Of The Boss Dialogues

This week I have been watching Indu Mirani's The Boss Dialogues, a series of insightful and lovely interviews of her with the famous men and women of the Hindi film industry. I love to watch interviews of film stars, and learn so much about them. Naturally, The Boss Dialogues is one of my favorite shows. I do want to mention about the one with Karan Johar. It was a great one. Karan is one of the very few people in the industry who have the gift of the gab, and he is a wonderful talker. People may be aghast, but I consider him to be one of my favorite filmmakers. As I have written before, I find that his films have a certain sense of gorgeousness in them.

In the interview, Karan is refreshingly frank and candid about his capabilities as a director. He says that he knows his limitations and he can never make a film like Rang De Basanti. He won't even know how to shoot a film like that. He says that we need to start appreciating films by other directors, and then, only we can learn from them, and create a better kind of cinema. Dil Chahta Hai inspired him to make a cool film, so, he wrote Kal Ho Naa Ho. How many film directors have we seen who can readily accept their limited skills, and praise someone else without any hint of malice? 

Secondly, I love it how he gave a new insight on Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. He says that he deleted one scene as he chickened out because of the notion of a 'hero' in a Hindi film. He says that he had a scene in the film where Anjali calls Rahul as a spineless man. It comes at a time when Rahul had asked her if she was happy with Aman, then, she asks him in return if he was happy, and he said he was happy. Then, she shoots back at him and says that he was happy because he was a spineless man. Ten years ago, he did not know he loved her, and even now, he cannot tell her that he loves her. He keeps on saying that that we fall in love only once, and get married only once, but in his case, it is not true. He is just pretending to be happy, and he should grow a spine. But Karan cut the scene out because he felt that it would crush the notion of hero in a film. How different the film would be if this scene was included in it?

Last, and this made me feel a bit sad for him. He says that when he was growing up, he never told anyone that his father was a film producer. The kind of films that were being made at that time, and some of them produced by his father made him feel embarrassed. He wanted to fit in, hence, he did not say that it was by his own father. I will again over-analyze this, but this desire to fit in with everyone else is a bit devastating. Not only he grew up as a fat child, but it makes me think this has also to do with his alleged sexuality. This desire to be like everyone else because you are battling your inner demons can be too hard while growing up. After the infamous All India Bakchod (AIB) roast, which I found to be absolutely puerile (the AIB guys are a bunch of elitist and sexist hypocrites of the first order, pampered by the media), Sandeep Roy wrote a fantastic piece on how the biggest roast was Karan Johar, and how he seemed to be very comfortable with the gay jokes, and that too, in front of his mother. It could be interpreted as his coming out. In addition, he played Kaizad Khambatta, a gay businessman in Bombay Velvet, which again could mean he has finally come to be comfortable with himself. Not that he needs to tell anyone about it, but I do hope he is happy and wish him all the best, and hope that he continues to make great films, which I will always watch.

I also learnt a lot about Ayan Mukerji, and can see which direction his future films would go.

In the interview with Farhan Akhtar, he reveals that Subodh was his friend in real life, and he was the inspiration for the character of Aakash. Who would have thought this? So, this is also going to be included in my piece on Dil Chahta Hai, which I will never finish.

In an interview with Anupama Chopra, I love it when Deepika says she loves buying groceries. That is so sweet :) Yes, Deepika, I love it, too :)

More later.

Dialogue of the Day:

"Harjaiyaan mila woh hone ko juda kyun,

Parchaiyaan deke hi mujhe woh gaya kyun."

— Queen