Shah Rukh Khan to direct Karan Johar’s story
Bharathi S Pradhan
The evening was full of stars. We saw Karan Johar's new film Kal Ho Naa Ho at Adlabs, the swanky preview cinema in Film City.
In the audience were Amitabh, Abhishek (both in suits, as father and son were returning from designer Anna Singh's wedding), Jaya Bachchan, Amisha Patel (slim and fresh without a single dab of makeup), Aftab (with sister and mother, his two favourite wives), Ritesh Deshmukh (dressed casually as usual), Tabu (her T-shirt was wet with tears by the end of the film), Rani Mukherjee (her red, puffy eyes said it all) and John with Bipasha, along with filmmakers like Ashutosh Gowariker (he is starting Swades with SRK), Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Suneel Darshan.
But the star of the halftime show was undoubtedly the actor whose first shot in the film was his back! It made everyone sit up and take notice. During the break, everyone made a beeline for Karan and the Khan.
While Shah Rukh was being feted and given titles like 'God of the Box Office', the actor was in good spirits but also in pain. He had just suffered another relapse that day and was undergoing a follow-up check-up before exuberantly joining the fray. "God? Yes, I've been feeling like one lately," he joked.
Seriously, it was only after he came on the screen that the screen crackled and came alive - the sheer energy he put into 'Pretty Woman' set the pace, the pace of the whole film, in fact.
"The shoot of 'Pretty Woman' was the first time I rejoined the crew after my surgery," SRK said, wincing at the memory. "I was in pain throughout the shoot, especially while doing that number. What you see on screen was only half of my energy!"
Although he stayed till the bitter end and saw the second half of the film, Shah Rukh never feels very comfortable watching himself on screen. He had seen the first half at an earlier preview, completely unable to watch the whole film in one go. "I don't like watching my own films, I avoid it as much as possible," he smiles.
After the performance, he skillfully accepted the accolades, like someone who is now more used to it. And yet there was a strange lack of immodesty in it; there was not even unreserved cheering.
A few days later, when the film was released, it was obvious that the magic had worked once again, despite a new director (the very talented Nikhil Advani) at the helm. The nail-biting anxiety that had kept producer and writer Karan Johar on his toes (he didn't sit for the entire screening) and the prayer that this film should be successful to boost the spirits of his father Yash Johar had worked.
Still, there was a certain grown-up calm in the air. But don't let the serenity fool you - there's a lot simmering in the Shah Rukh and Karan camp right now.
A routine briefing with Karan Johar uncovered two wonderful stories, both accidentally let slip. Was the reporter's luck at work?
The first - that Shah Rukh will direct a film written by Karan Johar!
Four things happened simultaneously - Karan pushed aside a large Dominos pizza and cinnamon sticks, took a call from Aunty Jaya, planned an evening with Abhishek (for the premiere of Khalid's Tehzeeb) and sounded immensely relieved at the feedback pouring in from the ticket counters.
"It was such a stress. Kal Ho Naa Ho was my toughest film, it was very nerve-wracking for me," he revealed. Apart from writing (which took ages) and incorporating the sensibilities of another director, "we went to New York and shot there for 52 days. Then there were my father's health problems (Yash Johar's illness was diagnosed in the middle of it) and the whole trauma of releasing the film this year. On top of that, there was Shah Rukh's back; you feel terrible seeing a member of your own family in pain and still shooting for you. I had to take the blame and still complete the film on time. All this made Kal Ho Naa Ho very stressful.
It feels very strange to say this, but the easiest film was Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, which everyone thinks of as something that must have been traumatic. Sometimes I have to lie and pretend it was. The film had six of the biggest stars in the country, disciplined, professional, never changing a schedule. It got to a stage where if a costume didn't arrive on time, it would be a disaster, because there was no other disaster. So small things became big problems.
Whereas in Kal Ho Naa Ho the small problems were quickly dealt with, they were irrelevant because we had to deal with such important problems.”
