Explore the fascinating creative process and the untold behind-the-scenes tales that brought these timeless classics to life.

Transcript

00:00:00 No, you sometimes just trick to be extreme where you make them cry.

00:00:03 No, no, no.

00:00:04 I make them cry in the shots where I cry too.

00:00:06 I never abuse my heroines.

00:00:08 I never…

00:00:09 I have heard this.

00:00:10 No, no, no.

00:00:11 I cry, you make Karishma cry, you make Shilpa cry.

00:00:15 They cry.

00:00:16 You know, she turned to me and she said, but you are not Suraj Barsad.

00:00:21 Oh, okay.

00:00:22 So, something came up to me because I am a big icon.

00:00:24 I said, no, no, you are not Madhuri Dixit.

00:00:27 I feel so bad.

00:00:28 I had two opportunities, I was supposed to work with Shah Rukh Khan and I couldn't commit

00:00:34 myself.

00:00:35 My loss.

00:00:36 Totally.

00:00:37 Don't you need to say that this entire story of Maheshwar being illegitimate and that his

00:00:43 father and mother never got married.

00:00:44 This is his viewpoint, except he should have been more responsible for it.

00:00:48 But we have three sisters who are married into traditional homes and have children.

00:00:55 What rubbish are you making?

00:00:57 Every card of every daughter had Mr. and Mrs. Nanabai Bhatt inviting you for the Kanyadaan.

00:01:02 Every Kanyadaan my grandfather has done.

00:01:05 That poor man was, what was he flocked for?

00:01:10 Toy, I am so happy to be meeting in this lovely bungalow.

00:01:19 It's so nostalgic for me.

00:01:20 I mean, this is your parents' bungalow.

00:01:23 Smack in the heart of the Hindi film industry, Bali Hill.

00:01:28 This is where I've met your parents.

00:01:30 This is where I've seen you.

00:01:32 And this is where you wrote your Raja Hindustani, your Lutere, all your films.

00:01:37 Dhadkan.

00:01:38 Dhadkan, all your films.

00:01:39 Aapka naam Mahesh Darshan hai, lekin maine zindagi par aapko Toy hi bulaiye.

00:01:44 So I'm going to call you Toy right through the interview because I can't call you anything

00:01:48 else.

00:01:49 Please Toy hi bulaiye.

00:01:50 Toy is your pet name, isn't it?

00:01:51 Pet name, yeah.

00:01:52 I don't know why, but I've been calling you Toy ever since I met you.

00:01:55 There's so much dramatic difference between Toy and Dharmesh Darshan.

00:01:59 So when I became a director for some time, I said if everyone calls me Toy, I'm not going

00:02:06 to be taken seriously.

00:02:09 And Dharmesh Darshan is the other end of the spectrum.

00:02:12 It's called heaviness.

00:02:13 I remember, you know, Saida ji who just passed away, my friend Saaki Belam's mother.

00:02:21 She said, Dharmesh, is this your real name?

00:02:24 It sounds like you made a name for cinema, Dharmesh Darshan.

00:02:28 I mean, it's got a bhajan about it.

00:02:31 I said, no, it's really my name.

00:02:33 Actually, my name Bharti is Dharmesh Darshan Diwan Sabarwal.

00:02:39 Oh, oh, oh, oh, lekin Dharmesh Darshan Sabarwal.

00:02:43 My father was Darshan Sabarwal.

00:02:45 But my mother was Sheila Darshan.

00:02:49 And so I'm Dharmesh Darshan.

00:02:50 She loved my father so much that she wanted to call her Sheila Darshan.

00:02:57 As one.

00:02:58 Yeah.

00:02:59 So then that became the trend.

00:03:00 But lately I noticed you added a Sheila to your name.

00:03:04 Your Dharmesh Sheila Darshan.

00:03:07 That's definitely.

00:03:08 Like Leela Bansali.

00:03:09 That's definitely because of Sanjay Leela Bansali.

00:03:12 You know, now that it's a decade or more since she's passed away.

00:03:17 Right.

00:03:18 And you know well how.

00:03:19 Well, how my mother was.

00:03:21 If anyone knows, you know.

00:03:23 And grief is a very personal matter.

00:03:27 And I gave up everything because I lost both my parents one after the other.

00:03:32 And I'm single, as you know.

00:03:34 So it was like I shot death scenes, you know.

00:03:38 Sharna Teck was death scene in Dhadkam.

00:03:40 Itnousrat Fateh Ali Kha doing all that.

00:03:44 But I was never prepared to for the real.

00:03:49 For the grief that hits in when it's your own.

00:03:51 Shook my foundation and took me almost a decade.

00:03:57 To come out.

00:03:58 To come out of it.

00:03:59 So when I came out of it just now, post COVID also when I felt the world survived, I feel

00:04:04 for me being Dharmesh, Sheila, Darshan.

00:04:07 So Dharmesh is me, Sheila's mom and Darshanji is dad.

00:04:11 Dad.

00:04:12 So I felt let me be this.

00:04:15 And since this time in life, if I'm returning and reinventing, hopefully, let me do different

00:04:26 things with, let me try out Dharmesh, Sheila, Darshan.

00:04:29 Now Sanjay Leela Bansali completely skipped my mind.

00:04:32 Until people started telling me, is it Dharmesh?

00:04:34 Inspired by.

00:04:35 Inspired by.

00:04:36 I said no, no, no, because he's my colleague and immediate contemporary.

00:04:40 But even if it's so, he's a super hit maker.

00:04:42 So why not?

00:04:43 You know, your film Raja Hindustani, it's still up there in the top 10.

00:04:50 It's I mean, it's there with DDLJ, with Sholay, with Gaddar, with Bahubali.

00:04:57 Mughal-e-Azam.

00:04:58 Mughal-e-Azam.

00:04:59 And of course, with Hum Aapke Hai Kaun.

00:05:02 I mean, all these films which have been blockbusters.

00:05:06 It's right up there to this day.

00:05:08 That was in 1996.

00:05:10 Yeah, end of 96.

00:05:13 It has five release dates.

00:05:14 Okay.

00:05:15 Can you believe it?

00:05:17 That's the only film in history of cinema, which has released on five dates all over

00:05:22 the country and the world.

00:05:24 How come?

00:05:25 15th Friday was supposedly released.

00:05:28 Okay.

00:05:29 Release date.

00:05:30 Fridays ko film lagti hai.

00:05:31 And because of the enormity of the craze, which surprised me completely, though it

00:05:38 was one more important film of the year.

00:05:40 It was not an event film, you know.

00:05:43 It was one important film.

00:05:44 It was important because I was in the second film after the hit Lootere.

00:05:49 And Aamir Khan, very select actor, though he had he became really huge post Raja Hindustani

00:05:54 if I'm allowed to say.

00:05:56 That was his first.

00:05:57 And he told me that, you know, Dharmesh, I started working in 88.

00:06:01 This is almost 97.

00:06:02 25 films I've done.

00:06:05 The business of 25 films together is double of that is Raja.

00:06:09 Double of that.

00:06:10 When he's done Dil.

00:06:11 So if he did 100, this was 200.

00:06:15 No, it was 25 films ka business.

00:06:18 Meaning all of them together.

00:06:20 If they were 100, this became 250.

00:06:25 I can imagine.

00:06:26 Because he told me before, you know, because I was always scared, you know, the kind of

00:06:30 filmmaker I'm like, I don't tom tom my film, you know, I always say, let the Friday happen.

00:06:38 Let the first show happen.

00:06:39 I'm not a filmmaker, Bharti, whoever feels.

00:06:43 I've heard filmmakers say, my film was great.

00:06:46 The audience let me down.

00:06:48 I don't feel believe the audience lets you down.

00:06:50 Though we are very dependent on audience mood.

00:06:53 A filmmaker lets down the audience finally.

00:06:56 You have to take the, you can't have that.

00:07:00 You have to take, like you take the bouquets, you have to take the big bags.

00:07:04 And when you reach that kind of achievement, it's very painful because filmmaker goes in

00:07:09 Bollywood from GOD to DOG, DOG to GOD.

00:07:13 With an OG in between.

00:07:18 But it's a fact you have to just come to terms.

00:07:21 So when coming back to that 11th, it released on Monday in some places.

00:07:26 Exhibitors, distributors demanded, please bring it on Monday.

00:07:31 Then Monday it became such a craze that they said more cinemas on Tuesday.

00:07:38 Then like films like Hum Aapke Kwon had released in one theater, you know, monitored.

00:07:44 And here I feel very proud about because my immediately predecessors were predecessors,

00:07:49 if I'm pronouncing it correctly, were Suraj ji and Aditya.

00:07:55 In 94 came Hum Aapke Hai Kwon, then my close friend Aditya Chopra's Dilwale Dulhane Nahi

00:08:02 Hai in 96.

00:08:03 Now that is Rajshree monitoring the release.

00:08:06 You know, Yash uncle monitoring the release.

00:08:09 This is, I'm not the producer director, you know, I don't have a parent or someone monitoring.

00:08:15 You release it nicely enough.

00:08:17 So that became the real achievement.

00:08:20 Then Wednesday it went into more and then Thursday.

00:08:24 So what was the reason that there was this kind of craze for it before it was released?

00:08:30 Like you said, it was just a big film with Aamir Khan in it.

00:08:34 As they said, great music, great music, Nadeem Shahwan were at their height, at their peak.

00:08:39 But don't forget Nadeem Shahwan, great.

00:08:42 But they used to do 20 films a year.

00:08:44 They were not doing like Rehman, one film or something.

00:08:48 So why did all those films also not?

00:08:51 So it was the soul of Raja Hindustani, Ramesh Torani's extraordinary tips marketing.

00:08:56 Let's give the credit where it's due.

00:08:58 The trailers I had cut well, I felt, you know, and they're very simple trailers.

00:09:03 But you know, I always feel happy with Raja Hindustani.

00:09:06 It's deceptively a simple film.

00:09:08 There's a huge difference Bharti between being simple and being ordinary.

00:09:15 I'm a fan of some senior actors who have grown up after, let's say, Mootanji.

00:09:22 I find her very simple, but she's extraordinary.

00:09:27 To be simple and to register in popular cinema is very difficult.

00:09:31 You know, you end to be bombastic tendency.

00:09:34 But even Aamir Khan has a simplicity to him.

00:09:39 There is a simplicity to him.

00:09:40 He doesn't enter with all that.

00:09:42 He doesn't come with the band play, you know.

00:09:46 So that I liked.

00:09:47 Not that stars who have that charisma are not it.

00:09:51 That's a different thing.

00:09:52 I've worked with them also.

00:09:54 But I relate to that underdog simplicity.

00:09:58 Not underdog, understated.

00:10:01 Understated.

00:10:02 Though not necessary, my films have been understated, you know.

00:10:06 But then to film is a tightrope walk.

00:10:11 I feel that Bollywood or Hindi Indian cinema's audience is the toughest audience in the world.

00:10:20 Because I feel our audiences are so dramatically, dramatically different on political, social,

00:10:27 economic, linguistic, cultural.

00:10:30 I mean, we are catering from London to Ludhiana.

00:10:35 Then and more so today.

00:10:37 From Jalgaon, Jalandhar to Chicago.

00:10:40 To Jaipur.

00:10:41 To Jaipur.

00:10:42 And I'm a filmmaker, I was a distributor, so I distributed 500 films.

00:10:47 So I never ignored, no place was small or big for me.

00:10:51 My audience everywhere was important.

00:10:54 I respected my audience.

00:10:56 Whether that's my music.

00:10:58 At the same time, I didn't make banana peel films.

00:11:01 Sleeping on the banana peel.

00:11:03 So that becomes a little, with all the challenges.

00:11:06 But you asked that what was the reason.

00:11:10 I genuinely when I look back, at every film, I did only 7 films of the 70 offered to me

00:11:16 or even more.

00:11:17 I say that humbly.

00:11:18 Rightly or wrongly, I just chose.

00:11:20 You're saying you were offered about 70 films or more of which you did only 7 in your career.

00:11:26 In an 18 year old career.

00:11:29 I gave away and I'm not the producer.

00:11:31 And that time there was no share profit.

00:11:34 I took big prize.

00:11:35 I gave away 3 years of mine to every film.

00:11:39 One day my father who was a businessman was so angry with me.

00:11:44 He says are you aware that the producers, the actors and they all cash this.

00:11:51 The producer has the rights of it forever.

00:11:53 I've been a producer my father said.

00:11:55 You are an employee.

00:11:56 You may be taking the biggest money.

00:11:58 Like everyone gives this much amount of time.

00:12:01 Even you say this is my time.

00:12:03 I'll extend it 25%.

00:12:04 You're giving 200%.

00:12:05 But for me it was important.

00:12:09 There I think I was a fan of the music director Madan Mohan.

00:12:15 He used to do, I studied him.

00:12:17 It was before my time.

00:12:19 He did very few films.

00:12:22 But the few films he did.

00:12:24 My God they just stood out.

00:12:26 They stood the test of time.

00:12:27 Yes, yes.

00:12:28 Mera Saya.

00:12:29 Mera Saya, Wo Kaun Thi.

00:12:33 You know.

00:12:34 Absolutely.

00:12:35 Chirag, Aaj Khosla Ji.

00:12:36 You know.

00:12:37 And how many brilliant films.

00:12:39 Haste Zakh.

00:12:40 All these films.

00:12:41 I studied them.

00:12:42 Even Bayana Dharu.

00:12:43 Laila Majnu.

00:12:44 Even that one.

00:12:45 That's Dastak.

00:12:46 Yes, Dastak.

00:12:47 Even that one.

00:12:48 Isn't it?

00:12:49 Bayana Dharu.

00:12:50 Awesome.

00:12:51 Fabulous.

00:12:52 Bayana Dharu, Oh Balma, Na Karo Moseya.

00:12:54 Beautiful.

00:12:55 Lovely.

00:12:56 Isn't there a lovely song in that film?

00:12:57 Tumse Kaho Ek Baan Bhulo Se.

00:12:58 Yes.

00:12:59 Halki, Halki.

00:13:00 Also a very good song which reflects every film celebrity's life.

00:13:03 Majrooh Sahib I think wrote it.

00:13:06 Hum Hai Matai Kucha Ho.

00:13:09 Hum Hai Matai Kucha Ho.

00:13:12 Hum Hai Matai Kucha Ho.

00:13:15 Hum Hai Matai Kucha Ho.

00:13:18 Hum Hai Matai Kucha Ho.

00:13:22 Hum Hai Matai Kucha Ho.

00:13:26 Bazaar Ki Tarah.

00:13:29 Uth Tiye Har Nigaha Haridar Ki Tarah.

00:13:33 Uth Tiye Har Nigaha Haridar Ki Tarah.

00:13:42 And Bombay, I didn't know it was so lovely song.

00:13:45 Lovely song.

00:13:46 I was so fascinated by the songs in it, what these artists were, no?

00:13:49 I missed their generation.

00:13:51 So you said you were inspired by people like Madan Mohan whose work you had studied.

00:13:56 Yes, I studied.

00:13:57 And all music director's work I studied.

00:13:59 But the pattern of work I wanted to do selectively, though I am a director, but music being my

00:14:04 passion.

00:14:05 Every director makes a film, chooses to do a film because he identifies with something.

00:14:12 Though I made all kinds of films.

00:14:15 He connects with the violence of the film or he connects with the anti-establishment

00:14:19 of the film or he connects even with the sexuality of the film or he connects with the ostracization,

00:14:28 outrage or he connects with the romance.

00:14:32 I connect with the music, with all these elements.

00:14:35 Even with the aggression I connect with the music.

00:14:37 Even in Lotte Re which is an action drama actually you had a…

00:14:40 I had bought music.

00:14:41 You had good music.

00:14:42 Anand Milind.

00:14:43 You wrote the lyrics of the music.

00:14:44 Yes, very few people know that.

00:14:45 And I gave…

00:14:46 Which song was that?

00:14:47 Tu meri raani, tu meri raani, tu meri raani, tu raja mera.

00:14:58 And my first song was sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

00:15:01 Wow.

00:15:02 I was just 24 years old, first film.

00:15:04 This is Nutte Re, 1993.

00:15:06 Ae saavan baras zara, ae baadal baraj zara.

00:15:13 Then a version of Anand Milind.

00:15:16 Anand Milind.

00:15:17 And Manoj Kumar ji who was a very close…

00:15:19 He wrote one of the songs for you.

00:15:20 He wrote two songs as a gift for me.

00:15:22 He had seen me as a toy.

00:15:23 Okay.

00:15:24 And my mother was his rakhi sister for 30-40 years.

00:15:27 And my father was his distributor of all his films.

00:15:30 Toh he saamne se wrote O Lotte Re, O Lotte Re.

