Star couples strike gold

What makes Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji sizzle the silver screen with such aplomb? Simple. They share fabulous onscreen chemistry. But then why did the much-hyped Ajay Devgan-Kareena Kapoor pair fizzle out at the box office? Yes, the varying fortunes of KANK and Omkara are obvious cases worth pondering on. When it comes to the famed chemistry between a star pair, it seems only the audience knows the right answer.

Amrita Rao, who shares a good onscreen rapport with Shahid Kapoor, sheds light, "We have grown up watching popular jodis like Raj Kapoor-Nargis, Shah Rukh-Kajol and know that such things cannot be planned. The audience is the one who passes the final verdict."
But then do star couples have to be great friends in real life to spruce up that much-valued chemistry? "Some times they are good friends and sometimes they are not.

When it comes to me and Shahid, I have worked with him since his first film and have seen him progress tremendously in these four years. However, what is important is when we meet on the sets even after a month or a year we instantly click and the comfort level is good enough to do great work together," stresses Rao, who will be seen next with Shahid in Sooraj R. Barjatya's Vivaah.

Filmmaker Anurag Basu, who is now directing Metro with Shiney Ahuja and Shilpa Shetty, chips in, "I always encourage my actors to feel for their characters, to think like them. You won't find a single fake performance or emotion in my films which is why the Emraan-Mallika pair in Murder or Shiney and Kangna in Gangster became such huge hits with the audiences. I also make sure that there is no sign of hierarchy on the sets. My team is like a huge family and I treat everyone from the actor to the spot boy equally. Even for the UTV-financed Metro, I have my entire team working with me."