 |
| Promozione di Bombay Velvet |
[Archivio]
L'amicizia che lega Anurag Kashyap e Karan Johar è ormai cosa nota, ma al suo sbocciare, una decina d'anni fa circa, stupì davvero tutti nell'ambiente del cinema hindi. Riuscite ad immaginare due registi più diversi fra loro? Eppure le collaborazioni professionali, nel corso del tempo, si sono moltiplicate. Vi segnalo una lunga, esilarante intervista concessa da Johar e Kashyap a Priya Gupta, pubblicata in due parti da The Times of India il 5 e il 6 febbraio 2014.
'From not talking to each other, how did you become friends?
Anurag wrote a blog saying nasty things about me, post which we had a verbal spat. (...) I wondered why he was being nasty when he didn’t even know me. I had seen his Black Friday and absolutely loved it. But I saw him venting to death about me thinking I am this rich, glamorous, glorious person without any struggle and I frankly hadn’t struggled even though I’d pretend to. Once in an interview, I actually said I grew up in a really small two-bedroom flat in Malabar Hill and used to travel to Goregaon in a taxi. Farah Khan called me and said, ‘Is this your idea of struggle?’ (...) To me, Anurag represented the Ram Gopal Varma school of filmmaking. RGV’s problem with me was that Satya did not win an award. What can I do if I won? Maybe Satya deserved every award versus Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, but he didn’t win it. Too bad. Maybe, I was just better looking than him. So when Anurag took off on me, I decided that he needs a hug and decided to do that when I met him at a restaurant in Bandra. Hundred heads turned at me when I moved towards him. (...) So we hugged (...) and imagined a round trolley going around us and that was it. And from there, the friendship of two people began, whom I believe are the same people.
What was your reason for making Bombay Talkies?
I am dying to be that intense director, who is above media and the trappings of the industry. Imtiaz Ali and Anurag Kashyap look like directors. I have become a mockery of myself, dancing in a reality show, judging, hosting. Barring reaching the opening of an envelope, I have reached everywhere else. And I am unapologetically this. My perception by the director community is very flawed. Raju Hirani looks distant, quiet, intelligent, Anurag looks like a mad genius, Imtiaz looks like he is sorted with a sufiist vibe. I look like a third row dancer. I reacted to movies as an audience. To me, The Lunchbox was a love story that would make money. I did Bombay Talkies as I wanted my name along with Anurag, Zoya [Akhtar] and Dibakar [Banerjee]. I felt that critics, who otherwise think I am murdering cinema, may still have an opinion, but at least they will come and see it. That’s why I insisted they put my film first so that no one walks out after seeing the other three films. Dibakar told me after the film, ‘This is your debut film.’ I have admired his work and earlier walked up to him and said, ‘I am your big fan.’ He said, ‘Thank you’ and walked off. I felt that even if he did not want to say nice things about my films, at least he could have complimented me on my shoes or looks. Directors just don’t compliment me. Lagaan is amongst my top five favourite films. Ashutosh Gowariker saw Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and called me after the trial. I thought he must be calling to say nice things, but he said, ‘Just saw your movie. I didn’t like it at all.’ I said, ‘Oh!’ But it was wonderfully gracious of him a month later to call and compliment me as it had commercially worked. I am obsessed with directors even though they are not obsessed by me. Anurag, please tell her how much I begged you for the role in Bombay Velvet. (...) My input to the most talented filmmakers has been fashion and I am proud of it. Instead of giving creative tips, during Bombay Talkies, I was teaching Zoya, Dibakar and Anurag how to walk the ramp. My big input to Dibakar and Anurag was hair gel and shine spray. Zoya was telling me, ‘What are you making us do?’ And I said, ‘You are walking the ramp, so do it properly. While in Rome do what the Romans do.’
You make us laugh in person, but your films make us cry.
I love crying and to me, cinema crying is very cathartic. I remember when I watched The Namesake with Mr. [Amitabh] Bachchan. All my pent-up emotions of losing my dad came out, even though, thematically, it had nothing to do with losing a parent. But something triggered an emotion and I just remember weeping. The second time I cried was while watching Taare Zameen Par as I was in boarding school for four days, that too, in the same one shown in the film. I remember my parents leaving me behind there. Seeing the film, I think Niagara Falls had begun and I wept and wept and I called Aamir [Khan] after the show. The first film I cried was in Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se. I was eight years old and was bawling at the end of it. My mother kept explaining to me how that was not real, but that didn’t stop me from crying.
What do you like about Anurag?
At heart, we are the same people. Both of us have a certain sense of acknowledging other people’s brilliance. We have an inherent mentor in us and want to create and nurture resources and put them out in the creative world. We have a sense of impulse and take decisions more from the heart and I identify with him as a human being. I have to eternally be grateful to him for giving me a part in his film, as I got to see how he works and felt so enriched technically.
How different are you as directors?
He is raw, I am not. I love his projection of women, mine are more stereotypical, based on value systems that I believe in. He has led the life. I have led a very sheltered life till the age of 25 and became a man only at 32, when my dad died. My people observation is still on the surface, but he has been on the road, drunk at times, and taken home, he has seen failure and rejections, seen heartbreaks and failed relationships. He has lived the life. I am still living it. Nothing fails like success. And nothing succeeds like failure. My biggest failing has been my success. I have not been in a long-term relationship, but have been in unrequited love, so whenever I show that, I get it correct. But when I try and show something I have not experienced, I am caught. You put actors together, they don’t know how to have fun, but you put directors together, they feed off each others’ energies.
