All my films are a process of self-annihilation
Why are you more exhausted this time after completing "Guzaarish" than you’ve ever been before?
You noticed that? I am completely drained of all energy. I didn’t
realise how tired I was until the film was over. Then my body just gave up. To get myself out of the house to promote the film is an ordeal for me. All my films are a process of self-annihilation for me. With every film of mine a part of me gets left behind. With "Guzaarish" I’ve left more than just a portion of myself behind. In it I’ve lived the pain of facing the isolation of failure after "Saawariya".
Was that a tough time for you?
Yes, it was the toughest time of my life. Suddenly everyone disappeared, and that included the people who had worked with me on "Saawariya" for two years... Because of the suffering I began to get seriously interested in the subject of mercy killing. After studying the super-sensitive subject for almost a year I concluded that every human being should have the right to die with dignity.
That’s how "Guzaarish" was born?
Yes, the pain and suffering and the dignity with which I bore them prompted me to make a film on mercy killing. I was shocked to read newspaper reports of people pleading to let the life of a critically ailing child/parent/spouse go. While researching on the subject I fobbed off all temptation to watch films on the subject of mercy killing. I didn’t want to get even remotely influenced in my thought and vision by what other filmmakers have done on the subject. Having said that, I confess I enjoy the pain underlining my creations. I love cinema so much that I want to give it more and more. I had to work ten times harder on "Guzaarish" than my first film "Khamoshi: The Musical".
Curiously "Guzaarish" is your third film on physically-psychologically challenged characters.
I want to ask you one thing: Aren’t the fighters who face and overcome all physical and psychological and social odds our real heroes? When I made films on the hearing and speech impaired, "Khamoshi", and "Black" and now about a quadriplegic, people asked, why films on such peripheral people? Because I want such special people to enter our mainstream society through mainstream cinema. My hero may not be able to walk but his spirit soars. He has a story to tell, jokes to crack, a life to live. Although so much has been taken away from him, Hrithik in "Guzaarish" understands the value of life better than you or me. A hero doesn’t have to beat up ten people and put his hands up in the air in slow-motion and sing love songs.
So are your films supposed to be for a social good?
No no! I make them for selfish reasons. My survival instinct has sharpened after "Black" and "Guzaarish". I met quadriplegics who have lost the use of their limbs but not their spirit. They are not dark, defeated people. Our specialist on the sets, Dr Indu Tandon introduced me to bright people paralysed in body, and yet they are so buoyant. One of these kids John Julius became the hero of "Guzaarish". Hrithik plays this caustic undefeated hero in a wheelchair. John and Hrithik became great friends. They started exchanging emails. Hrithik changed John’s life completely. If my cinema can change one life, I’ve achieved what I had to achieve. We had to get the details right. It’s about a quadriplegic. But it isn’t about quadriplegia. Hrithik plays a magician who after an accident brings magic into people’s life on the radio, and his interaction with the two people in his life, played by Aishwarya and Aditya Roy Kapoor.
Aamir Khan thinks the little girl in "Black" (Ayesha Kapoor) was treated brutally.
Yes, I keep hearing the girl was traumatised. But Behroze Vachha, who has spent all her life working with the deaf and the blind thought otherwise; whom should I believe? I don’t worry about what others have to say. My proudest moment was when the principal of the Helen Keller Institute told me after "Black" that what she couldn’t achieve in 60 years, I did with that one film. I rest my case.
Aamir had a lot of problems with your "Devdas" and "Black"?
He did. But that’s because he cares about my cinema. If he didn’t he wouldn’t spend so much passion talking about it. He may not agree with what I do in my films. But finally I make what I have to make. I appreciate it when an actor of his caliber brings out a certain perspective on my cinema. As long as the intentions are not to run my cinema down I am open to all criticism. He has problems with my cinema just as I may have problems with a lot of his performances.
Would you like Aamir to see your new film?
I would certainly like him to see "Guzaarish". He genuinely cares for cinema. I was upset when he brought up issues regarding "Black" when his "Taare Zameen Par" was on release. The timing seemed unfortunate.
Why are your films so often set in the Anglo-Indian community?
That’s the influence of my school and teachers. The passion with which they taught, the homes in which they lived and where I was invited on rare occasions… I was enamoured of their lives, their eating habits, their red wine in crystal glasses… It was so different from the Gujarati life that I led in my chawl in Bhuleshwar. It provided me an alternate reality.