And yet, despite the pain, despite the emotional strain, Shah Rukh delivered one of the best performances of his career in the film.
"But that's him, that's his brilliance," Karan replied promptly. "I get a lot of amusement when people say to me that you can see the (real) pain in his performance. That's so silly; it's just because he's such a great actor. I really think any director who hasn't worked with Shah Rukh has missed out on something special in their career, I feel sorry for the directors who missed out. Just having Shah Rukh on the sets is an incredible experience. When he's not on my set, I feel like I have to work harder.
He is a doer, he is such an organiser. He can organise all your problems. If there is a difficult scene and he is there, I know he will manage it. He is every cameraman's delight as he can even get people to take the right camera angle. If the cameraman wants the actors to catch the light, Shah Rukh in his performance will make sure that he turns the heroine towards the light."
This was not just a loyal friend in full swing, but a filmmaker whose skills were honed by interacting with Shah Rukh.
"In that difficult scene in the station where Preity is shouting at both Shah Rukh and Saif about the 'Chin din, ladki in' (six days and the girl is yours) programme, the camera moves right around her," Karan relived the shoot. "With the kind of acting that Shah Rukh made her do, you can see her face with every camera movement, he was doing every move for her and making her do it. Preity was so surprised, she said to me, 'never has any artist done this for me'. I was confused about that scene, wondering how we should do it and Nikhil and I sat at the back to work it out. Most of the time I was running in and out of the station and seeing that scene play out and it was wonderful. The scene wasn't the cinematographer's concept or the director's concept or mine. It was just the way Shah Rukh had manoeuvred it."
So he understands filmmaking better than most other actors? (It was at this moment that story number one came out.)
"More than me, for sure!" enthused Karan. "He is much more technically savvy than me. I am strong in the scenes but his intrinsic expertise is way beyond most other people. He will make a great director. Shah Rukh understands commercial cinema very well, he knows how to give the right kind of cinematic delay or the right kind of commercial performance. His greatest strength as a person and an actor is his level of versatility. In an alternative film, he will adapt to that tone. With Ashutosh, whose Lagaan had a different tone, Shah Rukh will also be different. His tone in Swades will be different from that in my film or the one he took in Farah Main Hoon Na's film. He is not Shah Rukh the actor who wants to do everything his way, he adapts his performance to what is required."
A random question brought it out – wouldn’t it be a great box office combination to have Shah Rukh direct a script you wrote?
“I have already spoken to him about it!” admits Karan.
"I told him that if he directs a film, I will write the script for him. I will probably take a year off and write the film for him. It will definitely happen, even if I don't know when, but it will! I would love to have him direct my story and script because I think the combination will be lethal."
For your company or his?
"We are actually one, so it's just a technical point, but we'll probably work together on it. More than anything, I think I'm going to have a great time. I hope he doesn't kill me for saying all this, but I know that if he directs a film, I'll offer my services, I'll push my services on him as a writer. I'd be pretty upset if anyone else wrote his film for him!"
Shah Rukh may be able to direct the film but not act in it at the same time. Doing both jobs could be quite tough work.
Karan jumped to his friend's defense. "Mel Gibson did it," he pointed out, his tongue sharp. "Raj Kapoor did it. Shah Rukh's greatest strength is his ability to do five things at once. That's what we're talking about. He can do anything."
They make him sound almost superhuman. And so story number two appeared.
"He is," Karan noted. "I don't know how to explain it to people. There is something non-human, something very spiritual about Shah Rukh. He would be a medium/psychic if he worked on that side of his personality. We are all naturally intuitive. Those who cultivate it become psychic and so on. Some are born with the gift and I know he is. But he doesn't tap into it. If he wasn't Shah Rukh Khan, the superstar of Hindi cinema, he would be reading tarot cards!"
When he had this operation that could have crippled him for life, did it make him more spiritual/religious, petrified/nervous?