Your advice to Anurag?
You have to not only control your film, but also the environment without getting sucked into it. Somewhere, the director in me has taken a beating because of the producer in me. Never go there, but understand your business. He represents a certain brand of brilliance, which can be platformed at another level if he does that.
Were you always this secure as a person?
A conversation with my father changed my view of the world. I was the blue-eyed boy after Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam came in 1999, which I loved, but it bothered me to no end. I was getting jealous and I was tracking its box office. My father saw it. My father asked me, ‘How did you like the film?’ I said, ‘I loved it.’ He said, ‘What is bothering you?’ I said, ‘It is making me feel inferior.’ He said, ‘You will never grow. Go and call Sanjay Leela Bhansali and tell him how mad you are about the film and see how good you feel.’ I did that and felt relieved. He said, ‘How will you grow if you don’t acknowledge?’.'
 |
| Karan Johar in Bombay Velvet |
'Karan Johar and you are extremely different people. What brings you together?
A lot of things bring us together. I used to be a very opinionated person and used to always resent Karan for the fact that he was privileged and the fact that he comes from a big filmi family. How he just gets away with anything and we slog our asses off and don’t even get our releases. I felt that this industry doesn’t support me and was very anti-industry, and just thought of making good cinema. But after meeting Karan, I realised that I am more opinionated about the industry than the industry is about me. I understood that everything I had in my head about people was in my head only. It was not my attitude that I did not want to work with stars. It was me not knowing them and having the fear whether I would be able to retain my own identity if I worked with them. All the fear was unfounded and I found that actors actually want to experiment with themselves. Whenever I have angst, Karan teaches me how to throw it away and laugh at it. I have understood why you need these blockbusters as money circulates. Those 200 crores is what comes to us so that we can make these kind of films. He was the first man I met who was laughing at himself and I learnt the ability to be able to laugh at yourself from him. It was always my own complexes as an outsider that got enhanced. I realised later that everything that happened with me was for the good. But, at that time, I blamed the industry for all the consequences.
Why do you have so much angst in you?
I am a mush bag but have this incredible struggle with myself. I have angst, but it is transformed. Earlier, my angst was with the industry, now it is with the media. I feel there is such a desperation for news bytes that everything and anything is becoming news and, sometimes, I find myself at the receiving end of it. For instance, for a long time, I kept ignoring stories about my personal life but when you start writing it, you land up creating it. (...) I deal with my angst by calling Karan now.
Talk about your friendship with Karan?
I am unfortunate that I did not discover Karan earlier as I would have got rid of a lot of things. I have a serious communication issue. I also understood a sense of responsibility from him as a filmmaker as someone is paying for your love of making films. I used to earlier shrug that responsibility in the name of making good cinema. Being cost-conscious, when you have no money to begin with, is no virtue. It’s about being conscious when you have been given the money. Karan is a generous human being and is generous about everything in his life. The amount of opportunities he gives people, the way he treats people, the way he gives. He mentors you. My most favourite image is Karan Johar doing the hair of my daughter at Cannes Film Festival. My daughter was very worried, but he made her look good. For the next two months, she was telling her friends, ‘You know Karan Johar dressed me up and did my hair.’ No father can be given a bigger gift than that. He does these things impulsively without even thinking. He makes me emotional. I have a gush of love for him and need to hug him. I like to listen to him and watch him with wonder on how he makes you laugh. He has done so much good to me emotionally, internally. I can ask him things and am not afraid to admit things I don’t know. I have no sense of dressing. I can call him and he will help me. He will sit honestly and give me feedback about my films. He is so straightforward and honest. We know how he is so self-deprecating. You see him not feeling bad about a lot of things. He is also a human being and may feel hurt, but the way he puts it out, it makes the person hurting him feel bad as he just laughs out at it. All these qualities are rare and that is why he is the common person loved by everyone, despite all camps, and is evolving at a pace in his life that none of us are.
Your advice to Karan?
He is now spending less time on his creativity and needs to do that now as he is doing so much for everyone. Why does he do these TV shows? He is constantly worried, (...) I need to make money for my company so that the other projects he has started with new boys don’t get interrupted. That is what is incredible. He should spend more time on himself. In many ways, what Dibakar said, about his short film in Bombay Talkies being his debut, is correct. He can make a commercially successful film at the back of his hand, but he has not put himself up on screen. There is so much world-view inside him. He has it but the expectations from him are so different, the fact that he is running a company that is giving a chance to so many people that he takes that responsibility so much that it affects his personal, emotional and professional life.
Karan told me, ‘I have made a lot of movies to know where a camera is positioned, but I just couldn’t see it on Anurag’s Bombay Velvet. I asked Ranbir, and he said, ‘It’s there.’ Anurag, actors like Karan who have worked with you talk about your brilliance as a director in allowing your actors to be. While you are a large-hearted director, why are you not like that as a person?
I love actors. My way of telling an actor when he or she does a good shot is kiss them. I actually dance on the set when I get a good shot. I have done theatre when I was 21. I actually dabbled with acting and hated myself on screen as I realised that I hated myself, as I was so conscious even though I was a fearless actor on stage. I realised that directors restrict and that is why I developed this style that for actors to breathe I need to not lock the camera'.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento