I am not allowed inside my daughters room: Farhan Akhtar

I am not allowed inside my daughter's room

Farhan Akhtar on dos and don'ts, returning to TV, hosting a show where he motivates contestants and challenges himself

Nayandeep Rakshit

He judged a dance reality show years ago. After that, he hosted a talk show. Now Farhan Akhtar's back in the reality show circuit with I Can Do That. The show premieres October 17 on Zee TV and is raring to go. Juggling shoots, Farhan talks about his newest project...

You haven't done shows for some time. What made you take up this offer?

I was blown away by the concept of this show. There are shows where you have to present your existing talents in front of the audience. So there are singing and dancing shows. I Can Do That is more about knowing that these are your strengths, so you take up some other challenges, which are tasks you would not have thought of doing in life. It's challenging and aspirational because when people will see that in a week's time, the contestants will learn so many things which they initially thought they would not be able to carry off, that in itself gives you inspiration that even you can do that.

One thing that people said you couldn't do and you eventually did it to prove them wrong.

I don't listen to people, yaar! (Smiles) The only thing I can't do right now is to go into my daughter's room. She's become a teenager, so I am barred from entering her room. That's the only thing I am not allowed to do and I listen to her.

What's that one thing you felt you wouldn't be able to do, but eventually did?

There was a certain confusion about what I wanted to do. But when I decided to make films or write, I did it very diligently and sincerely. So till now, there has been nothing that I told myself that I would like to do but couldn't. Of course, the question has always been how to do what I wanted to do. How much time would I have to give? How dedicated should I be? For example, take the singing that I do on stage. In reality, I am petrified of going on stage. If someone tells me to go and say a few words on stage, I still get nervous and my palms start getting clammy. But if you ask me to go and dance on stage, I can do it.

To get over that fear, music has helped me tremendously. That was possibly something I used to even tell my father. We would all be invited to places and I would always says no fearing that I would have to go out and speak. I would make excuses and then he told me that I should share whatever things I had to. So that took some doing. In the US, they had done a poll across sections of society and they asked people what their biggest fear was. Was it death or losing somebody you love, losing your job or speaking in public? The number one reason was speaking in public. Above everything. It's actually so scary because you are afraid that you might make a fool of yourself.

As a host, what's the biggest challenge?

The most important requirement is to motivate the contestants and make them feel that the choices they are making with regards to the new skills that they will have to now acquire is possible for them. Other than that, I have to try and keep the tempo of the show up, make it more entertaining because eventually, on such shows, the hasi-mazak needs to keep going. Plus, I am playing myself on the show. I am not playing a role so I'll say and share whatever I need to. There's no script that needs to be followed in that department. It's a completely different experience.

One task from the show which you think you couldn't have done yourself.

Most of them are great stunts. I don't know if I would have done it, but there was this bartending task which I believe would have been really difficult for me because my hands shake a lot. So, I don't know how I would have done that. But I will definitely take it up because that would give me something to fight against, at least.

Last we saw you was years ago, in Oye Its Friday. Was it a conscious move to pick something other than a chat show?

It was in 2009 that I did Oye It's Friday so, it's been six years now. Then I got busy because I remember Rock On!! released in 2008, Luck By Chance released in 2009 and then I got straight into doing many films " both as an actor and as a director. You need to have time to dedicate it to a show like this. It had to be something new for TV, a concept which I haven't tried before. I was a judge on the first dance show back in 2006. This format has been really successful in different countries so I found it exciting to be a part of something now.

But even now, you would have to juggle your films (Wazir, Rock On 2) and the show...

Obviously, you need to have time. But if you would not be excited about something, you would not even make time for it. I Can Do That, as a concept, appealed to me and hence I agreed. I leave for Rock On 2 again in a day and it's been planned to accommodate everything. I can control the schedule of this film because I am the producer on it. For every film, you have a single weekly off, so I can take the breaks from Rock On 2 and plan in a way that I can shoot on my weekly offs for the show.

Any plans of producing a TV show?

No thoughts on that yet. So to say yes or no, is difficult. Of course, everything is possible. But if you ask me whether I have a concept right now which I would be willing to produce, no I don't have any right now.

Today, there's a strong shift in TV as well, with mini-series and webisodes taking over.

I believe whatever is happening in the digital space, is affecting TV in a very big way today. It's mainly because digital space gives you a lot of freedom to do things " the kind of content that can be put out digitally " the censorship is a lot less. Youngsters today make for the biggest population in the country and these people under the age bracket of 25 are getting attracted to what's happening on digital platforms. So to compete with that, there has to be a certain degree of shift within the space of TV and films and we are looking at it.