By Hindustan Times
Fourteen years ago, I’d gone for what was just another interview with Shah Rukh Khan and walked into the center of chaos. The Badshah was delivering punches and punchlines on camera, and in between shots, punching out financial statements on his laptop. His mobile phone buzzed and miraculously he metamorphosed from a merchant selling dreams to easily a merchant, haggling over prices with a supplier, then, arguing over a brand new twist within the story with the director and scriptwriter.
Silently observing all of the frantic action, I suddenly understood why Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani was not only another movie for SRK. It was his baby!
In his pursuit of excellence, he had approached Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Kajol and at last Juhi Chawla to partner him in his first home production. Aamir had taken too long to make up his mind, Madhuri was in two minds, Kajol already had her mind thinking about the Devgn banner. Finally, it was an excited Juhi who, without even pausing for details, had chirped, “Let’s do it!” And Dreamz Unlimited was born!
Shah Rukh was ruling the box-office on the time and there has been no logical reason behind him to take the gamble. But, as he pointed out, after some time money ceases to be everything. “I love films and that i thought I MAY do better if I had a sound say within the film I USED TO BE doing,” he reasoned, recalling how he’d once turned up at the sets, able to risk his life in a 100-foot jump with out a double, and only three cameras to record it! When he had asked for more, the filmmaker had shrugged carelessly, “Isi se kaam chala lenge. (We’ll manage with these three).”
Appalled by his couldn’t-care-a-damn attitude, the star had decided to make a movie that may get all of the care it deserved. And has continued doing so, even if his babies haven’t fetched him the dividends other producers have reaped!
What’s interesting is that after an actor turns producer, he normally doesn’t play safe. Sunny Deol was dubbed a “mad man” when he put his own money on a narrative written with Kamal Haasan in mind and stood by Rajkumar Santoshi’s vision even if he was told that without some comic moments and romantic tracks, Ghayal would go away him ‘ghayal’ (wounded). It fetched him two National Awards, including Best Actor.
Ditto for Aamir who 11 years ago took a baazi (gamble) with Ashutosh Gowariker and Lagaan, a movie set in 1890, coping with an obsolete land tax imposed by the British and the sport of cricket, with a hero in a dhoti throughout. “I knew no person would put money into a movie like this, so I did. But I CAN produce a movie provided that I come upon a script compelling in its content,” he’d told me then. Lagaan almost got him an Oscar and within the decade since, Aamir has produced half a dozen films and they all have gone beyond the formulaic cinematic boundaries.
This Friday, John Abraham takes the similar route with a sperm of an idea Shoojit Sircar donated, and which he surprised everyone by accepting. Shrugging away the tsk tsking critics and breaking freed from commercial conventions and taboos, he’s on an over-drive, talking knowledgably about infertility and progeny in a rustic that frequently asks, “What’s a sperm? Aur yeh donor kaun (Who’s this donor)?”
Ah well, ignorance isn't always bliss! And hey, a minimum of John now has a baby, never mind if his marriage remains to be happening only in tabloids!
