Jhoom Barabar Adda

Getting all the stars under one roof was a bit of a hassle for me, but somehow they all agreed to sit for a chat. The idea was to get them in an informal adda (Bengali style chat). When I bounced off this idea to Preity Zinta, she was game for it. "I have heard Rituda (Rituparno Ghosh) screaming 'adda mero na' (dont chat while working) while we were working in Kolkata for his English film," says Preity. Abhishek Bachchan and Lara Dutta were sporting enough, while Bobby was a bit skeptical about this idea, but somehow he agreed. The film also stars Amitabh Bachchan in a cameo role.

Post wedding with Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan looked fresh and happy. He greeted with a smile and looking at him, the first thing that came to my mind was his make-over for the film. He sports a completely different look in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. "I have nothing to do with my look in JBJ, its Aki Narula who conceived that entire look," says Abhishek, who has a typical moustache and jazzy costume in the film. "Aki has worked with us in Bunty aur Babli so it was wonderful to reprise with most of the team this time around. Aki as a designer is very flamboyant, he was so much in tune with what my director Shaad Ali wanted and they together have managed to come up with a look which was really needed for the film. The look is distinctive, it is very special and the look is something which aided the performance a lot. So when you wear the kind of clothes that you are wearing the accessories, with your hair and the make up it helps you become the character. I always believe that looking the part is fifty percent of your job and that is largely aided by the work of Aki Narula. I really think it's the finest piece of costume designed in Hindi film till date," he added.

Meanwhile Bobby interrupted saying, "He is praising Akki now, but he used to be very conscious about his jazzy costume when we were shooting in London. How come you are not talking about it?" Abhishek smiled naughtily and added, "Ya… I thought that you guys must have forgotten. Actually, when we use to shoot on the streets of London people use to look at the lead actors and really wonder why we wearing such clothes and we are use to become conscious at times. I think Preity was the most sober of the lot followed by Bobby then Lara and I was the maddest but although we were very conscious while shooting. I think once you see the film the costumes don't seem to jump out on you."

This is for the first time that Abhishek has worked with Bobby Deol, though their respective fathers have worked together in many films they never got an opportunity to share the same screen. Speaking about Bobby, Jr Bachchan says, "I have known him since I was a kid and finally we get an opportunity to work together. I am so happy because I really think this is the right movie and I am glad we never got the opportunity to work together before this and that this is are first movie together. He's just wonderful he is one of the sweetest co-stars one can ask for." Just then Bobby passes a remark. "Ya right, you are saying all these because you don't want me to take you on a motorbike ride again." Everyone in the room started laughing. I could make out that they were hiding something from me. I insisted that they should share it with our readers. Then Bobby revealed, "Actually, Shaad wanted to use a similar kind of motorbike which was used by Ramesh Sippy in Sholay, where my dad and Amitji sings Yeh Dosti track. I am not a bike person at all, which Abhishek was not aware. When Shaad asked me to ride the bike and Abhishek was sitting beside, he realized that it was not safe. So, he has sworn that he will never sit on a bike if I am riding it."

Meanwhile, Preity who was sitting pretty at the corner, says, "Excuse me, do we get a chance to speak?"

"Ya sure," says Abhishek and continues, "Preity is very natural with her performance. The best thing about Preity is that she looks after her co-stars when they are in front of the camera she is for ever ensuring that my make up was Ok and if my hair was out of place she would correct it and get the shot cut."

"Hello… I wanted to say something," she interrupts. Preity had to share some really funny incident which happened on the sets of JBJ. She says, "We were shooting this dance sequence and it was the first day of the shoot and everyone was really excited and we were like 'yes we are going to go for it' and I was dancing and suddenly I felt this piercing pain in my foot and I looked down Lara who is 5 ft 8 inches tall and she was wearing a 5 inches heel dug into my foot and made like a hole in my foot and I went like 'ahhhhhhhh'. And then just when I was just recovering from it and I got rid of the stitches and I was getting ready to go on set again, then Bobby put his 'Punjab da haath' and whacked my face so I remember falling off and seeing the plane, train and the submarine together. I think this is the first time in my career after we shot a song we were just tired and we wanted to go home and the director Shaad just put the track again and besides the actors everyone else started dancing and they danced and danced and danced and I was looking at them."

While Preity was narrating her funny incident, Lara also added a bit to it. "I was shooting a very crucial scene in the film with Abhishek, and I was wearing this wig which falls off in front of the entire public near Eiffel tower. It might sound hilarious now, but I didn't know what to do. Thanks to Abhishek, that he had quickly grabbed it and I had to hide and put it into place, as the rest of the people there thought that I was French, so everyone thought it was all real and natural," says Lara.

Not known to too many people that Lara used to call Bobby as baby on the sets of JBJ. "I used to call him 'baby' and we would pamper him and mother him and things like that. But I think Bobby worked really really hard for this film, and he was the one person whose lines I read while I was doing the script reading and I wanted his lines as he has the best lines in the film," says Lara.

It seems that Shaad was shooting 'Ticket to Hollywood' track in Paris during the winters. "It was freezing, and I had to wear skimpy costume for the song. I was about to freeze when our choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant gave some really tough steps to rehearse and our mind was taken off from the weather," she says.

Friday, June 15, 2007