With 12 movies in his kitty, actor Imran Khan believes that the diversity of genre in the industry is creating more options for filmmakers to play with and experiment. He opens up to Team Viva why he is afraid of speaking his mind
It took you so long to take up another project. Were you busy or weren’t you getting the right projectIJ
I was busy with the biggest project of all.
How is fatherhood treating youIJ
Very well.
So you are a modern day father who is very involvedIJ
Apparently, the media tells me that I am a modern day father
You are not very public about it, but it looks like you are an involved father through your pictures or whatever comes out.
It does something to you. Suddenly your priorities are realigned. It becomes very easy for you to know what has value to you and what does not. like a year-and-a-half ago, I would have a hundred things on my mind. I would worry about so many things at the same time. Suddenly it has become very binary. I have learnt to identify the unimportant stuff, ignore it and never think of it again.
It is good that you have this realisation because a lot of people struggle with it.
Yes, it has simplified my life immensely.
So what is this film about because the trailers are sort of misleading from what we are getting to hear nowIJ
Yes, when you start working on a campaign you tend to play up the more fun and quirky elements.
What is so interesting about this film that you took itIJ
There is a tendency, and this is not exclusive to any film at all, when we tell a love story or a story of romance, there is certain lightness to it and there is an absence to gravitas. Half the time when you are watching it, you tend to ask yourself, ‘How much do I really getIJ’ If these two end up together what will really happenIJ There’s nothing too dramatic about it, nothing much. Therefore, there is not much at stake. But in Katti Batti there is a lot more at stake, where you feel that if these two don’t end up together there is a chance of great loss. There is that, but there is also a tendency that when we make love stories to talk about (I am trying to phrase my words carefully so that I don’t offend people)…you only show that you love someone because of certain reasons and because they make you feel different and good. That is just not the way an adult relationship works. Real love is ‘in spite of.’ She drives me crazy and she irritates me more than anyone on earth but I still love her — that’s real love, a real relationship. That’s what happens in Katti Batti.
From what you are telling us, the promos seem to go on a different tangent altogether.
So what happens is that this girl and boy meet in the college and they start dating. They develop a romance and start to live together. While they are living together, you see the deterioration of their relationship. They go through a hard patch, the conditions worsen over time and they break up. All of this happens before the film starts so; it’s all in the past. Katti Batti is picking up at the end of a seven-year-old relationship where everything that you have seen this far in the promos has happened in the past. The film is actually moving forward from that point. That is your foundation, your groundwork which has been laid. The romantic comedy part is over, this is romcom part two.
Here it is structured and layered as a thriller where on one track he is looking for her, he is trying to track her down and trying to find what went wrong in the relationship. The clues were there, the signs were there and it was crumbling, but what was the moment when things fell apart. It is a quest and piece-by-piece, the past is revealed to us. With his journey you start to find more and more about the past — how they met, what happened — and as he pieces it together, the audience pieces it along with him. So structurally, this movie is a thriller. There is so much more depth, emotion and substance to it.
And it was also something that I was missing. I think somewhere in the past couple of years, I had started to feel that the films that I was doing and the ones which we were making, the stakes were not higher. like there is not enough for you to get emotionally invested in it. And with Katti Batti I got that.
You see movies where a character does not want to get married because he/she is commitment phobic and you think to yourself of the kind of emotion involved. The world has to be at stake. I think maybe that’s why at some level people have started making these blockbuster superhero movies because there, literally, the world is at stake.
In the current years and as a member of the film industry, where do you rate the kind of stories that are being made todayIJ
We are better than we have ever been before.
Do you think that it is too much of hypeIJ Were not these films made beforeIJ
Not just in terms of quantity but diversity of genre where you have a Masaan being made and you have a Dil Dhadakne Do and also a Queen being made. Honestly, 15 years ago who would have made these filmsIJ
Films like these were made but by NFDC and the Government. The only difference now is that there are many private studios.
The audience is also coming up.
Is it because you are marketing it so wellIJ
No. It’s just that the audience has evolved. Their exposure has increased. They have started to watch more and more international content. They’re watching TV, listening to music and watching international fashion. All the movies of the world are coming and competing with Hindi films. Avengers is making Rs100 crore here and one might think, ‘what’s going onIJ’ The audience is being exposed to more and more. Their taste is developing. Now they want a bit of everything. For an audience who has eaten dal chawal for years, when they get the taste of sushi and see pizza and spaghetti —the palate just explodes. Now their curiosity has been piqued. They want more and they expect it from us. They think that if they (foreign film fraternity) can make it, why not us (Bollywood)IJ
So why are you not frequent with your choicesIJ If it is a good time and as a young member of the film industry, what are you basing your choices onIJ Some people go on a signing spree; some do one kind of movie while some do three different kinds of films in a year.
I am not able to work with that pace. I figured out that I need to work on a film and after that I need to unplug and I need to recharge. So in 2013, I had three releases. I was worked to the bone. I swear I was going back and forth. There was a period when Once upon a Time in Mumbai Dobara and Gori Tere Pyaar Mein had sets adjacent to each other in film city and I was acting in Once upon a Time in Mumbai Dobara during the day and Gori Tere Pyaar Mein at night, literally. I would finish with one shooting, walk across the street while peeling off the sideburns and moustache, change costume and be ready for Gori Tere Pyaar Mein.
I am not able to perform under such circumstances but some actors do. So I was tired and my work suffered, I was not happy with my work and it invariably showed in the work. I came to know recently that in my entire career I have never made a film that I thought was brilliant and that went on top. I have never thought that I am sitting on master piece and I never been surprised by a flop.