Hrithik actually learnt magic tricks and got flabby to play the quadriplegic in "Guzaarish"?
I don’t believe in method acting. I don’t instruct my actors too closely. I just tell them what I want. I wanted Hrithik to know his character’s state of mind. If he played a magician, he knew he had to learn magic tricks. A person who is in bed for 14 years had to be flabby. I am glad Hrithik has reached a stage in his career where he’s ready to surrender to a part and not be concerned only with looking good. Audiences want to see stars become part of the drama.
How has Aishwarya Rai Bachchan grown as an actor since "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" and "Devdas"?
Because I know her so well I knew what to tap out of her in our third film together. Her character Sophia is very different from what she did in my earlier films. She is so strong and so resilient. She’s intelligent and hungry for good work because she lives in a family of great actors. She has nothing more to prove. She just enjoys the process of acting.
You’ve also composed the songs in "Guzaarish". How different is it composing your music from getting music from other composers?
You can never get the exact music you want from others. Since you know your characters you know exactly what kind of songs they would feel. The songs came from deep within me. I had a great time working with R.D Burman, Jatin-Lalit, Ismail Darbar and Monty. But the music in "Guzaarish" is my own and very important. My reward was when Amitabh Bachchan said he loved the music; it meant so much to me. Also, the fact that my songs have connected with the young people makes me want to go deeper into music.
People are commenting on the self-contained no-man’s land in which your cinema unfolds…
My films are my world. It’s a world different from the real world and different from the word you see in other people’s films. My "Devdas" was not set in 1939. It was timeless. This doesn’t mean I’d show Devdas talking on a cellphone. I want that moment that bonds two lovers to be relevant even a hundred years from now. For me the joy of crossing boundaries within mainstream cinema is what making films is about. I want to know how my quadriplegic hero Hrithik Roshan in "Guzaarish" is any less heroic than Salman Khan in "Dabangg". I firmly believe the common man has uncommon sense of aesthetics and drama. Wasn’t there a time when Bimal Roy’s films were mainstream hits? "Iqbal" and "Black" were hits in recent times. If Daniel-Day Lewish can be much appreciated as a quadriplegic in "My Left Foot", so can Hrithik Roshan. I’ve great faith in the audience.
Why are you more exhausted this time after completing "Guzaarish" than you’ve ever been before?
You noticed that? I am completely drained of all energy. I didn’t
realise how tired I was until the film was over. Then my body just gave up. To get myself out of the house to promote the film is an ordeal for me. All my films are a process of self-annihilation for me. With every film of mine a part of me gets left behind. With "Guzaarish" I’ve left more than just a portion of myself behind. In it I’ve lived the pain of facing the isolation of failure after "Saawariya".Was that a tough time for you?
Yes, it was the toughest time of my life. Suddenly everyone disappeared, and that included the people who had worked with me on "Saawariya" for two years... Because of the suffering I began to get seriously interested in the subject of mercy killing. After studying the super-sensitive subject for almost a year I concluded that every human being should have the right to die with dignity.
That’s how "Guzaarish" was born?
Yes, the pain and suffering and the dignity with which I bore them prompted me to make a film on mercy killing. I was shocked to read newspaper reports of people pleading to let the life of a critically ailing child/parent/spouse go. While researching on the subject I fobbed off all temptation to watch films on the subject of mercy killing. I didn’t want to get even remotely influenced in my thought and vision by what other filmmakers have done on the subject. Having said that, I confess I enjoy the pain underlining my creations. I love cinema so much that I want to give it more and more. I had to work ten times harder on "Guzaarish" than my first film "Khamoshi: The Musical".
Curiously "Guzaarish" is your third film on physically-psychologically challenged characters.
I want to ask you one thing: Aren’t the fighters who face and overcome all physical and psychological and social odds our real heroes? When I made films on the hearing and speech impaired, "Khamoshi", and "Black" and now about a quadriplegic, people asked, why films on such peripheral people? Because I want such special people to enter our mainstream society through mainstream cinema. My hero may not be able to walk but his spirit soars. He has a story to tell, jokes to crack, a life to live. Although so much has been taken away from him, Hrithik in "Guzaarish" understands the value of life better than you or me. A hero doesn’t have to beat up ten people and put his hands up in the air in slow-motion and sing love songs.
So are your films supposed to be for a social good?