00:15:34 Didn't charge a penny.

00:15:35 Really?

00:15:36 Can you imagine the graciousness of that man?

00:15:38 Okay.

00:15:39 Mujhe le chal mandar, he wrote.

00:15:42 It's very ahead of its time.

00:15:44 Today the environment like that with Ayodhya and all.

00:15:46 That's right.

00:15:47 And he's written it not like Prem samandar man ke andar, O mere saajan, mujhe le chal mandar.

00:15:53 I was hypnotized with all that, you know.

00:15:56 I was fascinated.

00:15:57 It must have been such a high you were on actually.

00:16:00 Yeah, the creativity was…

00:16:01 Completely.

00:16:02 Coming back to Raja Hindustani, Lotte Re of course was a hit, it was your debut film,

00:16:07 you were only 24 years old and you came into Raja Hindustani.

00:16:11 How much was the presence of Aamir Khan, how much did that contribute to the success etc?

00:16:21 Tremendously.

00:16:22 Just like he disturbed Mela, he helped create Raja Hindustani.

00:16:27 So I'll be honest here.

00:16:28 Okay.

00:16:29 Just like your sari, black and white, no greys or bold.

00:16:32 All right.

00:16:33 The beautiful one you're wearing.

00:16:34 Thank you.

00:16:35 Aamir was my childhood friend again.

00:16:40 We both live in Pali Hill.

00:16:42 Sir, Pali Hill.

00:16:43 Pali Hill Brats.

00:16:44 Members of Time Pass gang.

00:16:46 Another friend of mine, Keval, you know, who was a connect.

00:16:51 And Aamir was also in Bombay Scottish, from where I am, same age was.

00:16:57 And though I didn't do Lotte Re with him, you know, when I met him and he was as keen

00:17:03 as I was to work with him and I have this huge star called Sunny Deol behind me.

00:17:10 And Aamir was big but had not reached heartland of India by then, in spite of 10 years.

00:17:16 Much respect to him, which he became with time, you know.

00:17:20 Shah Rukh had come recently, he had become Salman and become for some reason Aamir had

00:17:24 not gone, he was more elitist, you know, select, you know what I mean, Mumbai city, Delhi

00:17:30 city, Bangalore city.

00:17:32 So, I told him, you know, you're Naseer Hussain's son, grandson, you know, and your father

00:17:37 made nephew, sorry, I'm so sorry, nephew and your father made a caravan.

00:17:43 So, you have no business ignoring, you know, caravan ran from China to Chandigarh to, you

00:17:49 know what I mean to say.

00:17:50 To Chennai.

00:17:51 I reminded him, Yadoghi bara, Churali and all.

00:17:53 So, Aamir, come on man, you know, I'm also wanting to do that, you know.

00:17:58 But I asked him one thing and I give him credit that he answered me for that.

00:18:03 You know, I can be very soft but very forthright.

00:18:06 So, when I met him for the film, Murani said, let's both of you make a film, Sine Yug and

00:18:12 Bunty Surma who passed away.

00:18:13 I must take his name.

00:18:15 He was also, Karim Ali and Bunty Surma, you know, he passed away very sadly.

00:18:20 I'm still very good friends with his wife Neelam.

00:18:22 Yeah, I'm still friends with her.

00:18:23 Beautiful, Julia Roberts.

00:18:25 Yeah, absolutely.

00:18:27 And when they fixed a meeting, I said meeting producer fix karenge, chahe I'm dos ki now.

00:18:34 So, I told him, Aamir, how many directors will be there in this film?

00:18:40 He looked at me like that.

00:18:42 I said because I believe people say, but I'm concerned, it may not, people don't necessarily

00:18:46 do the right thing.

00:18:47 Everyone has their own experience.

00:18:49 So, he said, of course, Dharmesh, there will be one director.

00:18:53 I have learned that a film is made by a director's instinct.

00:18:59 He said that.

00:19:00 He said that.

00:19:01 He said that.

00:19:02 He taught me that further.

00:19:03 He defined what I had not been able to elucidate.

00:19:07 And he also said, but will you allow me to participate?

00:19:12 But of course, I said, that's why I'm working with Aamir Khan.

00:19:16 Interfere, you will not.

00:19:18 I'll take the heroine I want to take.

00:19:21 I'll take the song I want to take.

00:19:23 I'll take the Archana Puran Singh Navneet Nishan I want to take.

00:19:27 I'll shoot the kissing scene I want to shoot.

00:19:30 Was that already in the script?

00:19:32 Okay.

00:19:33 It was narrated with short division to Karishma Kapoor and Aamir Khan.

00:19:38 With short division.

00:19:40 Yeah, because it was a long, long, it's a 10 minute sequence.

00:19:43 It's not a kiss.

00:19:44 It's a kissing sequence.

00:19:45 First, they come running under the tree.

00:19:48 Very passage to India, E.M.

00:19:49 Foster.

00:19:50 They go to Malabar caves.

00:19:51 Now, someone will say, where E.M.

00:19:54 Foster and where Raja Hindustani?

00:19:56 But that's the brilliance of Hindi cinema if you've done homework.

00:20:00 E.M.

00:20:01 Foster's book and David Lean's version of Passage to India.

00:20:05 And it was very inspiring for me to fit that into a popular film.

00:20:13 So, I changed Malabar caves into Ooty's tree.

00:20:16 It was a location called School month.

00:20:19 Okay.

00:20:20 It's a 8 minute sequence, 9 minute, 10 minute sequence.

00:20:24 Kitna Pyara Tujhe.

00:20:26 Finish is the sermon.

00:20:28 Tu hai pagal, tu hai jogar, tu hai dil bar jaani.

00:20:31 She says, Sabse Pyara mera yaara, Raja Hindustani.

00:20:36 And they go, suddenly there's a storm.

00:20:39 You know when nature wills something.

00:20:41 What is human?

00:20:43 They go running up the hill to this tree to take shade.

00:20:47 Okay.

00:20:48 This whole sequence.

00:20:50 Suddenly a storm comes.

00:20:52 They have no awareness of their sexuality.

00:20:55 They're both, of a certain image, they're virtually very innocent.

00:20:59 Yeah.

00:21:00 You know.

00:21:01 And suddenly she becomes aware.

00:21:05 Right.

00:21:06 Of him as a male.

00:21:08 He was always fascinated with her.

00:21:11 So, it's a very tricky sequence in Hindi cinema, in a family film, where a girl is discovering

00:21:16 her sexuality.

00:21:17 Please understand.

00:21:18 And it's not in your face.

00:21:21 Then she calls him, she can't resist him, and it breaks into a kiss.

00:21:26 And then she wakes up suddenly.

00:21:30 And then she wants to run away from her lack of inhibition.

00:21:35 She's so comfortable being in inhibition.

00:21:39 And then she runs down and there's hordes of sheep.

00:21:44 And the trees are moving.

00:21:46 That's the sequence.

00:21:47 So, that's why it took time, you know, with the storms.

00:21:51 It was freezingly cold, minus two degrees.

00:21:53 Three days we shot.

00:21:55 In Ooty.

00:21:56 In Ooty.

00:21:57 Okay.

00:21:58 And the actors were so cooperative.

00:22:01 And these are quality actors.

00:22:02 Absolutely.

00:22:03 I'll get you one of them.

00:22:04 Yeah, yeah.

00:22:05 Aamir Khan, Karisma Kapoor.

00:22:06 W V Rao, the cameraman.

00:22:08 You know.

00:22:09 And the challenge with me was to keep them warm.

00:22:13 Because they can't get typhoid in one day.

00:22:15 You know, because they're human and they're soaked.

00:22:17 So, between shots, because it's got some hundred cuts, the sequence.

00:22:21 So, I used to serve them brandy.

00:22:24 Which warms you up.

00:22:26 Now, they were having so much brandy that they had no control.

00:22:29 And I can't have, I'm also getting wet with them.

00:22:32 I'm standing right with them.

00:22:33 So, they don't feel that.

00:22:34 But you can't have the brandy.

00:22:35 But I can't have the brandy.

00:22:36 So, I can be ill that day.

00:22:37 Yeah.

00:22:38 And whether Slow Lo's shot separate or Aamir's shot separate.

00:22:42 So, I, and what I was so proud, Bharti, was we kept the kissing sequence so long for the

00:22:49 censors.

00:22:50 And they gave us voluntary, they passed the whole thing.

00:22:53 We had to submit voluntary cuts.

00:22:55 Yeah.

00:22:56 You cut it yourself.

00:22:57 Yeah.

00:22:58 That we cut it, we don't want it so long.

00:22:59 We thought that we cut it.

00:23:00 Because you thought they are going to, the censors will cut it.

00:23:02 Cut it.

00:23:03 Therefore, you shot more than you required.

00:23:04 I shot more.

00:23:05 And then you voluntarily.

00:23:06 I kept more than I required.

00:23:07 Okay.

00:23:08 And then ultimately you kept more.

00:23:09 I kept more also.

00:23:10 Because they had passed it.

00:23:11 That they will pass, they will cut something, you know.

00:23:14 Imagine, a U certificate film.

00:23:17 Wow.

00:23:18 Without any strings.

00:23:19 But isn't this true that for the censor board screening, Aamir was also present.

00:23:24 Definitely.

00:23:25 And that he was also, you know, partaking, convincing.

00:23:26 He believed in the film.

00:23:27 Convincing.

00:23:28 To convince the board.

00:23:29 No, he didn't convince.

00:23:30 He took the compliment.

00:23:31 They didn't need any convincing.

00:23:32 Okay.

00:23:33 They called us after the screening to compliment us.

00:23:37 Oh, okay.

00:23:38 So, there are times where I believe Raj Kapoor used to convince and you get convinced with

00:23:43 his belief in itself.

00:23:44 They didn't need convincing.

00:23:46 Instead, they complimented, this is very beautifully done, I give them the credit.

00:23:51 Okay.

00:23:52 How ahead were they?

00:23:54 And it's nice and it's traditional and it's liberated.

00:23:58 To which I said Indians are very liberated people.

00:24:00 But you do have this obsession for kissing scenes, no?

00:24:03 You had it in Lutere also.

00:24:05 And Mila.

00:24:06 Mila.

00:24:07 With Trinket and Aamir.

00:24:08 Except in India.

00:24:09 But not in Dhadkan.

00:24:10 Okay.

00:24:11 Not in Begapa.

00:24:12 Okay.

00:24:13 Exception.

00:24:14 Very quiet.

00:24:15 See, I am Bharati, I have no problem with people snogging, smooching, kissing, lip kissing.

00:24:22 I don't believe in moral policing in that matter.

00:24:25 It's much better than negativity.

00:24:28 It's better than violence.

00:24:30 Roads, rash driving in India is the highest thing.

00:24:33 What's there in a kiss man?

00:24:35 Are you getting what I am saying?

00:24:36 Yeah, but you did this way back in Lutere in 1993.

00:24:39 Three.

00:24:40 Under the Shah.

00:24:41 Yeah.

00:24:42 With Juhi and Sunny.

00:24:43 Juhi and Sunny.

00:24:44 Yeah.

00:24:45 Juhi needed a little convincing.

00:24:46 Sunny had done, the only kiss before that many years back was just a touch where Sunny

00:24:50 pulls Amrita Singh and throws Amrita.

00:24:52 The first one who started this kiss thing in wholesome films and censors allowed the

00:24:59 cuts, I think was me.

00:25:01 Probably you.

00:25:02 Yeah.

00:25:03 So, yes, I don't have a fetish, but I also felt the actresses I was working with needed

00:25:08 that, the character and the actresses needed that Juhi Chawla had a sweet girl next to

00:25:17 her image.

00:25:18 But there was so much more to her.

00:25:21 Karishma had a little tomboyish image, but there was so much to her.

00:25:26 I so felt that about Twinkle Khanna also.

00:25:28 Right.

00:25:29 But there are no rules.

00:25:30 When I shot a long hissing scene with shots with Twinkle in the music of Mela's song

00:25:35 in Jaipur, they cut that.

00:25:38 And I said, but you didn't cut it in Raja Hindustani.

00:25:41 They said, we didn't feel the need to cut it there.

00:25:43 I said, why?

00:25:44 Is it because of the actors?

00:25:45 I have shot it in the same way or the kind of film?

00:25:48 They just didn't answer.

00:25:50 Okay.

00:25:51 I mean, the years have further passed on.

00:25:53 Yeah, yeah.

00:25:54 They chipped, chopped it off.

00:25:55 They just kept the minimum of it.

00:25:56 Oh, okay.

00:25:57 To I reminded, but you all have given, I give voluntary cuts.

00:26:00 They said, yeah, that's why we kept even this much because we love your thing.

00:26:03 It's nicely, but you don't require to do this much.

00:26:05 Oh.

00:26:06 So, I said, okay.

00:26:07 Okay.

00:26:08 So, this also happens.

00:26:09 No hard and fast.

00:26:10 No hard and fast.

00:26:11 With Shilpa Shetty, I felt, with Akshay Kumar, that I don't want these actors to kiss.

00:26:15 Their image was different.

00:26:16 I'd rather them perform passionately.

00:26:19 You know, and not be diabetically sweet or anything also.

00:26:24 But I feel Ram and Aarti, or they didn't need that element, you know.

00:26:31 So, I didn't like, okay, I'm lucky this is for me and all, but then Larkana also played

00:26:35 without.

00:26:36 Instead, Shilpa was a terrific dancer, is a terrific dancer.

00:26:40 But if you notice, Dhyan se, there is not one dance song of hers.

00:26:44 There is no dance.

00:26:45 And there is none of that, you know, screwing up her face.

00:26:47 She was famous for that at one time.

00:26:50 That was one film where she didn't.

00:26:52 She and Karishma were two heroines who submitted.

00:26:58 It takes a lot for a star to submit, however big or small they are.

00:27:03 I was taking huge challenges with them, but directors have their own, you know.

00:27:07 But these two girls rose in the ranks, I felt.

00:27:12 Especially Karishma, though as big as it is.

00:27:14 But not, she became number one.

00:27:16 Shilpa Shetty also survives deep.

00:27:18 I feel her level of submission was outstanding.

00:27:23 I was very strict with her.

00:27:25 Almost parenting her, though she's not so much younger than her.

00:27:28 Do you sometimes just trick to be extreme, where you make them cry?

00:27:31 No, no, no.

00:27:32 I make them cry in the shots where I cry too.

00:27:34 I never abuse my heroines.

00:27:36 I never…

00:27:37 Yeh maine suna hai.

00:27:38 Nahi, nahi, nahi.

00:27:39 You made Juhi cry, you made Karishma cry, you made Shilpa cry.

00:27:43 I think sometimes because, I think they get scared ki yeh deliver kaise kar rahe hain.

00:27:49 Which I watch.

00:27:50 I'm not like, why are you crying?

00:27:52 Are you getting what I'm saying?

00:27:54 I would, you know, no, no, I don't make them cry.

00:27:57 I don't beat up anyone.

00:27:58 I don't abuse anyone.

00:28:00 I didn't say abuse or I didn't say…

00:28:02 You know, I raise my voice also.

00:28:03 I push them.

00:28:04 That I'll leave for another filmmaker.

00:28:06 You know what I'm saying.

00:28:09 I push them.

00:28:10 I push them.

00:28:12 I call them by their names.

00:28:14 I believe so.

00:28:15 You're a little Raj Kapoor obsessed.

00:28:17 So you…

00:28:18 Would be?

00:28:19 Yeah.

00:28:20 Because you wanted Juhi to be Anjali.

00:28:21 Shilpa to be Anjali again.

00:28:23 Yeah.

00:28:24 Lolo to be Aarti.

00:28:25 Yeah.

00:28:26 You want them to be that when they're working.

00:28:27 Because really, they do so many films in India.

00:28:30 They used to at least do that point.

00:28:32 How do they connect with the characters suddenly for four, five days they come in between?

00:28:36 I would at the risk of…

00:28:39 But I would never call Aamir Khan Raja.

00:28:42 I would never…

00:28:43 This was for the females.

00:28:44 For the girls.

00:28:45 Because Aamir Khan was already so dedicated.

00:28:48 That he was already doing only one film at a time.

00:28:51 One film at a time.

00:28:52 Even Sunny Riyol was…

00:28:55 If I may say, he was even more involved than Aamir Khan.

00:28:58 Who will believe this?

00:28:59 In Lutera?

00:29:00 Yes.

00:29:01 And I was 24.

00:29:02 So why didn't you repeat Sunny in Raja Hindustani?

00:29:04 He didn't suit Raja Hindustani.

00:29:06 Okay.

00:29:07 You can see it for itself.

00:29:09 And I feel I had done some excellent work with Sunny Riyol.