It is very honest of you to say that because a lot of people cannot reconcile with failure.
There was just this one time after Break Ke Baad that I felt that the film deserved better than what it got. That was the only time when I was a little disappointed.
Weren’t you happy with Delhi BellyIJ
I was actually surprised by the success of the movie. To be completely honest I thought that there would be 30 or 40 people on earth who would take interest in the film. And I thought that those 30 people would love the film as much as I loved it. I just did not think there would be more than that many people. I was surprised to see so many people liking it.
Did you enjoy shooting for itIJ
Yes, very much. Tashi is the closest to my taste, cinematically.
What about Matru Ki Bijli ka MandolaIJ
There is a lot that I liked about the film but there was a lot that I disliked about the film, too. There were a lot of places where I felt we were going wrong during the making.
Did you discuss it with the director (Vishal Bhardwaj)IJ
I did not have the courage. I mean, how do you question someone like him. Perhaps it was my feeling.
But you should have spoken; if he is a creative person then I am sure he would have appreciated your perspective.
Yes, perhaps, but as I have already said that I have had a sense that it wasn’t going in the right direction. But I had the instinct that whatever the director is doing is right. For its Vishal Bhardwaj, who has done movies which are a massive critical success and commercial as well. It was the best of both. Then, in the aftermath of that who am I to say ki sir, mujhe ye sahi nahi lagta (I don’t think this is correct). But I should have.
May be your filmmaking instincts are much better.
What I have come away with is that I should not underplay my own gut instinct. What I have felt that it’s wrong, it has been — unfailingly.
Is that why you are saying that you are not surprised with flopsIJ That is an honest statement coming from a young actor where people would say that it is part of a learning curve
It is a part of learning curve. My learning has been this that I do have to trust my gut. I have to trust what I feel.
Now what are you doing when you are reading your scriptsIJ
It’s not just the script; it’s also the way you make the film. A lot of it happens on-set. A lot of what went wrong on the sets of Once upon a Time in Mumbai Dobara happened on-set.
The script doesn’t get executed the way it is meant toIJ
Yes, things change. They are translated a little differently. These things do happen in the process of making a film and that is where you need to pull back, you need to be confident in a relationship with a director. This process of working with Nikhil Advani has been eye-opening. It has been a joy — a joy that I have not felt in years because it was so open and collaborative and so effortless. I never hesitated before asking him questions.
Nikhil is also surprisingly very open to showing his work to people. I cannot tell you how many of my films have I seen on a Thursday before the release. So, I am going through the promotional rounds and I have not seen the film.
He will show the film to anyone, he will ask what they liked and disliked and also enquire whether they got bored. He will ask questions, he will sit there and listen to people for hours telling him about the movie. And he will get back to work. That kind of openness and fearlessness I have not seen in any other filmmaker. This is my 12th film and in none of the last 11 films have I come across such a person. I have only seen it in Aamir, he has done it since Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. He will show his film to the world. I swear he will show it to 500 people before it releases.
Even with productions which are not hisIJ
Yes and obviously it was always a fight for him because there are many directors and producers who are not open to it. It has been a struggle and a battle for him. I know the battles I have fought with producers and directors trying to convince them to show me the film because I want to know what it is; I should have an opinion on it. I have also requested them to allow me to show t to people so that we can get feedbacks. I know the struggles that I have had trying to see the film, trying to show it to people and trying to do the process. Nikhil and Aamir, they are the only two people who will show their work and listen without defending their work. That courage to sit there and not defend and not justify and to sit and think of how to make it better — not everyone has.
The collaboration with young filmmakers is quite good. How is this new understanding going to help in taking newer projectsIJ What are the areas that you would like to look at, because technically, you would make a god filmmaker or a scriptwriterIJ
It is a space that I enjoy very much. That being said, I enjoy the process and craft of acting. And I want to continue with this work.
It’s kind of like a first date, you meet a director you don’t really know and then you try to figure out the person within the eight -nine months that you spend with him. You need to quickly get a sense of his personality and whether you can work together. Whether this guy is going to have ego issuesIJ If a director is going to tell me to retake a shot, I can’t get offended. If I retaliate I will be called an arrogant actor.
So are you going to hunt for your comfort zone before you zero in on your roles nowIJ
I need to be very much in a comfort zone. I need to work with people who are open to collaborations and are open to gearing me up. Every successful thing that I have ever had, is with a first time director. Not once have I had a successful film by an established filmmaker. Every time I work with good directors, he fails. Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na, Delhi Belly, Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, Meri Brother Ki Dulhan are all high grossing film today which I have worked with first time directors — guys that I like to talk to, guys that I feel comfortable with.
What is your view on media discussion and campaignsIJ
I am not sure what it is, but more and more, it is starting to feel that in the past couple of years, the climate is changing. And I am afraid of, and I have never felt it before, but suddenly now I am afraid of speaking. There are a lot of things which I feel like, maybe I have an opinion on this but maybe I shouldn’t say it. Because I am not sure of who is going to turn up at my house with a mob and stones. The climate has started to feel that way. So where three years ago, I would feel something, and I would stand up and say it loudly and proudly in public. Now I feel so many things that I know are unpopular and I know that they are perhaps contrary to the legal opinion, the official opinion — whatever it is. And I feel like I don’t want to say this. I don’t have the courage; I don’t feel like its safe for me.
photo Sanjeev Kumar