No no! I make them for selfish reasons. My survival instinct has sharpened after "Black" and "Guzaarish". I met quadriplegics who have lost the use of their limbs but not their spirit. They are not dark, defeated people. Our specialist on the sets, Dr Indu Tandon introduced me to bright people paralysed in body, and yet they are so buoyant. One of these kids John Julius became the hero of "Guzaarish". Hrithik plays this caustic undefeated hero in a wheelchair. John and Hrithik became great friends. They started exchanging emails. Hrithik changed John’s life completely. If my cinema can change one life, I’ve achieved what I had to achieve. We had to get the details right. It’s about a quadriplegic. But it isn’t about quadriplegia. Hrithik plays a magician who after an accident brings magic into people’s life on the radio, and his interaction with the two people in his life, played by Aishwarya and Aditya Roy Kapoor.
Aamir Khan thinks the little girl in "Black" (Ayesha Kapoor) was treated brutally.
Yes, I keep hearing the girl was traumatised. But Behroze Vachha, who has spent all her life working with the deaf and the blind thought otherwise; whom should I believe? I don’t worry about what others have to say. My proudest moment was when the principal of the Helen Keller Institute told me after "Black" that what she couldn’t achieve in 60 years, I did with that one film. I rest my case.
Aamir had a lot of problems with your "Devdas" and "Black"?
He did. But that’s because he cares about my cinema. If he didn’t he wouldn’t spend so much passion talking about it. He may not agree with what I do in my films. But finally I make what I have to make. I appreciate it when an actor of his caliber brings out a certain perspective on my cinema. As long as the intentions are not to run my cinema down I am open to all criticism. He has problems with my cinema just as I may have problems with a lot of his performances.
Would you like Aamir to see your new film?
I would certainly like him to see "Guzaarish". He genuinely cares for cinema. I was upset when he brought up issues regarding "Black" when his "Taare Zameen Par" was on release. The timing seemed unfortunate.
Why are your films so often set in the Anglo-Indian community?
That’s the influence of my school and teachers. The passion with which they taught, the homes in which they lived and where I was invited on rare occasions… I was enamoured of their lives, their eating habits, their red wine in crystal glasses… It was so different from the Gujarati life that I led in my chawl in Bhuleshwar. It provided me an alternate reality.
Hrithik actually learnt magic tricks and got flabby to play the quadriplegic in "Guzaarish"?
I don’t believe in method acting. I don’t instruct my actors too closely. I just tell them what I want. I wanted Hrithik to know his character’s state of mind. If he played a magician, he knew he had to learn magic tricks. A person who is in bed for 14 years had to be flabby. I am glad Hrithik has reached a stage in his career where he’s ready to surrender to a part and not be concerned only with looking good. Audiences want to see stars become part of the drama.
How has Aishwarya Rai Bachchan grown as an actor since "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" and "Devdas"?
Because I know her so well I knew what to tap out of her in our third film together. Her character Sophia is very different from what she did in my earlier films. She is so strong and so resilient. She’s intelligent and hungry for good work because she lives in a family of great actors. She has nothing more to prove. She just enjoys the process of acting.
You’ve also composed the songs in "Guzaarish". How different is it composing your music from getting music from other composers?
You can never get the exact music you want from others. Since you know your characters you know exactly what kind of songs they would feel. The songs came from deep within me. I had a great time working with R.D Burman, Jatin-Lalit, Ismail Darbar and Monty. But the music in "Guzaarish" is my own and very important. My reward was when Amitabh Bachchan said he loved the music; it meant so much to me. Also, the fact that my songs have connected with the young people makes me want to go deeper into music.
People are commenting on the self-contained no-man’s land in which your cinema unfolds…
My films are my world. It’s a world different from the real world and different from the word you see in other people’s films. My "Devdas" was not set in 1939. It was timeless. This doesn’t mean I’d show Devdas talking on a cellphone. I want that moment that bonds two lovers to be relevant even a hundred years from now. For me the joy of crossing boundaries within mainstream cinema is what making films is about. I want to know how my quadriplegic hero Hrithik Roshan in "Guzaarish" is any less heroic than Salman Khan in "Dabangg". I firmly believe the common man has uncommon sense of aesthetics and drama. Wasn’t there a time when Bimal Roy’s films were mainstream hits? "Iqbal" and "Black" were hits in recent times. If Daniel-Day Lewish can be much appreciated as a quadriplegic in "My Left Foot", so can Hrithik Roshan. I’ve great faith in the audience.
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