00:29:12 I felt if I ever want to work with him again, it should be Lutera.

00:29:16 Okay.

00:29:17 I was not so sure about that at that point.

00:29:19 Plus, I'll be honest, I was very intimidated.

00:29:22 I was 24.

00:29:23 So that's one man who never bullied me.

00:29:27 Never smirked.

00:29:29 Never mocked.

00:29:31 Never teased.

00:29:33 He was the one who said, "Toy, don't do this."

00:29:38 If somebody would be rough with me at that age,

00:29:42 you know how Sunny doesn't fight,

00:29:44 he would stare at that person.

00:29:46 If a singer, however big she is and legendary she is,

00:29:50 if he heard on shoot recording she was being too singer…

00:29:54 Patronising?

00:29:55 Patronising.

00:29:56 He would tell me, "Ignore her."

00:29:59 Okay.

00:30:00 And he was a brilliant man.

00:30:02 He was very protective.

00:30:03 He was very protective.

00:30:04 Classy guy.

00:30:05 I call him, not because Gaddar 2 has just released,

00:30:08 I've always called him the last of the stars.

00:30:11 His entire conduct, the way he sits quietly on a set,

00:30:15 there is no nonsense on a set with him.

00:30:19 He cancels, but he never turns up late when he's there.

00:30:25 He's never in a hurry to leave when he's there.

00:30:28 What is your sequence?

00:30:30 My sequence?

00:30:32 Incidentally, the first time I wore a pag was in my film.

00:30:35 With my dear Chanki Pandey, who played Babi,

00:30:38 in a sequence called "Pape Bachalu Tussi" the song.

00:30:42 So the first time he wore…

00:30:43 because I'd seen a film called "Jeevan Nrityu" with his dad,

00:30:47 you know, growing up.

00:30:48 I felt they look superb as Sikh gentlemen,

00:30:51 you know, Sardarji's.

00:30:53 And Sunny looked so good in that sequence

00:30:55 and he did it first time.

00:30:57 So Gaddar and all came afterwards?

00:30:59 But that was just a sequence.

00:31:00 In these films, they'd used it very nicely.

00:31:02 Anil Sharma used it…

00:31:04 Used it fabulously.

00:31:05 Outstanding.

00:31:06 Whether 2001 or 2020.

00:31:09 That credit you have to give.

00:31:10 And you have to give it to Sunny Deol also.

00:31:12 It's very difficult in the heat of our sets

00:31:16 to tie that turban full on

00:31:19 and to do such action sequences.

00:31:21 And be there for the sequence.

00:31:23 And be there for the sequence and not irritate the director.

00:31:26 He doesn't snap and all at a director.

00:31:28 No.

00:31:29 He's strict in the sense that he's a star, a superstar.

00:31:32 So why should he allow familiarity with him?

00:31:35 I would say that.

00:31:36 He doesn't like familiarity.

00:31:37 But itna apna pan mene kisi aur actor mein dekha bhi nahi.

00:31:40 If I may say in Hindi.

00:31:42 He has boundaries and he allows you to have boundaries.

00:31:45 I was a kid.

00:31:46 I was 24.

00:31:47 He was a superstar post-Ghayal.

00:31:49 And he was post-Ghayal.

00:31:51 And he told my brother.

00:31:53 And I was not even his, like, playing up to him and everything.

00:31:56 My brother made a film with him which I had not worked with.

00:31:58 Called Intikam.

00:31:59 Which was at that time a very happening director called Mr. Rajkumar Kohli.

00:32:02 Sunny, Anil, Meenakshi Shishadri and all that stuff.

00:32:05 It had not worked.

00:32:06 He told my brother, I'll work with you next time.

00:32:08 Take your brother as the director.

00:32:10 I almost fell off my chair.

00:32:12 I said, what has he spotted?

00:32:14 I'm quiet on the set.

00:32:15 I come from Sydney and polished to shit.

00:32:17 You mean Sunny spotted the director in you?

00:32:19 Yeah, yeah. Completely.

00:32:20 And that's how you became a director with no tears?

00:32:22 Completely.

00:32:23 Oh.

00:32:24 Okay.

00:32:25 And I was so quiet.

00:32:26 This is like Shah Rukh spotting the director in Karan.

00:32:29 Yeah. But Karan is then also ebullient.

00:32:31 Yeah, yeah. He's very talkative.

00:32:34 I was extremely held back.

00:32:36 What will he say? What will he say?

00:32:39 I don't want to play up.

00:32:40 I don't want to be over smart.

00:32:42 Bratish or anything.

00:32:44 So that I give him to credit.

00:32:45 What did he see?

00:32:46 But with my silence he saw something with my reaction to watching around.

00:32:53 I still remember it was, he was shooting a song with Disco Shanti for Gahayal.

00:32:59 And we had gone late night to meet him.

00:33:02 And he turned to my brother and said,

00:33:04 Inderkaan has not worked enough but I'll do this for you.

00:33:08 Take him.

00:33:10 You already had a subject?

00:33:12 No.

00:33:14 Oh.

00:33:15 Can you believe?

00:33:16 No script, no subject in there.

00:33:18 So I understand a person, they talk so much about heartbound scripts and all.

00:33:23 He just said, just be yourself.

00:33:27 Give me an outline what is, because it has Naseeruddin Shah.

00:33:30 Chanki was a big star at that moment.

00:33:32 Anupam Kher, Juhi Chawla, Pooja Bedi.

00:33:34 It's a star studded multi-star.

00:33:36 He just said, who am I?

00:33:38 Am I the protagonist?

00:33:39 Is it my story?

00:33:41 And I was a little scared.

00:33:43 I'm so overwhelmed with this big star.

00:33:45 Who's behaving also so nicely.

00:33:47 And the film is everyone is good but he's the best.

00:33:49 Where Juhi Chawla is also very good.

00:33:52 It's a heroine in three songs, three scenes.

00:33:54 Naseeruddin Shah, Sikandar is good.

00:33:56 Chanki is superb in his comic timing.

00:33:58 Pooja Bedi is good.

00:33:59 Anupam Kher is such a good villain.

00:34:01 So that I take pride.

00:34:03 Great.

00:34:04 But I'm a little afraid, I want to clear this thing.

00:34:06 I'm not praising him.

00:34:07 I'm not going to overdrive about him because his kadar too is the biggest hit of the…

00:34:10 Right, right.

00:34:11 He's really superb.

00:34:13 It had to be.

00:34:15 He could not go away anywhere.

00:34:17 Rai Sogata too.

00:34:18 I was stunned with the intensity of his performances playing a father.

00:34:23 But he's so handsome.

00:34:24 Yeah.

00:34:25 You know.

00:34:26 And only he can go and…

00:34:27 10,000 people run away.

00:34:29 We just looked at the hand pump and he would…

00:34:32 He's not even lifting it.

00:34:33 He's not going near it.

00:34:34 And he's not even…

00:34:35 He doesn't even become loud, loud.

00:34:38 You know, he doesn't become like that.

00:34:40 The intensity is just there.

00:34:42 Even his crying on the bus, sitting on the bus for his son.

00:34:46 The face is so correct with that pug and everything.

00:34:49 Damn good, yaar.

00:34:50 Yeah, that's true.

00:34:51 Yes.

00:34:52 So coming back to Aamir Khan.

00:34:55 How much of contribution did he make to Raja Hindustani once he told you that there's only one director on the film?

00:35:03 He was superb.

00:35:04 Did he contribute?

00:35:06 Yes.

00:35:08 He contributed by supporting me so much on all my vulnerabilities.

00:35:14 See, I have this very big hit film behind me.

00:35:16 Again I was very young.

00:35:18 I'm 28 when I'm releasing Raja Hindustani.

00:35:20 Please understand.

00:35:21 I'm working with a very big actor.

00:35:24 I'm taking a supposedly non-actor opposite him.

00:35:28 There's not Juhi or Madhuri Dixit.

00:35:29 And now people call it Rani Hindustani also.

00:35:32 But I like Lolo, yaar.

00:35:34 When you ask me the question, I'll answer.

00:35:37 I adored Raj Kapoor and I felt that lineage.

00:35:40 She really is got that element which sometimes I feel Aamir doesn't have.

00:35:46 Can you believe it?

00:35:47 He still thinks from here.

00:35:49 She thinks from here.

00:35:50 So you think she's got Raj Kapoor's lineage?

00:35:53 You know what she did once?

00:35:55 We were shooting that sequence where Aamir is drunk.

00:35:57 I'm saying this first time on camera.

00:35:59 Teri ishq mein na cheng liye.

00:36:02 So when he gets drunk, he misbehaves.

00:36:06 So she's very embarrassed for her husband and then Archana and all adding.

00:36:09 You know her family is adding to the nonsense.

00:36:11 Very high society party.

00:36:12 And he's actually very complexed.

00:36:16 It's a very difficult sequence.

00:36:18 And it's not a drunk scene you're enjoying.

00:36:21 You're watching it with pain.

00:36:22 You know drunk scenes you enjoy also.

00:36:24 And she goes to him and she says, "Please stop it."

00:36:28 And he turns to her and he says, "Sharminda, you're embarrassed."

00:36:34 That's hurting him more.

00:36:36 "You're embarrassed with me."

00:36:37 Forget all of that.

00:36:38 "My partner is embarrassed with me."

00:36:41 I'm like that lowly.

00:36:42 Toh when she says, "No Raja."

00:36:45 Toh he catches her hair.

00:36:47 Lab awara.

00:36:49 And he says, "Tumgi toh Sharminda ho."

00:36:52 He told me, "No, no, no. Don't do this."

00:36:55 "Let me hold her hand."

00:36:58 I said, "Could be he's right."

00:37:02 "Could be I'm making it very masculine."

00:37:06 "Unnecessarily hurting him."

00:37:07 "I give a lot of respect to my leading ladies."

00:37:10 "Whether I make them kiss or whether they physically expose or anything."

00:37:14 She took me into a corner.

00:37:17 "I request you." She said, "I request you."

00:37:20 I said, "What?"

00:37:21 She said, "I've seen my grandfather do this sometimes."

00:37:24 "Forget his films."

00:37:26 "In real life."

00:37:29 The minute she said that, I went to Aamir Khan.

00:37:32 I said, "No."

00:37:33 "Not even one take this, one take that."

00:37:35 "Straight pull ahead."

00:37:37 This was Karishma Kapoor.

00:37:40 Karishma Kapoor.

00:37:41 "Hai, main mar gayi."

00:37:44 Wow. Okay.

00:37:48 She feels Hindi cinema.

00:37:51 Right. Right.

00:37:52 I mean for a long time.

00:37:53 But she was not your first choice for Raja Hindustani.

00:37:56 Again destiny.

00:37:57 As they say in Hindi, "Dane dane pe likha khane wale ka naam."

00:38:00 Right.

00:38:01 So that happened. My first choice was of course after you make a hit film with a very good actor or actress,

00:38:06 you want to work with them again.

00:38:08 So my first choice was Madame Juhi Chawla.

00:38:11 Naturally. You just worked with her.

00:38:12 Yeah, I just worked with her.

00:38:13 But you had a little bit of a problem with her.

00:38:15 No, no. We were both very young.

00:38:16 And we would constantly, you know,

00:38:19 squabble on the sets.

00:38:23 Okay. Okay.

00:38:24 But I was fascinated.

00:38:26 She was in my same college, Sydney.

00:38:28 Right.

00:38:29 You know, my mother had taught me,

00:38:31 I am not trying to wear a beard or trying to show what a man I am,

00:38:36 that you romanticize people.

00:38:38 It can be your sister, it can be your parents, it can be your friends, it can be a film.

00:38:42 I was very fascinated with Juhi Chawla in Sydney.

00:38:46 She was beautiful, ordinary.

00:38:49 I am from Sydney too.

00:38:50 You are from Sydney.

00:38:51 And it was a top college, you know.

00:38:53 And she was a year junior to me.

00:38:55 And she never remembered me but I saw her every single day.

00:38:59 So, that stayed with me, you know.

00:39:02 And when I wrote Anjali, since I write my films myself,

00:39:05 she was so much in my mind.

00:39:08 And then Rajan, Dharlootere happened, you know.

00:39:12 And when I wrote Aarti, which is dramatically different from Anjali,

00:39:17 but she is so versatile.

00:39:18 I think she is the best comic tragic actress of this era.

00:39:23 Before that there have been, you know.

00:39:25 But after the doubt of Juhi's life, Kajol is a very good actress herself.

00:39:29 Juhi's innocence, there is something about Hemaman in her also.

00:39:32 There is something funny and charming and dignified also.

00:39:37 Absolutely, and dignified.

00:39:38 If I am not going wrong, you know.

00:39:40 She, for some reasons, played a little hard to get.

00:39:46 Which she herself gave an interview to some person.

00:39:48 Later on.

00:39:49 Later on.

00:39:50 It was very foolish of me, she said.

00:39:52 That's her greatness.

00:39:53 Because most people then give some excuses, attack the director or something.

00:39:57 She said he came to me and I was advised wrongly.

00:40:01 And I had a hit film with him.

00:40:03 And such an extraordinary film.

00:40:05 Then I had my sister.

00:40:07 My first cousin, Pooja.

00:40:09 Pooja Bhatt.

00:40:10 I said, "Isko banayenge."

00:40:13 Pooja Bhatt, then the second half was not written.

00:40:17 The first half's main Saab was written.

00:40:19 The Dosail, trying to adapt to Raja Taxi Driver, wife was not written.

00:40:24 I saw Pooju in it, you know.

00:40:26 Aamir Khan and Pooja looked nice also.

00:40:28 They had all changed.

00:40:30 Pooja Bhatt said one thing.

00:40:34 That costumes...

00:40:38 I wanted Manish Malhotra.

00:40:41 You were clear.

00:40:42 Clear.

00:40:43 I predicted then this is the best.

00:40:45 And I was not wrong.

00:40:47 Instead Manish told me, "Can you imagine you changed the heroine because of a costume designer?"

00:40:51 He told me.

00:40:52 I said, "Yeah."

00:40:53 So she wanted Anna Singh and you wanted Manish Malhotra.

00:40:58 Anna Singh did Juhi's, Shankhi Pandey's look in Luteri also.

00:41:03 But I wanted a full costume designer which films didn't have for the full film.

00:41:09 A stylist.

00:41:10 Stylist.

00:41:11 Somebody who will give a look.

00:41:12 Look.

00:41:13 Which I was into.

00:41:14 And this guy was dedicated, ready to learn.

00:41:17 He loved cinema.

00:41:19 He is my cousin, second cousin.

00:41:21 And...

00:41:22 Whether it's Karishma.

00:41:26 You see Archana Puran Singh, her look.

00:41:28 You see Navneet Nishanth's tomboy-pan.

00:41:30 Pratibha.

00:41:32 I don't think she can look more beautiful.

00:41:36 Bala Sinha's daughter.

00:41:37 Bala Sinha's daughter.

00:41:38 That one song.

00:41:39 So that became an issue with me.

00:41:42 Then I said, "This is getting mixed between my brother-sister thing."

00:41:46 I ran away.

00:41:47 Then I had Aishwarya Rai.

00:41:51 Wow.

00:41:52 But she hadn't come into films at that time.

00:41:54 But I'd seen an ad with her of Aamir.

00:41:56 Achha.

00:41:57 And I loved her.

00:41:59 She was living at Khar.

00:42:02 There was a friend of mine who was living in the building opposite.

00:42:04 Samne wali khedki.

00:42:05 He was telling me, "There's this very beautiful girl."

00:42:07 And one day she was sitting in the rickshaw and going and she just looked.

00:42:10 And I said, "Ye toh nazar heroine ki hai."

00:42:12 And she was my choice.

00:42:16 She was also game.

00:42:17 Okay.

00:42:18 But then she had to go for Miss World.

00:42:20 Oh, she was not doing Miss World by then.

00:42:22 Okay.

00:42:23 What do I do?

00:42:24 Yeah.

00:42:25 And then, can you imagine live Bharti?

00:42:28 The day I went to meet Juhi Chawla.

00:42:31 That day Karishma was dubbing in Anand Theatre, Dev Anandji's theatre in Palil near our house.

00:42:37 And she was leaving and Juhi was coming in and I was coming in and Karishma kept looking.

00:42:42 And that day I met Juhi and I felt that she's not getting this right.

00:42:48 And the next day I finalised Karishma Kapoor for her.

00:42:51 Wow.

00:42:52 Juhi said a funny thing to me.

00:42:54 Again I'm saying this first time.

00:42:56 She's a sport, she'll take this.

00:42:58 And she's accepted she made a mistake.

00:43:00 When I went to meet her in the make-up room, she was dubbing.

00:43:04 There was a separate room in Anand for the actors.

00:43:07 And I said, "Madam Juhi Chawla, this is the film."

00:43:13 So she turned and she said, "But this is not Lutere.

00:43:16 Lutere is a pallet film.

00:43:18 This is a very ordinary subject."

00:43:21 So to make her understand, Hum Aapke Kaun Hai just released.

00:43:25 I said, "You know, but that was a lot of plots.

00:43:27 This time I want to make a directorial film all the way."

00:43:31 Lutere is also.

00:43:34 I overpower it.

00:43:36 Aamir is that kind of actor, that's why I've selected.

00:43:39 The simplicity of it.

00:43:41 So what is so much then Hum Aapke Hai Kaun?

00:43:45 I gave her an example.

00:43:47 But such a fantastic hit and such a fantastic film.

00:43:50 Madhuri.

00:43:52 You know she turned to me and she said, "But you're not Suraj Bharjat."

00:43:55 Oh, okay.

00:43:57 So something came up to me.

00:43:59 I said, "You're not Madhuri Dixit."

00:44:02 Okay.

00:44:04 On that little thing, can you believe the next day...

00:44:07 But then she realized. Educated toh she is, no?

00:44:11 Next day she apologized.

00:44:13 And she said, "Come to meet me at B.R. now."

00:44:16 That day at 1.30, Bunty Surma told me,

00:44:20 "Farishma Stoor came.

00:44:23 Please meet her once."

00:44:25 She said, "You come to your house." I said, "No."

00:44:27 I go to her house. That time we were staying at Lokhandwal.

00:44:30 Babita ji and I just shifted there.

00:44:32 The girl I met, at that same time Juhi was waiting, coincidentally.

00:44:37 Okay.

00:44:38 Who opened the door in the salwar kameez and all,

00:44:40 was not the girl I'd seen on screen.

00:44:43 And her total... she's not even playing up.

00:44:46 Her total... I had said, "Kissing sequence chota zyada karke yeh wo."

00:44:51 I was so excited.

00:44:53 You just felt you were seeing Aarti.

00:44:55 I felt, "No, she's so malleable."

00:44:57 So I went running to two people.

00:44:59 One is Aamir... Manish.

00:45:01 I said, "Can you costume her correctly?"

00:45:03 He said, "Yeah."

00:45:04 Instead he had some difference.

00:45:06 He had done her first film. Then there were some differences.

00:45:08 They were...

00:45:09 They had some major differences.

00:45:10 Then I said, "But I'll take Manish."

00:45:12 He was game.

00:45:13 He also was game.

00:45:14 He said, "If you can sort this out."

00:45:16 He's a professional tushiyas.

00:45:18 Aamir Khan told me.

00:45:20 What a choice.

00:45:22 I give this credit to Aamir Khan.

00:45:24 Again.

00:45:25 He said, "Dharmesh, you'll have to work, but she's your school of film.

00:45:28 Time pe aajana."

00:45:30 Bahut good on set sothi thi.

00:45:32 And very excited.

00:45:34 Jeena yaha, marna yaha, Raj Kapoor.

00:45:36 I just smelt it.

00:45:38 Now if it had become Wannabe, I could have got stuck.

00:45:40 Yes.

00:45:41 You know, that just to get a film in.

00:45:43 So 80% of the film she was...

00:45:45 Fantasy. Okay.

00:45:51 She was Aarti, Aarti, Aarti.

00:45:53 So sincere.

00:45:54 And she had no problem.

00:45:55 She had never done a kissing scene before.

00:45:57 Never.

00:45:58 She was totally...

00:46:00 I told her, "These cuts, this kiss, this."

00:46:02 And when you go back into the house, the kiss is rougher.

00:46:04 When you look back, you over-dramatise things.

00:46:06 She said, "Every cut the way you say."

00:46:08 I said, "I'm making her a complete white churidar kurta with a sarwar kameez."

00:46:13 There's not this much skin show.

00:46:14 The background is not like sexy.

00:46:16 That's music, you know.

00:46:18 I said, "It's a beautiful sequence."

00:46:21 She said, "You don't have to tell me so much."

00:46:23 Instead, she said this.

00:46:25 Then I called Babita ji inside

00:46:27 and narrated that sequence because she was a very young girl, right?

00:46:30 So the mother can influence, you know what I mean to say.

00:46:33 And she had a good image also, no?

00:46:35 Lolo was not a very noisy girl.

00:46:38 She could come across loud or, you know...

00:46:41 On screen, which she had to come across.

00:46:42 But she was by nature, she by nature is a soft girl.

00:46:45 Vulnerable.

00:46:47 A good daughter.

00:46:49 A good mother.

00:46:50 Nice girl.

00:46:51 Nice girl, yeah.

00:46:52 So you mentioned it to Babita ji and got an okay from her as well?

00:46:56 Completely.

00:46:57 Babita ji sat through the three days of the shoot.

00:46:59 Oh, okay.

00:47:00 And I didn't simply send your mother from here and all.

00:47:02 Okay, okay.

00:47:04 That's rare.

00:47:06 I said, "Let her sit."

00:47:08 Oh, you're not doing anything wrong.

00:47:10 And then sitting, you...

00:47:12 And the entire thing...

00:47:13 And actually, producers have to recover the thing.

00:47:15 They wanted to make a poster of this mooch.

00:47:17 I didn't allow it.

00:47:19 I said, "No, she'll salute like that and Aamir will do that dance movement."

00:47:22 Today, that thing is there in WhatsApp, you know, that movement, if you see.

00:47:27 Of a dance movement, what do you call that? Symbol, you know.

00:47:30 And that is the poster of Raja Hindustani.

00:47:33 He's just doing like that, you know.

00:47:35 So, a combination...

00:47:37 So, it's not like you made it crassly commercial by cashing in on it for posters and stuff.

00:47:42 No, no, it's a turning point.

00:47:43 And in the film, in the theatre, I was aghast.

00:47:46 I thought the film has failed.

00:47:47 Because there was total silence and I watched it all over the country.

00:47:50 It's not just Bombay.

00:47:51 Not a city.

00:47:53 It's the city came at Pardesi Jaana Ni, which comes after that when Pratibha entered.

00:47:57 With her, you know, kamar and all that.

00:47:59 I used Pratibha differently again.

00:48:01 As a dancer gypsy, you know.

00:48:04 Superb actress.

00:48:05 "Pardesi, Pardesi, Jaana Ni."

00:48:08 I like the way you're singing.

00:48:09 Please sing.

00:48:10 Yeah, I remember that.

00:48:11 "Mujhe chhod ke, dil thod ke, mo mod ke."

00:48:16 "Mujhe chhod ke, dil thod ke, mo mod ke."

00:48:17 "Pardesi, Pardesi, Jaana Ni."

00:48:21 "Pardesi, Pardesi, Jaana Ni."

00:48:26 "Mujhe chhod ke, mujhe chhod ke."

00:48:31 Nadeem, Shravan, he's passed away in COVID.

00:48:35 Sameer, Ramesh Torani, Kareem Ali.

00:48:40 It's a combination of everybody.

00:48:42 But Aamir Khan oddly never came for one sitting recording, nothing.

00:48:48 Really?

00:48:49 Yes.

00:48:50 And he's known, he's like Shammi Kapoor, he would go for it.

00:48:52 He said, "This is your section, this music, so I'm not getting into my scope with you."

00:48:56 But that is so wonderful.

00:48:58 Wonderful, I'm telling you.

00:48:59 I think he just knew where to leave you alone.

00:49:01 Oh, he was wonderful, giving the clap.

00:49:05 Such a big star.

00:49:06 I was on my second film, he was on his 20th film.

00:49:08 You know, so we were the same age.

00:49:10 So is that why you repeated him and did Mela?

00:49:13 Absolutely, that's the mistake I made.

00:49:15 What happened, he behaved so well in Raja Hindustani, for the two and a half years it took to make the film.

00:49:21 Because of dates and things went in between, derailed and all.

00:49:24 That I, you know, I have a tendency, Bharti, if somebody is this much to me, I tend to have a, I over extend them.

00:49:33 So I'm very touched, you know, I don't become, "Oh, this is my due."

00:49:36 I get humbled.

00:49:38 "Ki iste pecha na?" You know what I'm saying?

00:49:40 That's my nature as an artist, if not as necessary as a person.

00:49:44 And he would give the clap also on the sets.

00:49:49 If I was temperamental, he would tell me, "Can I help? Who's troubling you on the mind?

00:49:57 Please tell me. I will deal with the actor in the make-up room."

00:50:01 Who does these things?

00:50:03 That perceptive.

00:50:04 That perceptive, that humble, that ambitious.

00:50:09 What an ambitious star.

00:50:11 If Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan were not there in the gen I came,

00:50:15 there would be no Suraj Bharjat, Aditya Chopra, Dharmesh Darshan, Karan Johar, Sanjay Bansali.

00:50:20 I repeat this.

00:50:22 They were wonderful stars before them, they were wonderful stars after them.

00:50:25 These two guys.

00:50:27 And Salman.

00:50:28 Salman, absolutely.

00:50:29 But Salman is a star, star.

00:50:32 You know what I mean to say.

00:50:34 These guys, Salman is, what do you say, he's really what you call stardom.

00:50:43 These guys are star actors also.

00:50:46 And very script savvy.

00:50:49 So script savvy, director savvy, not even script savvy.

00:50:53 They just hear, "This director, I want to learn something from him, he must be a guru.

00:51:00 Commercially, creatively, I'll get awards for what I've done, I'll get rewards.

00:51:05 This will burst my barrier."

00:51:08 They're able to gauge it.

00:51:10 They don't judge you on any grounds, they were so ahead of their time.

00:51:14 Just you should be humble.

00:51:17 Like Shah Rukh doing a film with Atlee.

00:51:19 At this point, and he came back such a big way.

00:51:22 I repeatedly take his deal.

00:51:25 I feel so bad, there were two opportunities I was supposed to work with Shah Rukh Khan,

00:51:30 and I couldn't commit myself.

00:51:32 My loss.

00:51:34 Totally.

00:51:35 So to come back to Mela, what went wrong with Mela?

00:51:38 Aamir asked me.

00:51:40 You know Twinkle makes fun of Mela.

00:51:42 Twinkle makes fun of herself also.

00:51:44 Sometimes I feel I should mock her.

00:51:46 But kya bolu ab Twinkle ko?

00:51:48 Twinkle must remember that it's the highest watched TRP film.

00:51:51 Of hers.

00:51:53 Of hers and of many films today.

00:51:56 It's amongst the top 5 TRP films.

00:51:58 Can you believe this?

00:52:00 They said it's outdated but today's youth loves it.

00:52:03 And I'm not taking it off for Mela, it's a disappointment.

00:52:06 I agree but it's not a disaster film like many.

00:52:09 It's a lot of business.

00:52:11 It suffers with Raja Hindustani.

00:52:13 It's sandwiched between Raja Hindustani and Dhadkan.

00:52:15 And then sections of media had their graves to dig with Aamir Khan.

00:52:20 What do I do about that?

00:52:22 You know what I mean to say.

00:52:23 And then there's a monster hit Raja Hindustani.

00:52:25 I didn't want to do Mela instead.

00:52:27 But Aamir had to correct Faisal's career.

00:52:29 There was no way.

00:52:31 First I said no to him.

00:52:33 I said no.

00:52:34 My mother told me you said no to him.

00:52:36 You've told me repeatedly how well he's got to do it.

00:52:40 I used to listen to my mother.

00:52:43 So you did it because Aamir wanted to resurrect Faisal's career?

00:52:49 Totally.

00:52:50 And look at it.

00:52:56 It's so amazing.

00:52:57 Faisal many people find better than Aamir in the film.

00:53:01 How can Faisal Khan be better than Aamir Khan?

00:53:04 Again submission.

00:53:06 Shankar in the film is better than Krishna.

00:53:09 Some people find Aamir loud in the film.

00:53:12 But I was disturbed.

00:53:14 Which they found even in his recent films like Hugs and Bouncing Chai.

00:53:18 I haven't seen both the films.

00:53:20 Which at one time was sacrilege to say about Aamir Khan.

00:53:24 But that broke the barrier in North India with him.

00:53:28 That's why Mela worked with him.

00:53:30 And I still feel Faisal signed 10 films after Mela.

00:53:34 I can't create a superstar out of every star.

00:53:38 Twinkle signed so many films after Mela.

00:53:40 But every heroine cannot become Juhi Chawla, Karishma Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty.

00:53:44 To come back to Manish Malhotra who you used for Karisma.

00:53:51 He gave her that fabulous middle parting and that straight hair look.

00:53:55 I still remember it.

00:53:57 It was a totally different look that he gave her.

00:54:00 This may become a little controversial.

00:54:02 But that was Aishwarya in my mind.

00:54:04 Oh okay.

00:54:05 She was so original.

00:54:07 So I wanted a wig like that.

00:54:09 I took her first time with Manish.

00:54:11 I asked her to wear hazel lenses.

00:54:13 She couldn't put lenses in eyes.

00:54:15 I said not your regular colored eyes.

00:54:17 I want a little else.

00:54:19 I want an Indian feel.

00:54:21 That's giving a little Russian feel.

00:54:23 My father had colored eyes.

00:54:25 He was not acting.

00:54:26 Raj Kapoor also had colored eyes.

00:54:28 But the girl needed more.

00:54:30 And I didn't use normal eyes.

00:54:32 I used hazel lenses.

00:54:33 And she used to find it difficult at that point to put it.

00:54:35 But I did zid.

00:54:39 Manish's contribution.

00:54:41 But that's the first time.

00:54:43 Manish had also done many films by then.

00:54:45 First time a film featured him.

00:54:48 Like Bhanu Athaiya would be featured.

00:54:50 Costumes and look.

00:54:51 I insisted with everyone.

00:54:53 Manish Malhotra.

00:54:54 But Bhanu and others did costumes.

00:54:56 He did an entire look.

00:54:57 That's the credit I gave to him.

00:55:00 And he did the look.

00:55:02 He said I would buy art magazines for him.

00:55:05 Because he asked for it.

00:55:07 He gave me clothes.

00:55:09 But this I would not take his credit.

00:55:12 I am saying he is the best.

00:55:14 And he is a classic example of how you can rise in the ranks.

00:55:18 Look where he has reached.

00:55:20 He is making clothes for the Arundhatiya crew now.

00:55:24 Out of the 7 films I did.

00:55:26 And I did all kinds of films with him.

00:55:28 6 films I did with him out of the 7.

00:55:31 7th one for some freak reason I didn't do.

00:55:33 Which had nothing to do with our relationship.

00:55:36 Outstanding.

00:55:38 But Manish has the benefit of one thing.

00:55:40 And he took that risk.

00:55:41 Manish befriended 3 directors.

00:55:44 Most people befriend costume designers only.

00:55:47 They are dress designers.

00:55:50 He is a director of costume.

00:55:52 He learnt that from Mr. Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and if I may say Dharmesh Darshan.

00:55:58 He heard us constantly talk, discuss over those lunches and dinners.

00:56:03 What we don't like about them.

00:56:05 You were a group here.

00:56:07 Lovely.

00:56:08 Not only 3 of us as directors.

00:56:10 Plus there was Jugal Hansraj.

00:56:12 Anil Thadani.

00:56:14 Kajal.

00:56:15 Oh Kajal was part of the gang.

00:56:17 Amongst the friends.

00:56:19 No no.

00:56:20 Amongst the friends, all my friends worked with her and I worked with Lolo.

00:56:23 And Kajal was supposed to be in Mela.

00:56:26 Oh.

00:56:27 And what happened?

00:56:28 There was some discomfort from her side.

00:56:33 She was not sure about America at that point.

00:56:36 Later on they did some film, I don't remember which one.

00:56:39 At that point, she is a one take actor.

00:56:41 So she was…

00:56:42 Fun on.

00:56:43 Fun on.

00:56:44 After many years.

00:56:45 And he takes takes.

00:56:47 So she had the reservation that her spontaneity.

00:56:50 So I just let her go.

00:56:51 But she was very gracious about it.

00:56:53 She gave me a house and explained to me.

00:56:55 Kajal is not known to do these things.

00:56:57 But you were friends.

00:56:58 But still, good no fun.

00:57:00 So there was this group I remember here, out here.

00:57:03 Eating.

00:57:04 All of you together.

00:57:05 I remember seeing all of you.

00:57:06 You remember seeing us, I remember seeing you at Shatranj Nupur.

00:57:09 All the time.

00:57:11 Right?

00:57:12 Yes, yes, all the time.

00:57:13 I mean there was you, there was Karan Johar, there was Adi, there was Anil Thadani.

00:57:17 Jugal.

00:57:18 Manish.

00:57:19 Jugal and Manish.

00:57:20 Kajal was not there.

00:57:21 Manish was very much a part of this gang.

00:57:23 And I have seen Manish grow right from your film where you gave him the first credit for the look.

00:57:29 Right from there to those gorgeous sarees he gave Alia Bhatt in Rocky Rani.

00:57:34 I mean fabulous.

00:57:35 He is, I mean he is just, he is simply the best.

00:57:39 It's not like you gave him a break and you know, he is grown.

00:57:43 He has grown phenomenally.

00:57:46 And he has given that whole look and style.

00:57:48 And mind you my films are challenging.

00:57:50 In the other directors' films of the friends, they were all these huge number one heroines.

00:57:54 I am working with great stars, there were stars but with challenges.

00:57:57 Shilpa, Karishma and all, you know, isko aisa karna hai, isko aisa karna hai, leke aisa nahi karna hai.

00:58:02 So he understood the mindset of a director.

00:58:04 I am so happy, he is wanting to be doing many years, I believe he is trying to be a director.

00:58:08 I believe so.

00:58:09 And he is going to be a director next year or something.

00:58:11 And he will be a very good director.

00:58:13 I don't know how much this film will run and all you can predict.

00:58:16 And it will look very good of course, but he will be a very good director.

00:58:20 Because he has hands on experience.

00:58:22 He is a smart guy also.

00:58:23 You know, this is a coincidence, but we had DDLJ, we had Suraj Bajjati as Hum Aapke Hai Kaun?

00:58:33 And your film Raja Hindustani, all one after the other in the 90s.

00:58:37 94, 95, 96.

00:58:38 Exactly, one after the other in the 90s.

00:58:40 So, what would you think is common to all three except that all three are right up there in the top ten?

00:58:46 I think what was common is we stayed behind the camera.

00:58:50 We had the, I give them that word, we had the grace, let the actors take away the credit.

00:58:57 Let the producers take, the fathers were the producers.

00:59:00 We are happy making our film.

00:59:02 So tell me, after that, Mela was a disappointment.

00:59:06 Whether you agree with it or not?

00:59:07 No, I totally agree with it.

00:59:08 Yeah, I mean, especially after Raja Hindustani, it was, and again with the same Aamir, same director.

00:59:14 And then it's, you know, it's such a huge disappointment.

00:59:17 And then you kind of perked up again with Dhadkan.

00:59:20 But that took a while, isn't it?

00:59:22 No, after Mela, I released Dhadkan within a year.

00:59:25 But didn't Dhadkan kind of take some time?

00:59:28 Dhadkan took time.

00:59:29 You see, what happened was, it was, I was so pressured with Mela.

00:59:34 I knew I'm going wrong.

00:59:36 I had a choice to run away.

00:59:38 Right in the center of Mela came Hollywood.

00:59:41 An offer from Hollywood?

00:59:43 Hollywood, Mr. Ashok Amritraj.

00:59:45 The first Indian guy who made it big as a producer.

00:59:48 His representative, some lady, I forget her name with M, came from Bengal, Bengaluru, you know, it was a favorite city of mine.

00:59:58 And she told me, Mr. Ashok Amritraj has said, this director.

01:00:04 And Shah Rukh is the hero.

01:00:07 They identified, you know, their markets for Hollywood and Aishwarya Rai is the hero.

01:00:11 However, once you say then we'll discuss with them.

01:00:16 But you have, we have one condition.

01:00:18 I was obviously happy, Hollywood has seen me and I'm not making offbeat cinema or something.

01:00:23 That means my films worked internationally, which are, they worked pan India and globally.

01:00:27 And no PR, no, you know, talking big and all that.

01:00:30 You have to go away for one year, they said.

01:00:34 Because the director, actor can report for shooting or three days before come for rehearsals.

01:00:39 My parents both fell ill exactly at that time.

01:00:42 I was committed to Mela and Dhadkan.

01:00:45 I told them, so she told me, for this, these films you're leaving Hollywood.

01:00:52 I said, Bollywood has given me so much success just now, I can't ditch it.

01:00:56 I can't jilt anyone.

01:00:58 There are too many careers at stake in both these films.

01:01:02 They're not, if I don't do these films, it's not easy to replace me as a director, the producer tells me also.

01:01:08 You know, that…

01:01:10 You already started them off.

01:01:11 Started them off.

01:01:12 Plus, you know, so many people, Shekhar Kapoor, such a good director, but he left so many films incomplete and went to Hollywood.

01:01:17 Yeah, yeah.

01:01:18 Didn't he?

01:01:19 He did.

01:01:20 But I didn't do that.

01:01:21 Because I really love Hindi cinema.

01:01:23 It's called Bollywood and all.

01:01:25 Instead, I feel Gaddar 2 has brought it back to Hindi cinema.

01:01:29 The word Bollywood became a very step, wannabe Hollywood derivative.

01:01:36 There's something kitschy about Bollywood.

01:01:38 Yeah.

01:01:39 You know what I mean to say?

01:01:41 There's nothing kitschy about Hollywood.

01:01:43 There's something kitschy about Bollywood.

01:01:45 I don't use the word.

01:01:47 I don't like the word, you know.

01:01:49 But now there's no choice, you know.

01:01:50 I never use it.

01:01:51 Even when I was talking to you about your house, I said it's in the heart of Hindi cinema.

01:01:56 You know, Hindi cinema.

01:01:57 I don't use the word.

01:01:58 Would you like to say anything more about Gaddar?

01:02:01 Again, I worked with actors who submitted brilliantly.

01:02:07 Oddly, Aamir didn't submit so much in Mela, you know.

01:02:10 His mind started working more because of Kaunshabhad Faisal and all that stuff.

01:02:14 And he had become so big with Rajat Mustani.

01:02:16 So his submission became… it was made with true people's instinct.

01:02:19 And he doesn't have that commercial instinct.

01:02:22 So it became a hodgepodge.

01:02:23 I saved it at the end of the day economically.

01:02:26 But I got a lot of flack for it.

01:02:28 You know, who will believe there's this sequence which I got a lot of flack?

01:02:31 The urine therapy sequence, okay, with Johnny Lever.

01:02:34 Do you know, that's the first time in my life I said…

01:02:37 Actually, forget heroines, I wept on the set.

01:02:40 I said, "Aamir, this is Aamir Khan's sequence. Who will believe it?"

01:02:43 He took it from a film called Dumb and Dumber, I think.

01:02:46 He said, "Dhanmish, come on now, you can't be pretentious.

01:02:49 You have to do it. You will shoot it like no other director."

01:02:52 I said, "But Aamir, this is not my style.

01:02:54 I can do 'Kamariya Lachkere' also.

01:02:57 You know, like, 'Huttop pe aisi baat Vijayanand did' or 'Husn ke lakh roh'.

01:03:01 But this is vulgar."

01:03:03 But then he said, "I had committed. I did it."

01:03:06 So true people's instinct.

01:03:09 Dhadka, I became like a tiger.

01:03:12 And the actors again were on a little low.

01:03:16 What a commitment.

01:03:19 Shilpa was not at the top of her game.

01:03:22 Akshay and Suresh, yeah.

01:03:24 But there's Sammish.

01:03:28 Again, low, low world.

01:03:31 "Shilpa to chhod do. Akshay Kumar, his brotherhood.

01:03:36 He's the only actor I call Akshayji.

01:03:39 He's my age.

01:03:41 I wanted to make him feel Ram.

01:03:44 He was doing a different kind of cinema.

01:03:46 Again, an interesting story, if you want.

01:03:50 One day, I was shooting 'Na Na Karke Pyar'.

01:03:54 And there's the sequence where the plane is flying.

01:03:57 Mr. Jain had booked a very expensive plane.

01:04:01 So it's my response. I'm in distance with the tele lens.

01:04:05 Because the camera can't stand so close to a plane.

01:04:08 And both the lovers, that is Ram and Anjali, Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty are running.

01:04:13 And their velocity is beating the velocity of an engine of a plane.

01:04:18 So I was a little scared because these accidents have happened and they direct against the plane.

01:04:23 So I said, keep a distance between.

01:04:26 And I'm not immediately next to him. I'm at a very big distance on the tarmac.

01:04:30 But Akshayji used to do stunts and all.

01:04:33 He took Shilpa and he missed the plane, just missed him by a centimeter, the wing.

01:04:38 I thought I'm dead here. I can't even cut it because that.

01:04:42 So when it finished, I just, he said, "Kaise laga?"

01:04:45 I was Akshayji but I said, "This is not a dharkan shot. This is a khiladi shot."

01:04:51 It came out of my mouth. My mother was with me and my aunt was with me.

01:05:00 Then we shifted to a location called Thun. I just clammed up.

01:05:04 I started missing Aamir Khan and Sunny Deol and all.

01:05:09 This guy calls me into a corner. Look at me, handsome in a tuxedo and all.

01:05:14 I think it was the best designed something or some top thing for dharkan after so many years.

01:05:21 His clothing also is different, his hairstyle dharkan and all.

01:05:27 He said, "Dharmeshji, you took me into a corner."

01:05:30 I said, "What is he going to talk?"

01:05:32 "You're not concentrating on me suddenly."

01:05:35 I said, "Because you're, I honestly told you, I said because you're disturbing me."

01:05:40 "I don't know, Shilpa toh sunti hai, Sunil Shetty hi suni."

01:05:44 "Lekin yeh shot itna physically lethal tha, main toh dar gaya hu."

01:05:48 "Toh main mujhe lag raha hai, you know, so good. His reference was so good."

01:05:53 He said, "You know, I am the Raj Kapoor guitar, Laa Nargisji."

01:05:58 "You take me here, here or here, I'll bend from here."

01:06:04 I was, instead of getting angry, I was so excited and dharkan happened that day I feel.

01:06:10 I said, "Come on the shot."

01:06:12 That was the analogy he gave you that I'm like that.

01:06:15 This is Mr. Akshay Kumar's homework.

01:06:18 I'm like that guitar and...

01:06:20 Look at life, I would come and tell Twinkle Khanna the story.

01:06:24 And she said, "Akshay Kumar said this?" I said, "Yeah."

01:06:27 I said, "He's gonna make it again big."

01:06:30 He comes at 5 o'clock in the morning.

01:06:33 He listens like nobody.

01:06:35 He doesn't do politics on the set.

01:06:38 Whatever masti he does, make-up room.

01:06:41 Doesn't get to pally.

01:06:44 At least he didn't, you know, and he lets the director, writer do his job at dharkan.

01:06:49 So that was, and Sunil Shetty.

01:06:52 Can you believe Bharati, Puru Rajkumar refused the film.

01:06:58 He did? He refused Sunil Shetty's role?

01:07:01 Dev.

01:07:02 Oh. And why?

01:07:05 The producer told me, Rajkumarji's son is the new thing on the block.

01:07:10 Prakash Mehraji's also signed him.

01:07:12 And please meet him once.

01:07:18 I went to meet him at NSCA. I like to go to meet actors.

01:07:21 You know. I have no hang-up over that. I don't want to pitch them.

01:07:25 But if I'm sitting in a film, I've never pitched to an actor.

01:07:28 Nothing wrong in pitching but I haven't done it.

01:07:30 And he told me, "It's a negative role."

01:07:34 So instantly I said, "Don't do it."

01:07:36 If you didn't understand Dev, don't do it.

01:07:39 Then there was a certain day I had all the topmost superstars game.

01:07:43 Because Rajan Justhani was playing.

01:07:45 I said, "But that will disturb Akshay Kumar."

01:07:47 The whole equation changes.

01:07:49 I had two people in mind.

01:07:51 Mr. Ajay Devgn.

01:07:52 He had the darkness of the role.

01:07:55 And the poverty of the role.

01:07:57 Not of money, of soul.

01:07:59 Yes.

01:08:00 Gurbaksh as they call it.

01:08:01 And I had Sunil Shetty in mind.

01:08:03 You know the scene where he's envious of Akshay Kumar and he's looking.

01:08:07 All this undercurrent.

01:08:09 Sunil Shetty was a dream.

01:08:11 I couldn't believe his performance.

01:08:14 Anjali!

01:08:15 Anjali!

01:08:16 I can't forget you.

01:08:19 And I won't let you forget me.

01:08:23 You'll be mine in this life.

01:08:26 Then you listen to this too, Dev.

01:08:28 Not just this life.

01:08:30 I'll be his for the next seven lives.

01:08:33 Only his.

01:08:35 He wouldn't do rehearsals.

01:08:37 But you say, "I want you to rehearse, rehearse and rehearse."

01:08:40 I'm just sitting here.

01:08:41 There was no mobile phone he would bring.

01:08:45 I felt, Aamir Khan and all are such involved actors.

01:08:49 These people are, you know.

01:08:51 If they behave, what actors these are.

01:08:53 If they want, if the director is allowed to help, you know.

01:08:57 And Dhadkan happened.

01:08:59 For the best film of the award and all that.

01:09:01 Sunil Shetty was very, very good.

01:09:04 Very good. Akshay was so.

01:09:05 Actually, Akshay benefited the maximum from Dhadkan.

01:09:08 He's still playing the ideal Indian man from there.

01:09:11 Whether in a patriotic film or whether in an action.

01:09:14 That is, Ram has become his, you know, motive.

01:09:17 And I'm happy for them.

01:09:18 Why, there's Mahima Chaudhary also.

01:09:21 Let's not forget her.

01:09:22 She was the last minute addition, do you know?

01:09:24 Really?

01:09:25 There was no character.

01:09:27 There was no such character.

01:09:28 There wasn't.

01:09:29 You see, what happened, I didn't want the second half to be over intense.

01:09:32 I felt, the film will run, if the paper doesn't get ruined.

01:09:35 You know, I wanted a hit film and a good film.

01:09:39 And after Mela, I wanted again, you know.

01:09:41 Instead, Sunil Shetty used to die at the end of the film.

01:09:44 Akshay Kumar was so great.

01:09:45 He said, the scene is his, but please shoot that scene you've narrated to us where he dies.

01:09:49 And I'm holding his hand.

01:09:50 Uski Dhadkan rukh jati hai at the end.

01:09:53 But I wanted, I had survived Mela.

01:09:56 Which was my nightmare after, you know, these kind of successes had been.

01:10:01 I felt, you know, life is not about dying.

01:10:04 Life is about fighting.

01:10:07 How will this man fight and go away somewhere and rebuild a life?

01:10:10 Someone has to come in his life.

01:10:13 That was Sheetal.

01:10:15 And what did Sushmita say?

01:10:17 Shilpa Shetty, Sushmita.

01:10:19 Sushmita said, it's completely Shilpa Shetty's film.

01:10:22 And she was a big heroine.

01:10:24 I said, I can't convince you.

01:10:27 She's Anjali.

01:10:28 Mahima was excited.

01:10:30 She told me a lovely line.

01:10:32 I want a film with shelf life.

01:10:36 I can show my grandchildren.

01:10:37 Very nice of her.

01:10:39 I like the line.

01:10:40 I said, I told the producer, I want Mahima.

01:10:43 And it's actually six scenes and two songs.

01:10:47 But what an impact she left.

01:10:49 But she's always been an effective actor.

01:10:50 Good actress.

01:10:52 Very impactful.

01:10:53 There's power in her performance.

01:10:54 She's different.

01:10:57 She reminds me, you know, some actresses like Sushma Seth.

01:11:00 A senior actress.

01:11:02 Mahima's that school of an artist.

01:11:04 She's got that authority in her performance.

01:11:06 Toy, you know, while talking, you have mentioned a few other films.

01:11:11 You have mentioned absolutely old films.

01:11:14 Kagas Ki Phool and stuff like that.

01:11:16 But one of the things about you which people used to say was that

01:11:19 all your films were remakes of old films.

01:11:21 Of old classics.

01:11:23 But isn't Dawn 1, Dawn 2, Dawn 3?

01:11:25 That is different.

01:11:26 Because they said that your Raja Hindustani was Jab Jab Phool Kele.

01:11:30 And Pyar Jhupta Nahi.

01:11:33 And Passage to India.

01:11:34 See Bharti, Asha Bhosle told me one lovely thing.

01:11:38 She said that Toy, also she calls me.

01:11:42 She was very close to my parents.

01:11:45 She said the best work of cinema is gone.

01:11:48 In 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

01:11:51 You are coming in mid 90s.

01:11:53 Be sure everything is being recycled.

01:11:57 You can bring your original things.

01:11:59 Since it is very difficult to do classics.

01:12:02 You can't put flat on your face.

01:12:03 Great makers' sons can't make those films again.

01:12:06 You can't be a wannabe Raj Kapoor or Gurudutt.

01:12:10 Or Vimal Roy or Ramesh Sippy.

01:12:13 They are original.