"He never showed it, even though Gauri was very tense. But I never was, because I knew nothing could ever happen to him!"
They portray him as almost invincible!
"I just believe he is a child of God. There are certain people who have the hand of God on their heads. I think he has lost a lot in life to be where he is today, I am sure that is what his development curve says. Without reading it, I would say that the stars showed a rise after the fall after the loss of his parents. He is someone who will always be there, he can emerge from anything, he can fight any suffering because he has the hand of God on him. I would say he is one of the most unusual people in the country!
I can almost see the hand of God on him. That's why I say he is spiritual; there is a divine intervention in his life. We all work hard. He also works very hard, but there is an extra element that comes in from somewhere else. I feel that with Mr. Bachchan too. Look at his evolution. Mr. Bachchan battled death, came back, entered politics, almost disappeared. Suddenly a TV show and he became the most sought-after celebrity again. I read somewhere that his astrological chart doesn't show all that. People like him are just very special, they can change the universe."
What Karan shared that afternoon went far beyond admiration for a friend and filmmaker. Everyone knows that Karan is a self-twisted man; he relies on the medium Sunita Menon before every action he takes and the realm he talks about enters an uncanny level, far beyond human comprehension.
"Even now when Shah Rukh is in such severe pain, I just feel that this too shall pass," shrugged Karan.
This was an impression that received support from an unexpected quarter – a clairvoyant in the UK!
Karan said, "It's very strange. There's this amazing psychic in London and getting an appointment with her is very, very difficult. She only meets royals and so I really had to use my influence to get an appointment with her.
This is the first time I've shared this with anyone," he continues. "I went, of course, to ask this lady about my life. And then, as always, I asked about my parents and friends. She was the one who first told me about my father's illness. She said there was a tumor that would appear at some point. I hoped she was wrong and I had never actually had my father examined, so how can you go to your father and say that a psychic said he was getting a tumor? Now, of course, I regret not having done it because then we could have had it treated properly.
Then I asked her about Shah Rukh and when she turned over the cards I had pulled out, she sat up and asked, 'Who is this man?' She is an outsider, a 60-year-old English lady from suburban London, totally removed from our scene, who only sees royalty and so on. She knows nothing about Hindi film stars. I just said he is a special friend. And she said, 'He is not just special, he is not human. I have never seen cards like this for any man.' She told me that is not normal; these cards just do not come for anyone. Even for royalty and the biggest superstars, you pull a maximum of three such cards. And for Shah Rukh I had pulled out four such cards, which is just not normal. She said I have never seen these four cards come together.
She was shocked. She forgot all about me and the £100 I paid her! She had no idea who Shah Rukh was and all she talked about was him!
She was very curious about him. I had a DVD of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with me and I played it for her. She saw him and said, 'There is something, something almost divine about this man.' Which is what I always felt about Shah Rukh.
He is special, anywhere. Leave Mumbai and he is like God," said Karan, coming back to solid ground. "Shah Rukh and Kajol together are amazing. I was in the cinema the day Kal Ho Naa Ho came out. When Rani appeared on screen during the engagement song at the end of the film, there was an uproar, but when Kajol appeared, there was a roar!
Look at the revenue. I admit it was the combination of me and him, but he alone has brought in this revenue. In the United States, we have made a million dollars' revenue in four days, while the total revenue of Koi Mil Gaya has been seven and a half lakh dollars! In the United Kingdom, he has already made revenue of more than 600,000 pounds plus, which is the total revenue of Koi Mil Gaya.
The way things are going overseas, the top two earners of 2003 will both be films starring Shah Rukh Khan. Number one is Kal Ho Naa Ho, second is Chalte Chalte, third is Baghban and fourth place will go to Koi Mil Gaya.
Shah Rukh is the undisputed number one, he is leading by a long shot,” says his best friend happily.
Thank you Karan. For an update that reveals previously unknown sides of Shah Rukh Khan – the star, the human being and the 'director-in-training'!