01:12:15 But Chole is also a derivative from Mera Gaon Mera Desh.

01:12:18 And Khote Sikke.

01:12:21 Isn't it?

01:12:23 Gabbar is Jabbar.

01:12:25 What more can this be?

01:12:27 So I have no qualms about that.

01:12:31 You don't?

01:12:32 Not at all.

01:12:34 I believe Hindi cinema has so much

01:12:37 Riyaz in it already.

01:12:39 There is so much text book.

01:12:41 Why should I not read my text book going for an exam?

01:12:44 I can't mug them.

01:12:46 I can't pretentiously apply to them.

01:12:48 They won't even work.

01:12:50 But don't you think even when you have done films like

01:12:52 much later, I think one of the last films you did was Aapki Khalsa.

01:12:55 That was also take over an English film.

01:12:58 Wedding Date, I believe.

01:13:00 You see what happened was the producer again,

01:13:02 this was the third time working with him.

01:13:04 You know my problem has been, I have done all kinds of films.

01:13:07 But I think, I don't know whether it is my personal conduct or anything.

01:13:10 The image has become,

01:13:13 I am a very cool, liberated person.

01:13:15 I shot the Begum Kissing scene.

01:13:17 But culture has become a part of my film, I feel.

01:13:20 So okay, so you said you don't have a problem

01:13:23 admitting that you are inspired by our classics.

01:13:29 The image went against me again in Aapki Khatar.

01:13:31 Two sisters, then the escort Akshay Khanna,

01:13:34 I removed that whole, you know the physical aspect.

01:13:37 I told the producer, are you sure?

01:13:39 He said, you are the director for this film in London.

01:13:43 You have that aspect.

01:13:45 Your film sells internationally, globally, overseas and sells India.

01:13:48 And then he told me also that, come on Bekum.

01:13:51 My assistants also told me,

01:13:53 Abhi ek 6 main hai film paise leke bana liye.

01:13:57 Aap ek uthaat ke de dete.

01:13:58 Aapko galiyan bhi padti hai.

01:14:00 Toh aap regular director kyu nahi ban jateye?

01:14:02 Jaise South ki directors chaar picture karte,

01:14:04 Bombay me bhi paanch picture karte,

01:14:06 ek aur kar lo jab ki toh.

01:14:08 Toh I said, chalo kisi ne script likhi,

01:14:10 kisi ne film hai,

01:14:12 kisi ne Himesh Reshamia ke gaane,

01:14:14 uski bhi music acchi hai.

01:14:16 Amongst Himesh's best, you know.

01:14:18 But I just felt, again, image.

01:14:22 It's not a bad film, haan.

01:14:26 I mean, it's a very good performance.

01:14:27 But it didn't do well.

01:14:29 It usually went again abroad.

01:14:31 Because that was the subject.

01:14:33 You know, one day I went to the Taj in Delhi.

01:14:35 There was a top film which is considered a hit.

01:14:37 Which was selling in London.

01:14:39 Which was selling 5 pounds that film and 20 pounds Aapki Kaatar.

01:14:44 So I called up Ratan Jain ji, I said, is it true?

01:14:47 He said, obviously in the Virgin store,

01:14:49 from where will I put a sticker?

01:14:51 Only I did not talk.

01:14:54 Why do you think I will show Kamrit Raj in between?

01:14:57 What's your problem, lady?

01:14:59 Cricket ka doosra naam, passion hai.

01:15:01 Wild passion.

01:15:03 Kunal is right, Shirani.

01:15:05 Cricket ke liye toh nahi,

01:15:07 lekin cricketers ke liye, mere dil mein pahut passion hai.

01:15:09 She's crazy.

01:15:11 Chal Aman, bowling kar.

01:15:13 Lekin usse pehle let me warn you,

01:15:15 main LCC ka opening batsman hoon.

01:15:17 And LCC is London Cricket Club.

01:15:22 Arre, main bhi LCC ka strike bowler hoon.

01:15:25 Lokhandwala Cricket Club.

01:15:26 What went wrong because after Dhadkan,

01:15:30 things have just gone down.

01:15:32 See, no director can,

01:15:34 no film of mine has, I chose 7 films.

01:15:37 Every producer wants to repeat me,

01:15:39 producers have one golden rule,

01:15:41 you should be disciplined, you should not jilt the film midway

01:15:44 and they should make economic,

01:15:46 because they are the producers, why should we lose money?

01:15:48 And you have to work within the budget as far as possible.

01:15:50 Budget also, and I spend also.

01:15:53 I buy costumes and you know,

01:15:54 locations, music, cost and all this.

01:15:56 I take stars and everything.

01:15:59 Every film of mine, including the lesser ones,

01:16:02 all of you call them failures,

01:16:04 I made minted money for the producers.

01:16:06 What went wrong with Haan Mainne Bhi Pyar Kiya?

01:16:08 Not a film I should have done.

01:16:10 It's one of those films which,

01:16:12 like directors give their assistants ka naam na.

01:16:16 Firstly, it was done for personal reasons.

01:16:21 I had distanced from my brother from my first film.

01:16:23 I went outside and both my parents were very very unwell.

01:16:26 They felt brothers should get together.

01:16:28 I felt no.

01:16:30 So that was very disturbing for me.

01:16:32 I don't want to like, you know, say beyond that.

01:16:34 Abhishek and Karishma,

01:16:36 first time ever they have done a film before or after that.

01:16:39 That was not, Abhishek, a very sweet guy,

01:16:41 that was not the Lolo I had seen in Raja Hindustani.

01:16:44 This was a distracted girl.

01:16:49 It's actually with an emotional thing with him,

01:16:51 marriage, Shona, I guess.

01:16:53 Because when they signed the film, they were together,

01:16:56 but during the making of the film,

01:16:58 the problems started between them.

01:17:00 And I am not a psychiatrist.

01:17:02 And that told on the film.

01:17:04 And that told on the film, now what do I do?

01:17:06 And I am not a psychiatrist,

01:17:08 I can't interfere in their relationship.

01:17:10 And I am hearing both the sides,

01:17:12 I will be honest with you.

01:17:14 I am watching also.

01:17:16 Plus as I said, I should have done the film

01:17:18 as a home production, I don't want to do.

01:17:19 So I think it's got superb music again.

01:17:22 You know, Amitabh Bachchan called it an old-fashioned film.

01:17:27 But he said that.

01:17:29 But Jayaji loved the film oddly.

01:17:31 She loved the aggression of the girl who says

01:17:35 that you went out for one,

01:17:39 I am going to divorce you.

01:17:41 She says you had one one-night stand,

01:17:44 I am divorcing you in the film.

01:17:47 Jayaji loved that.

01:17:48 So, that's okay.

01:17:51 You can't go right.

01:17:53 You can't go right.

01:17:55 Look at Gaddar.

01:17:57 Anilji has made that in 2001.

01:17:59 In between I don't think there is anything.

01:18:01 He has made big films.

01:18:03 He made Veer and stuff.

01:18:05 But those films didn't work.

01:18:07 Very massive films with massive stars.

01:18:09 But look, once you have a director's discipline

01:18:12 and has achieved, he cannot deliver.

01:18:15 Whether it's Raj Kapoor, Hitchcock, who am I?

01:18:17 I don't stand a chance. Ramesh Sippy.

01:18:19 That's right.

01:18:21 And then what about Devafa?

01:18:23 Devafa did well internationally.

01:18:25 I really mean that.

01:18:27 It's counted as one of your disappointments.

01:18:29 Yes, a disappointment in comparison.

01:18:31 No, it's a good film.

01:18:33 I don't back out of the film.

01:18:35 And there again it was Gumraab.

01:18:37 Yeah, first half.

01:18:39 And Devafa had some problems.

01:18:41 Boney, absolutely amongst the best producers I have worked with.

01:18:44 Sridevi Productions.

01:18:45 Boney takes time to make films.

01:18:48 He takes his own time.

01:18:50 In between I don't do films.

01:18:52 Murder, same film they made.

01:18:56 They happened to know.

01:18:59 You know, this happens when you are making big films.

01:19:01 In six months with Malika Shirawat and Imran Hashmi

01:19:04 and Ashmit Patel, they made the same film.

01:19:06 And we were 18% complete.

01:19:08 And I had to re-correct my film.

01:19:10 For rubbish reasons.

01:19:13 Another thing I feel the soul is missing in the second half.

01:19:17 I wanted Akshay to be more passionate.

01:19:20 Which is in his performance.

01:19:22 But he is very good looking.

01:19:24 I wanted love making with the repressed wife

01:19:27 who was once his girlfriend.

01:19:29 Akshay felt you have done Ram with me.

01:19:31 But Ram was a different film.

01:19:33 I explained it to him.

01:19:35 But he said, "No, Dharmesh, not you getting into this zone."

01:19:41 I said, "I don't want any physical exposure."

01:19:44 "I want the depth of her attraction to you."

01:19:50 She is married to a much older brother-in-law.

01:19:52 If that was there in the second half,

01:19:54 one more hit film.

01:19:56 It broke Boney's jinx in its own way.

01:19:59 Then No Entry came.

01:20:01 It made Boney good money.

01:20:03 It did superbly internationally.

01:20:05 It did well in big cities.

01:20:07 But unfortunately it was not all over the country.

01:20:10 It suffers from a comparison of dhadkan.

01:20:12 But when you see it with time on digital,

01:20:16 it is beautifully shot and good performances.

01:20:20 Would you like to tell me a little bit about your personal life?

01:20:25 Because you see, while these films were being made,

01:20:28 you also were battling something on the home front

01:20:31 where your parents were falling ill.

01:20:33 Maybe you were distracted there.

01:20:35 But you haven't really talked about that.

01:20:37 Oh yes, I am talking first time about that.

01:20:39 And to you especially, who knows a lot.

01:20:41 Yes.

01:20:46 Immediately my mega success of my three films,

01:20:51 a very young mother of mine who was just 56-57,

01:20:55 discovered overnight she has Parkinson's.

01:20:58 And there was no aware of Parkinson's till the millennium in India.

01:21:03 And my father,

01:21:05 discovered, we discovered he has got Alzheimer's.

01:21:11 This happened simultaneously?

01:21:14 Saath pe.

01:21:16 And they were not sold.

01:21:19 Now I became the caregiver.

01:21:24 They don't have life threatening diseases,

01:21:28 but they have neurological disorders.

01:21:30 Don't know.

01:21:32 They have been very strict parents.

01:21:34 Suddenly they became children.

01:21:37 I am working 18 hours a day, the kind of break time.

01:21:40 Editing kar raho, yeh kar raho, the thing I get email.

01:21:43 I am running back at 2 o'clock in the night after shooting,

01:21:46 I am seeing my mother.

01:21:48 I am getting tremors, you know Parkinson's.

01:21:51 And then 4 hours she is okay.

01:21:53 I go to shooting, at 12 o'clock in the afternoon,

01:21:55 she is hospitalized.

01:21:57 In spite of that I didn't back out of the film.

01:21:59 I had left Hollywood.

01:22:02 Because when you meet an Alzheimer's patient,

01:22:04 people say he is perfectly all right.

01:22:07 But the caregiver, suddenly in the night what happens to him.

01:22:11 I had a very big career in films.

01:22:15 Films are not an easy place to be in.

01:22:17 All kinds of competitiveness.

01:22:19 I am not even crying.

01:22:21 People cry, they are personal.

01:22:23 Ki yeh mer bimaar hai, mai bimaar.

01:22:25 I am being very quiet.

01:22:27 It is very personal, my parents illness.

01:22:29 I think it took a toll on the latter half of my career.

01:22:31 Okay.

01:22:32 Luckily I was not alcoholic.

01:22:34 I was not doped.

01:22:36 I was not wild.

01:22:38 I was not a party guy.

01:22:40 I love celebration like all Punjabis and film people do.

01:22:44 But it took a very emotional toll on me.

01:22:50 So when I went on to the sets,

01:22:52 I could not give so much emotionally.

01:22:54 Oh.

01:22:56 If you see all my superb films,

01:22:59 there is a madness in them.

01:23:01 Ek junoon.

01:23:03 Ek junoon hai.

01:23:05 Ab mai committed hoon next filmon mein.

01:23:07 Lekin mera junoon itna,

01:23:09 parents ke baare mein soch raha hoon din raat.

01:23:11 Abroad jaa raha hoon.

01:23:13 Toh mai soch raha hoon, ab yeh 3 maine mein aaya gaya hoon.

01:23:17 Ab pata nahi wahaan kaise hoga.

01:23:19 Matlab ghar pe kya ho raha ho?

01:23:21 Ghar pe kya ho raha ho?

01:23:23 Konsa mujhe phone aayega?

01:23:25 Kisko kya ho raha ho?

01:23:28 Highly invested.

01:23:29 Instead I feel parents

01:23:31 should not allow their children to be so invested in them.

01:23:34 They should keep children at a little.

01:23:36 Because like when they go and stop films also.

01:23:39 You,

01:23:41 the umbilical cord should be severed somewhere.

01:23:44 Not just physically but forever.

01:23:47 I was extremely, my mother was a very beautiful, vulnerable woman.

01:23:50 She was nana bhai but daughter, my aunt mama but sister.

01:23:53 I'll come to that.

01:23:56 Something else only.

01:23:58 Have you seen the character of Padmini Kolhapuri in Prem Rog?

01:24:01 Yes.

01:24:03 The innocence and then the, she was like that.

01:24:05 She suddenly became a very strict mother to a daughter, to a sister, to a patient.

01:24:11 Toh I and then that thing lasted for 10-12 years both of them.

01:24:14 Long term innocence.

01:24:16 You mean your mother's Parkinson's?

01:24:18 Lasted 10 years, a decade.

01:24:21 And my father's 14 years.

01:24:23 Of Alzheimer's?

01:24:25 And these were running parallel and that's when you were doing all these second lot of films.

01:24:29 Films, second lot of films.

01:24:31 I'm rushing to the hospitals.

01:24:33 I'm checking on the nurses in the night.

01:24:36 I'm dealing with film industry.

01:24:38 You know when you become that big everyone around to get you.

01:24:41 You know how it is.

01:24:43 So in the past if I would quarrel with the actor.

01:24:46 That why have you come late?

01:24:48 With my parent also I'm coming on time.

01:24:51 You know what I'm saying.

01:24:54 You see the star of the film.

01:24:55 As a star maker.

01:24:57 You're doing 7 films, I'm doing 1.

01:24:59 I don't even mind that.

01:25:01 Make your bucks.

01:25:03 You're doing events everything.

01:25:05 But come and this dates for the full 12 hours or 10 hours.

01:25:07 I stopped fighting.

01:25:09 I said okay.

01:25:11 I became technical.

01:25:13 You mean the emotional investment and junoon that you had in your films.

01:25:17 As you can see when I'm talking again I've healed.

01:25:20 There's a junoon again.

01:25:23 I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that.

01:25:24 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:26 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:28 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:30 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:32 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:34 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:36 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:38 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:40 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:42 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:44 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:46 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:48 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:50 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:52 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:53 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:55 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:57 I'm not going to say that.

01:25:59 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:01 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:03 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:05 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:07 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:09 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:11 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:13 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:15 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:17 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:19 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:21 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:22 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:24 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:26 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:28 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:30 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:32 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:34 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:36 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:38 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:40 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:42 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:44 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:46 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:48 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:50 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:51 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:53 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:55 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:57 I'm not going to say that.

01:26:59 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:01 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:03 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:05 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:07 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:09 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:11 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:13 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:15 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:17 I'm not going to say that.

01:27:19 By that time my mother also was married.

01:27:21 So, how my mother, my original grandmother, Shirinji,

01:27:27 I didn't even know how mother was Shirinji till Mahesh Mama had such an issue.

01:27:30 I'm brought up by my maternal grandparents.

01:27:32 When I was born, my mother was ill for five years.

01:27:35 I lived in Silver Sands at Shivaji Park with Mahesh Mama, Mukesh Mama,

01:27:40 my maasis, my gorgeous maasis.

01:27:43 Maasis means your mother's, meaning Shirin, Alice.

01:27:48 No, no, those are my mother's maasis, my maasis.

01:27:50 Like Mahesh Bhatt is my mama's, my maasis, Purnima maasis, Chhota maasis.

01:27:54 Sheela, the daughter.

01:27:56 Sheelaji's sisters.

01:27:58 All younger than her.

01:28:00 So, they brought me up for those five, six years.

01:28:02 I never saw my grandfather or grandmother absent.

01:28:04 What night he's not coming.

01:28:06 He made 108 films in 20 years.

01:28:09 Can you imagine, Nanabhai Bhatji.

01:28:12 Can you imagine directing 108 films in 20, 25 years?

01:28:16 Can a man have time to sleep or eat?

01:28:18 I had an extraordinary other grandmother.

01:28:21 Who was also…

01:28:23 The legitimate one or they were both legitimate?

01:28:25 They were both legitimate.

01:28:27 Because I saw both of them.

01:28:29 My mama's, Pappu Mama, my mother sent him to Japan to study.

01:28:35 Who is Pappu Mama?

01:28:37 The other, supposedly step-mama.

01:28:40 Okay, okay.

01:28:42 Now, coming to Robin Bhatt.

01:28:45 My mama's and mami's, supposedly of this other religion thing.

01:28:48 Sheela is the name.

01:28:50 Purnima is the name.

01:28:52 Kumkum is the name.

01:28:54 Hina is the name.

01:28:56 Mahesh is Shivji's name.

01:28:58 Mukesh is the name.

01:29:00 Instead, there, Robin is the name.

01:29:02 You mean Nanabhai's Gujarati wife.

01:29:05 Gujarati wife.

01:29:07 But if you saw my grandmother, this is a photo here.

01:29:09 She should wear a Gujarati saree.

01:29:11 She spoke Gujarati.

01:29:14 She should wear Mangal Sutra.

01:29:15 So, I felt what is this whole thing?

01:29:17 So, when you lived your early years in your mother's house,

01:29:21 mother's parents' house.

01:29:23 They were vegetarian.

01:29:25 Mahesh Bhatt himself is vegetarian.

01:29:27 They were so strict Gujarati in that sense.

01:29:29 So, you never saw Shireen Ali as a Muslim and as a…

01:29:32 The name on the doorway was Mrs. S. N. Bhatt.

01:29:36 I thought her name is Sneha.

01:29:38 Till 16 or 18.

01:29:40 It never occurred to me.

01:29:43 I never called her Mamma.

01:29:44 I never called her Amma.

01:29:46 So, you mean to say that this entire story of Mahesh Bhatt being illegitimate

01:29:51 and that his father and mother never got married.

01:29:53 This is his viewpoint.

01:29:55 Except he should have been more responsible for it.

01:29:57 Because if you are alone, as he is shown in his films.

01:29:59 I think Kumar Gaurav is alone in Janam or something.

01:30:02 But you have three sisters

01:30:04 who are married into traditional homes

01:30:07 and have children.

01:30:09 What rubbish are you making?

01:30:12 I think every daughter had Mr. and Mrs. Nana Bhatt

01:30:14 inviting you for the Kanyadaan.

01:30:16 Every Kanyadaan my grandfather has done.

01:30:19 That poor man was…

01:30:21 What was he flocked for?

01:30:23 A great man.

01:30:25 What are you saying?

01:30:27 Yes. And I am saying this with utter conviction.

01:30:30 You can see how I have answered all the questions.

01:30:33 Yes, this may be Mahesh Bhatt's viewpoint for cinema.

01:30:36 But that's not real.

01:30:38 Unfortunately…

01:30:41 As far as I am concerned

01:30:42 and I am a person who doesn't talk rubbish.

01:30:44 But he made a film called Najais

01:30:46 which was supposed to be based on his life.

01:30:48 Please see the film again.

01:30:50 It's only called Najais.

01:30:52 There is nothing in the film.

01:30:54 Well, there is Pooja Bhatt playing Zakkam also.

01:30:56 I haven't seen these films also.

01:30:58 They are perturbing.

01:31:00 But there are songs, very lovely songs.

01:31:02 Gali Mein Chaan Nikt.

01:31:04 Mahesh Bhatt has a very good sense of music.

01:31:06 So now that indicates…

01:31:09 See, he and mummy are too…

01:31:10 I am late.

01:31:12 Which night did my grandfather…

01:31:14 He was in Mehboob Studios.

01:31:16 He was in Filmistan, Filmala.

01:31:20 He had three hours to sleep making 108 films.

01:31:23 Have mercy.

01:31:25 And my grandmother had six children

01:31:27 and the other grandmother had three children.

01:31:29 Yes, but what I am trying to say is

01:31:31 he made a film where he had these beautiful songs.

01:31:33 Gali Mein Chaan Nikt.

01:31:35 So that indicates, that song itself

01:31:38 indicated an absentee father

01:31:40 that she is waiting for her husband

01:31:42 and he is not turning up.

01:31:44 No, when he was not an absentee grandfather.

01:31:46 I doubt he could have been an absentee father.

01:31:48 Or an absentee husband.

01:31:50 Husband?

01:31:52 I want to tell you a story about him.

01:31:54 He was at the fag end of his career

01:31:56 after 108 films.

01:31:58 On his verge to become physically blind.

01:32:00 I was a 60 year old child.

01:32:02 He loved my mother because she was his first born.

01:32:05 He was very proud of her.

01:32:07 Of her sensitivity, of her dignity and everything.

01:32:09 He took me to Nasik for a shoot.

01:32:12 In the car.

01:32:14 I was this pampered Punjabi boy.

01:32:17 I wanted to eat fish.

01:32:19 Okay.

01:32:21 He said, "Daal kha lo."

01:32:23 I said, "Nahi, daddy." I used to call him.

01:32:25 I called my father, "Dad."

01:32:27 I used to call him, "Daddy."

01:32:29 "Daddy, mujhe machhi chahiye."

01:32:31 But I didn't know how to be a girl.

01:32:33 Kata mujhe kha jaata tha.

01:32:36 I met a very good actor.

01:32:37 Who was from Viramgam in Gujarat.

01:32:39 Who never had a single, except for this nonsense scandal

01:32:41 which was brought up at age 70 for him.

01:32:43 Who led such a...

01:32:45 honest life.

01:32:49 You know.

01:32:52 Those days you were allowed two wives.

01:32:54 Arey, 59.

01:32:56 Now what does he do at 59?

01:32:58 It's 20 years to his marriage.

01:33:00 He's got six children.

01:33:02 My elder daughter, my mother's married.

01:33:05 And then suddenly after so many years,

01:33:06 this nonsense, unfortunately,

01:33:08 all of us didn't contradict it.

01:33:10 We thought it will die, die.

01:33:14 And our love for Mahesh Mama.

01:33:16 Somewhere I believe,

01:33:18 whether he negates it in his heart.

01:33:20 He knows this is not nice.

01:33:23 Because there are real...

01:33:27 You know what I feel bad about it?

01:33:29 There are really illegitimate children in this world.

01:33:31 Illegitimate partners.

01:33:34 Illegitimate people.

01:33:35 On multiple levels.

01:33:37 You're mocking them by making a charade of this.

01:33:40 Don't do it.

01:33:42 It's a very sensitive topic.

01:33:44 It hurts generations.

01:33:48 Did it affect your parents?

01:33:50 My father.

01:33:52 My mother got Parkinson's.

01:33:54 The doctor was...

01:33:58 That's your friend.

01:34:00 Chunky Pandey's mother

01:34:03 was my mother's schoolmate from Kannur, Sangam.

01:34:04 And she shared that she got Parkinson's

01:34:07 after 10 years because of it.

01:34:09 She got so...

01:34:11 Worked up.

01:34:13 And she didn't know what to do.

01:34:15 She got Parkinson's.

01:34:20 One of the reasons she got...

01:34:22 You can get it from umpteen years.

01:34:24 It triggered it.

01:34:26 Triggered it. And my father went into Alzheimer's.

01:34:28 What you're trying to say is that

01:34:30 Mahesh's revelation,

01:34:32 according to you,

01:34:33 His dishonest revelation.

01:34:35 It disturbed your mother so much

01:34:37 that it triggered her Parkinson's.

01:34:40 After 10 years.

01:34:42 She bottled it so much.

01:34:44 You see, my father was right.

01:34:46 Suddenly,

01:34:48 why should he be answering?

01:34:50 You know, people are teasers.

01:34:52 People are mean.

01:34:54 He's got such a great life.

01:34:56 He's a big man.

01:34:58 Why should he suddenly answer

01:35:01 when you say, "What crap is this?"

01:35:02 But I'm surprised that your grandparents

01:35:04 who were alive at that time,

01:35:06 they didn't come out and...

01:35:08 My grandfather made a statement in a paper.

01:35:10 Oh, he did?

01:35:12 Yes. He gave a piece in his blindness.

01:35:14 "Bharati, how much can 80 year old people,

01:35:17 blind,

01:35:19 how much will they rock the boat?"

01:35:22 Please.

01:35:27 Another thing,

01:35:30 my grandfather gave a statement

01:35:31 that why is he doing this?

01:35:33 We are a united family.

01:35:35 I have nine children.

01:35:37 I have two wives.

01:35:39 So, what was it that affected

01:35:41 your mother and father so much?

01:35:44 The outrage.

01:35:47 The dishonesty.

01:35:49 The dishonesty

01:35:51 and my mother's extreme weakness

01:35:53 for her brother.

01:35:55 Who she had...

01:35:57 Elder sisters at that time

01:35:59 who was a 10 year...

01:36:00 After she was the first daughter,

01:36:02 he was the first son.

01:36:04 So, there was a 10 year gap.

01:36:06 She was like his mother.

01:36:08 Because she washed him, bathed him.

01:36:10 Are you getting me?

01:36:12 And then at 16 she was married off.

01:36:14 She was crazy about her brother.

01:36:16 She has two brothers, Mukesh Mama also

01:36:18 and of course Robin Mama and the other one.

01:36:20 They also are brothers.

01:36:22 But Mahesh Mama and my mother

01:36:24 look the same.

01:36:26 How do I explain this to you?

01:36:28 He was a lady, he was a man.

01:36:29 Two sides of the coin.

01:36:32 Hyper sensitive people.

01:36:34 Extremely emotionally sharp.

01:36:36 She didn't get into the market.

01:36:38 She never needed to be.

01:36:40 Could be he had his reasons

01:36:42 of survival in the market.

01:36:44 But I just feel that

01:36:46 if you are alone

01:36:48 and you don't make others answerable for you,

01:36:50 please do whatever you want.

01:36:52 But then if others you are making answerable

01:36:54 for unnecessary market reasons,

01:36:57 then you have to do it.

01:36:58 I fought with him also.

01:37:00 You did?

01:37:02 Yeah. But in my cultured way.

01:37:05 I said, you know what you are doing to my mother.

01:37:08 But when your mother passed on,

01:37:10 your father passed on.

01:37:12 He was there everywhere.

01:37:14 Because I was here.

01:37:16 Love and all is very much there.

01:37:18 I am not calling him Mahesh and all.

01:37:20 He is Mahesh Mama.

01:37:22 Are you getting me?

01:37:24 Why my cousins and all, Pooja.

01:37:26 She is a very sweet girl.

01:37:27 I don't know Alia.

01:37:29 Both my mommies are beautiful.

01:37:31 Kiran mommy was something else only.

01:37:33 Her name was Lauren Bright.

01:37:35 Soni I don't know so much.

01:37:37 But she is civil.

01:37:39 Mukesh Ma's wife Neelu mami.

01:37:41 I have got extraordinary.

01:37:43 These guys,

01:37:45 you know what I mean to say.

01:37:47 You know how it happens.

01:37:49 But you know every time I feel

01:37:51 Jaane Do.

01:37:53 He was there

01:37:55 and he took my hand

01:37:56 and he took me around

01:37:58 and lit the funeral pyre.

01:38:00 He is a very nice person.

01:38:02 I have known Mahesh as a very nice person.

01:38:04 Let me tell you Mahesh Ma knows nothing about

01:38:06 how to handle a bank account.

01:38:08 That Mukesh Ma.

01:38:10 Mahesh Ma is a very

01:38:12 deeply

01:38:14 he is really

01:38:16 he is not pretending to be.

01:38:18 Mahesh Ma

01:38:20 can be very protective.

01:38:22 Once I had a problem with Anil.

01:38:24 Once I had a problem with Anupam Kher in Lutere.

01:38:25 Who I had very good relation with.

01:38:27 Mahesh Ma set it equally.

01:38:29 Oh.

01:38:31 It is not like that.

01:38:33 My mother would talk.

01:38:35 You know my mother before her death

01:38:37 the Rakhi which came she just turned up.

01:38:39 She had stopped tying Rakhi to them.

01:38:41 And he had gone for lunch.

01:38:43 She landed at Mukesh Ma's office.

01:38:45 In that ill state from the hospital she went.

01:38:47 She is somewhere saying she is going.

01:38:49 She tied Rakhi on him that thing.

01:38:51 Asked for his protection.

01:38:53 The Maasi told me for 5-6 hours

01:38:54 I don't know what they spoke.

01:38:56 The mom and Mukesh Ma.

01:38:58 Mahesh Ma Ma.

01:39:00 This was just before she passed on.

01:39:02 3-4 months.

01:39:04 I wish I knew what they spoke.

01:39:06 But I think I underreacted first in my silence.

01:39:08 You know that happened.

01:39:10 I think that took a toll on me how

01:39:12 that Mahesh Ma did so much of media giri

01:39:14 that I just

01:39:16 shrunk from it.

01:39:18 I am articulate.

01:39:20 I am expressive.

01:39:22 I had my reach.

01:39:23 Of course today social media.

01:39:25 He could not do this in social media.

01:39:27 Because the counters would have come up.

01:39:30 Immediately.

01:39:32 Chalo the next generation.

01:39:34 Sisters and all are forgiving.

01:39:36 Nephews, nieces, grandchildren.

01:39:38 Are you getting what I am missing?

01:39:40 And my other grandmother.

01:39:42 What a lady.

01:39:44 You mean Nana Bhai's Gujarati wife

01:39:47 who is Robin Bhatt's mother.

01:39:49 She was a nice lady?

01:39:51 She was not nice.

01:39:52 She was outstanding.

01:39:54 But Mahesh has always talked about

01:39:56 the trauma he had as a child

01:39:58 when he went to Mithra.

01:40:00 Which is why he said he got put off

01:40:02 by Hindu rituals and

01:40:04 Hinduism etc.

01:40:06 Where does Hinduism come into all this?

01:40:08 Because that was a Hindu household.

01:40:10 This was also a Hindu household.

01:40:12 Ok.

01:40:14 Where does this religion bashing come?

01:40:17 You know what I am missing?

01:40:20 What is happening?

01:40:21 Mahesh has said it.

01:40:23 I do deny it.

01:40:25 That's why I am answering you deeply.

01:40:27 You are not saying anything wrong.

01:40:29 You are saying instead you are

01:40:31 underplaying what all he has said.

01:40:33 I think it's gracious of you.

01:40:35 I feel, yes, what can I deny?

01:40:37 She was a nice lady.

01:40:39 She was not nice Bharti.

01:40:41 She was even better than my own grandmother.

01:40:43 No one can be what she was.

01:40:45 She was a gracious lady.

01:40:47 She was gracious.

01:40:49 She was gracious to a point of nobility.

01:40:50 All my three of them,

01:40:52 Nana Bhai Bhatji,

01:40:54 Mrs. S.H. Bhatt,

01:40:56 Shireen Nana Bhai Bhattji,

01:40:58 my immediate grandmother,

01:41:00 blood grandmother,

01:41:02 and my other grandmother,

01:41:04 I am forgetting her name,

01:41:06 please forget me,

01:41:08 and because I would also call her Mamma.

01:41:10 So, if I call this one Mamma,

01:41:12 I am calling her Mamma.

01:41:14 I am not calling her Aunty or something.

01:41:16 Instead, I am calling her Mamma.

01:41:18 Incidentally,

01:41:19 my mother, I believe,

01:41:21 in the first seven years,

01:41:23 was brought up by her.

01:41:25 Because for first seven years,

01:41:27 there was no child to both the mothers.

01:41:29 Then the baggage came after my grandfather became a director

01:41:31 and seven children came,

01:41:33 both sides everywhere.

01:41:35 So, that time, you know.

01:41:37 I consider it a blessing

01:41:44 that I am speaking in the period

01:41:47 of such shraadh

01:41:48 which is a homage to one's grandparents,

01:41:50 parents,

01:41:52 correcting the wrongs with a single right.

01:41:54 Toy, you had problems

01:41:59 with your career.

01:42:01 Your career took a dip

01:42:03 because you had problems

01:42:05 with various films

01:42:07 and with a lot going on in your personal life,

01:42:09 which you have just talked about.

01:42:12 Do we see

01:42:15 Dharmesh Darshan coming out of his sabbatical

01:42:18 or is that for life?

01:42:20 You see, Indians know

01:42:22 nothing is for life.

01:42:24 Indians don't know the concept of sabbatical.

01:42:26 They think if you are not doing work,

01:42:28 that means you are not getting work.

01:42:30 It's a fact.

01:42:32 I hope this comes up.

01:42:34 Everything to be adapting, I hope they understand.

01:42:36 If you are not in news, that means

01:42:38 you are not doing anything worth it.

01:42:41 Hello, I had been 18 years on the top.

01:42:44 I had parents who passed away overnight

01:42:45 with neurological long term illnesses.

01:42:47 Cinema was changing,

01:42:49 corporate cinema by 2010.

01:42:51 The world was changing post recession.

01:42:53 And I was very tired

01:42:55 emotionally.

01:42:57 Plus I have this huge resume to live up with.

01:43:02 I am still answering that the films

01:43:04 which I have done reasonably well are called failures.

01:43:06 Ab main kya bolu?

01:43:08 Main accept karta hoon.

01:43:10 Lekin no film maker, no hero,

01:43:13 no hero, no hero.

01:43:14 I am a very content man

01:43:16 and a very restless artist.

01:43:19 If you can understand the dichotomy of it.

01:43:22 10, 11, 12 years.

01:43:25 After Aapki Khater, I was signed

01:43:27 this time to do two films.

01:43:29 One with Mr. Ramesh Torani

01:43:31 who had done Raja Hindustani with Tips in Aayog.

01:43:35 With Akshay Kumar

01:43:37 at his peak.

01:43:39 So, Ramesh Torani, Tips had signed you to do a film.

01:43:42 2009, when my mother passed away suddenly.

01:43:44 Immediately overnight returned the money.

01:43:47 He said, I am ready to wait.

01:43:49 He was gracious.

01:43:51 And why did you do that?

01:43:53 I said, I don't know when I am going to get up again.

01:43:55 And I am exiting.

01:43:57 Because you were still to recover.

01:43:59 Recover.

01:44:01 When she passed away, dad was completely alone.

01:44:03 Majorly.

01:44:05 I had no idea mummy used to,

01:44:07 in Parkinson's also, you know how wives handled.

01:44:09 Alzheimer's galloped off his,

01:44:11 with his partner gone.

01:44:13 Suddenly I had to be grounded at home.

01:44:17 I didn't go to Pune.

01:44:19 Forget going abroad and going for location.

01:44:22 So, Ramesh Torani had

01:44:24 actually asked you to do a film

01:44:26 given your signing amount.

01:44:28 A big signing amount.

01:44:30 With Akshay Kumar.

01:44:32 With Akshay Kumar signed by him.

01:44:34 I don't think it was unprofessional of me

01:44:36 because we had not invested a rupee in the project.

01:44:38 Subject was also ready.

01:44:40 I said, I will do another film.

01:44:41 Govinda had made a big comeback with Partner.

01:44:43 That film had Govinda and Sushmita Sen.

01:44:45 And I was considering,

01:44:47 thinking about Aishwarya and Akshay.

01:44:49 Akshay was finalized.

01:44:51 Instead Akshayji I think really felt bad about that.

01:44:54 That I backed out.

01:44:56 But I was too emotionally wrought.

01:44:58 And Govinda, some reason that film,

01:45:03 I didn't end up wanting to do.

01:45:06 Now what happened Bharati?

01:45:09 I thought, now daddy,

01:45:11 after 3-4 years,

01:45:14 I said, 1st January I am going to

01:45:17 start meeting producers.

01:45:19 Actors were as such, I was never

01:45:21 meeting and all. I am very friendly with them

01:45:23 as friends. But I don't

01:45:25 ghusu into anyone. They like their space also.

01:45:27 I also like my space.

01:45:29 Set pe kitna bhi camera devi.

01:45:31 I have never been in any camp or something.

01:45:34 I have got films on my own.

01:45:36 I have worked for all kinds of actors,

01:45:38 and everything.

01:45:39 31st December,

01:45:43 my father passes away.

01:45:45 1st Jan, after 3-4 years,

01:45:48 I am about to start work.

01:45:50 I go back.

01:45:52 Then there are some personal things

01:45:54 which I can't discuss on familial levels.

01:45:56 I am an artist. I didn't know these things exist.

01:45:59 So I started having to combat that.

01:46:03 I couldn't bunk that in my home.

01:46:06 I had been artist enough.

01:46:09 Films were changing too dramatically.

01:46:12 They become very star-centric.

01:46:14 Stars, I have worked with stars all my life.

01:46:16 Stars are stars. What are films without stars?

01:46:19 It will become a sitcom.

01:46:21 You know what I mean to say.

01:46:23 The mileage, a hero, heroine,

01:46:26 gives one a magazine cover,

01:46:28 however big a director he cannot give.

01:46:30 Let's accept it.

01:46:32 That's why on the posters you have stars.

01:46:35 Only south we have a director's statue.

01:46:37 That's why they have reached Bahubali.

01:46:39 Where they were so behind us.

01:46:41 This is something for us to learn.

01:46:43 I think Bombay directors are too democratic.

01:46:45 We are unnecessarily humble.

01:46:47 Today I am saying that.

01:46:49 Could I see anyone,

01:46:51 even a small little celebrity talking so much?

01:46:53 It's taken me so long to talk even this much.

01:46:56 Then I felt perception is so much.

01:47:00 I have a word.

01:47:04 I think Bollywood was hijacked.

01:47:06 I have an expression for this,

01:47:10 which I don't think anyone has expressed.

01:47:12 I say this with a lot of integrity.

01:47:14 I love my film industry like I love my country.

01:47:18 My country may have a lot of problems,

01:47:21 but India is India.

01:47:23 Which country doesn't have problems?

01:47:25 It's an outstanding country.

01:47:27 Look where we are today.

01:47:29 If you want to flog achievers,

01:47:31 there is no limit.

01:47:33 Some mistakes everyone will make.

01:47:34 Isn't it? It's the intention which matters.

01:47:37 Bollywood was hijacked in the decade.

01:47:42 Freakily.

01:47:44 I didn't have the energy to correct that perception.

01:47:47 Whether why the media,

01:47:49 whether why my films.

01:47:51 And then comes Gaddar 2.

01:47:53 By a much senior director than me.

01:47:55 What an achievement.

01:47:57 Anil Sharma's Gaddar 2.

01:47:59 I mean look at this man.

01:48:02 Everyone is…

01:48:03 What has he done?

01:48:07 And on merit,

01:48:09 it's not star studded,

01:48:11 Sunny is powerful,

01:48:13 but supposedly people were writing him off.

01:48:15 I mean if you can call Sunny Diu a B grade,

01:48:17 then he was A+ grade always.

01:48:20 Ups and downs are not in anyone's career.

01:48:23 Amisha Patel,

01:48:25 Utkarsh, a new girl,

01:48:27 Manish Wadhwa,

01:48:29 No Amrish Puri.

01:48:31 No Amrish Puri.

01:48:32 Imagine the achievement of the film.

01:48:35 I want to say this to camera.

01:48:37 This is cinema.

01:48:39 Satya may have jayate in this case.

01:48:43 Jawan is also a very good film.

01:48:45 But you see what happened,

01:48:47 they became running down one foot to beat up the other.

01:48:49 Why? Everyone can co-exist.

01:48:52 Out of nowhere came this film.

01:48:56 Doodh ka doodh paani ho gaya.

01:48:58 I get it.

01:49:00 And I suddenly

01:49:02 said all those people who are reaching out to me,

01:49:06 I became curious.

01:49:08 I said why are they reaching out to me?

01:49:10 I am not in news.

01:49:12 People may think I am not relevant.

01:49:15 You mean people are reaching out to you now?

01:49:17 Film makers are reaching out to you?

01:49:19 Right through my sabbatical,

01:49:21 I had people reaching out to me.

01:49:23 Bharti, I killed stories instead of creating stories.

01:49:26 I killed who I didn't work with,

01:49:29 I killed which actors with everyone.

01:49:30 Because they have given me respect by reaching out to me.

01:49:33 I am not here to put it next day into the media,

01:49:35 that see I rejected this.

01:49:37 I have seen success from a very level,

01:49:39 this level, genuine level.

01:49:41 Yeh sab complex ki baatein main kyu karu?

01:49:43 Iski maine nahi ki, iske maine nahi ki.

01:49:45 It's not nice na.

01:49:47 They are giving me, offering me jobs man.

01:49:49 You know what I mean.

01:49:51 So then the people who had been reaching out to me,

01:49:54 very lovingly,

01:49:56 all my producers,

01:49:58 oddly,

01:49:59 just doing 7-8 films,

01:50:01 wanted

01:50:03 a certain connect again.

01:50:05 Why somebody they sent her this,

01:50:07 I sensed it.

01:50:09 And it was not just with Gaddar 2,

01:50:11 it was happening before.

01:50:13 I became awoke with Gaddar 2.

01:50:15 I was incidentally at the premiere,

01:50:17 I don't go anywhere.

01:50:19 Very close family friends.

01:50:21 Anil Sharma ji, his father was like my father.

01:50:23 Kapil, his younger brother,

01:50:25 very good friend of mine,

01:50:27 he did a web series with Zeenat Aman's comeback.

01:50:28 Kapil Kaustubh.

01:50:30 Zeenat Aman, Pallavi Joshi,

01:50:32 Kittu Vidwani.

01:50:34 He is also talented.

01:50:36 That's another school,

01:50:38 Swam Gaddar 2.

01:50:40 He is also cinematic.

01:50:42 Good family, very good family friends.

01:50:44 I still don't know Anil ji so much,

01:50:46 senior to me and everything.

01:50:48 But genuine filmmaker,

01:50:50 to make something out of

01:50:52 a project like that,

01:50:54 everyone went to him.

01:50:56 Everyone went.

01:50:57 So this is bizarre.

01:50:59 I don't think I can make Gaddar 2 again.

01:51:01 Because I don't think I can ever make

01:51:03 Raja Hindustani again,

01:51:05 or Dhadkan again,

01:51:07 or Lootere again,

01:51:09 or Bewafa again,

01:51:11 or hopefully not the three other films

01:51:13 which didn't do as well.

01:51:15 Yeh filme ban jaati hai.

01:51:17 I think films get made,

01:51:19 they are not deliberately made.

01:51:21 You fall in love.

01:51:23 If you plan your love strategy,

01:51:25 cut to the chase.

01:51:26 Oh God!

01:51:28 I am planning.

01:51:31 You are?

01:51:33 Let the child at least

01:51:35 three months be sure.

01:51:38 It's just been detected.

01:51:40 So now you have come to terms

01:51:43 with the loss of your parents.

01:51:45 Mainly with the loss of my parents.

01:51:48 Career loss to tha hi nahi.

01:51:50 See films are a very fair,

01:51:52 films throw you out.

01:51:54 You can be the biggest.

01:51:55 So I get scared to say I took an exit.

01:51:58 Films, never say I don't want to do films.

01:52:01 They say you don't want to do?

01:52:03 There are hundreds there.

01:52:05 You will wake up in your own time.

01:52:07 Very few people have the luxury.

01:52:09 And mind you I didn't produce those films.

01:52:11 I chose that luxury.

01:52:13 I am a guy who can sit in an auto rickshaw

01:52:15 and go to auto club and fly BA first class.

01:52:17 I don't have those hang ups.

01:52:19 I live the way I live in a certain place in Pali Hill.

01:52:23 I have the car I have.

01:52:24 I have the securities I need as a single person.

01:52:27 I never attended parties as it is.

01:52:30 I was never disturbed.

01:52:32 Isni mujhe is premium mein nahi bulaya.

01:52:34 Is magazine issue mein nahi.

01:52:36 I have to make a story every month.

01:52:38 I didn't make for years.

01:52:40 If somebody says something I said

01:52:42 they will discover on their own.

01:52:44 Why get into this whole thing?

01:52:46 So are you going to be making a movie again or not?

01:52:48 Your persistence.

01:52:50 And if you are going to be making,

01:52:52 because that's what people are talking about.

01:52:53 Frankly I am shocked at the buzz

01:52:56 since last month about Dhadkan 2.

01:52:58 Considering there is no cast finalized.

01:53:00 Considering I have taken such a long gap.

01:53:03 Yes or no?

01:53:07 I may be doing it.

01:53:09 This is the first.

01:53:11 That's the closest he is going to come to it.

01:53:13 But there is

01:53:15 there is an emotional commitment.

01:53:18 Are you getting me?

01:53:21 Yes.

01:53:22 Depends on how I navigate it now.

01:53:24 How we navigate it now.

01:53:26 What is the

01:53:28 I am watching so many sequels and all man.

01:53:30 I am not making a sequel, sequel.

01:53:32 Dhadkan can't be made as a sequel.

01:53:35 It's a lot of soul you know.

01:53:37 But I am healed.

01:53:39 Let's say I have healed emotionally.

01:53:41 And your sabbatical is over.

01:53:43 Definitely.

01:53:45 There are many things I want to do.

01:53:47 I say this to the camera.

01:53:50 Of all my films.

01:53:51 Ekta complimented me.

01:53:53 All my serials are your films.

01:53:55 I want to

01:53:57 you are a lyricist.

01:53:59 I am a singer.

01:54:01 You are getting your royalties.

01:54:03 For those 6 films I gave my credit for.

01:54:05 6 songs, 7 songs all at once.

01:54:08 I am a singer.

01:54:10 I am a performer.

01:54:12 I was too inhibited in the last years.

01:54:14 The world has changed.

01:54:16 I have also changed.

01:54:19 I have gone from my parents.

01:54:20 You know.

01:54:22 But you have got to get used to the idea.

01:54:24 Someday I have to get used to it.

01:54:26 I am also getting older.

01:54:28 Also it would be fun

01:54:30 to now after such isolation meet

01:54:32 everyone will not be God

01:54:34 but to meet all kinds of people.

01:54:36 People have been nice to me I feel.

01:54:38 I feel nobody has like

01:54:40 torn me to shreds

01:54:42 or trolled me as yet.

01:54:44 Wo sab chalta hai thoda bahut.

01:54:46 Everyone has been

01:54:48 everyone has been sweet to me.

01:54:49 So you are going to be making a film now.

01:54:52 Ya which one it is I can't commit right now.

01:54:55 You did say Dhadkuntu.

01:54:57 You have a commitment.

01:54:59 I have an emotional commitment.

01:55:01 We have to see both of us

01:55:03 how we go ahead with it and all that.

01:55:05 This time I will be doing 2 films possibly.

01:55:07 Together for the same producer?

01:55:09 No, no.

01:55:11 I burden him, me twice.

01:55:13 And I intend doing

01:55:15 lot of multifaceted things.

01:55:17 It will be fun.

01:55:18 Singing.

01:55:20 You know.

01:55:22 What about music?

01:55:24 Your Nadeem Shravan is no longer around.

01:55:26 So what?

01:55:28 Shravan Ji has passed away.

01:55:30 Nadeem is not there.

01:55:32 The legacy lives on.

01:55:34 I am not an absentee director in music.

01:55:36 Are you getting me?

01:55:38 I was there every single recording,

01:55:40 every single sitting.

01:55:42 But still not the same as composing the music.

01:55:44 Well part of me is a composer.

01:55:46 I have worked with Shravan Ji,

01:55:47 Anand Ji, Milind,

01:55:49 Himesh Shesham.

01:55:51 These are the only people I have worked with.

01:55:53 I didn't have the fortune to work with

01:55:55 RD Burman before my time.

01:55:57 Lakshmi Kalpiyar Lal,

01:55:59 SD Burman, O.P. Nayar and all.

01:56:01 These are my cult things.

01:56:03 So that's it.

01:56:05 Okay.

01:56:07 So we are going to see the return

01:56:09 of Dharmesh Darshan.

01:56:11 Destiny. Let's see what's cards.

01:56:13 And it is the end of his

01:56:15 sabbatical.

01:56:16 This interview

01:56:18 marks for multiple reasons.

01:56:20 Yes.

01:56:25 The return of Dharmesh Darshan.

01:56:27 I wouldn't know the return.

01:56:29 But the open mindedness now.

01:56:32 No more close minded.

01:56:34 I believe you also are a very very good singer.

01:56:37 I love singing.

01:56:39 And I am not a bathroom singer.

01:56:41 All my singers

01:56:44 Rupa, Udit, Sonu, Shanu

01:56:46 they all got the best singer awards

01:56:48 for all my films.

01:56:50 I am proud of it.

01:56:52 But you can sing?

01:56:54 Let's check it out.

01:56:56 Let's check it out.

01:56:58 Well for cinema let's sing a song.

01:57:00 Okay.

01:57:05 (Sings)

01:57:34 (Sings)

01:57:37 There is an artist with me.

01:57:39 (Sings)

01:57:43 Super. Thank you so much.

01:57:46 (Laughs)

01:57:48 Lovely.

01:57:50 (Music)

01:57:56 you

Big Scoops On Aamir, Juhi, Karisma,And Mahesh Bhatt: Director Dharmesh Darshan Reveals Insights

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