Shah Rukh Cheques Farah's Spending
[20 Jun 2007>
TWO friends had gone mountain trekking when they saw a huge bear standing in their path. One of the friends started putting on his running shoes when his friend said, "What are you doing? It won't help. You can't outrun the bear." The friend replied, "I don't need to outrun the bear." It was a simple internet joke mailed to me by a friend, but wary of friendships, one tried to find a message in the humor. But probably the message has been clear since ages. There are some things friends would do for you and there are some things they won't. And another new age message that's evolved through experience over the years is don't talk money and make business with friends. You are likely to lose both.
No surprise, 'friendships' in our industry are so fickle. It all starts out with everyone being everyone's friend. Two actresses working on a film together or doing a stage show, start out as bosom buddies and talk of how they are karmically connected. Few days later, they are tearing each other apart in the press, or restrict their love to frosty glares when competition seeps in. Rani Mukherjee, for example, is known to run through her set of friends before she's done running through her minimal, atrocious wardrobe. While on the other hand, there are those who are always standing up for their friends, supporting them through their rough times with acts that cleanse the cynicism out of your system. Brats Sunjay Dutt and Salman Khan top the charts here.
And there is a Shah Rukh Khan for whom friendship is a perfectly symbiotic relationship. He's made it a habit to work with friends and make friends with most people he works with, and seen to it that both parties are benefited. It was his off-screen friendship with Juhi that made their chemistry so palpable in 'Darr', 'Yes Boss' and more films they did together. After Juhi settled into matrimony, the two remained friends and even ran a production house together, but there was no revisiting the famous on-screen chemistry. It wasn't just commercially viable anymore.
It was Shah Rukh's (along with Kajol's) belief in the talent of an assistant on the sets of Aditya Chopra's 'DDLJ' that saw Karan Johar take his first big step in the industry. Of course, Karan had a winner script in 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', but it's debatable if it would have been such a success had it not been for the lead pair's support.
Shah Rukh and Karan Johar have gone from strength to strength since then, giving hits together like 'K3G', 'Kal Ho Na Ho' and 'KANK'. The years gone by have only strengthened their friendship too, so much so that today Karan Johar's name is synonymous with SRK's. A film made by Dharma Productions without Shah Rukh is unimaginable. Karan isn't the only one who gained Shah Rukh's support when he needed it the most. When choreographer Farah Khan decided to turn director, it was Shah Rukh she went to with a script and to get his feedback. SRK was most encouraging of his friend and came forward to produce the film and also star in it. That's how 'Main Hoon Na' happened.
Farah, in her first film, was provided a huge canvas and the liberty to pick and choose the best for her film. SRK was a hands-on producer but barely interfered with his director and trusted her with her job. Sadly, the end result left a lot to be desired. The film did reasonably well at the box-office, thanks to SRK's standing and Sushmita's sizzle act in the film. But the director received her due flak and SRK must have realized that he shouldn't rely on his friends blindly.
Farah meanwhile took a backseat while her husband Shirish Kunder made 'Jaan-e-Mann'. While helping her husband with the technical aspects of the film, Farah was also working on the script of her next film. As 'Jaan-e-Mann' readied for completion Farah approached Shah Rukh with her new script. It was another ambitious project 'Happy New Year' and was to star Shah Rukh and Amitabh Bachchan in it. SRK however wasn't going to blindly lap up the project this time. In fact he wasn't happy with the script at all and turned it down immediately. Farah went back to reworking her script but Shah Rukh wasn't happy with the redraft either. This went on for a while, Farah came up with fresh takes on her script and Shah Rukh kept thumbing them down. It came to a point where they finally decided to scrap the project completely.
It was a double whammy for Farah 'coz around then 'Jaane-e-Mann' crashed at the box-office. Shirish Kunder did win some brownie points for his innovative techniques and he was set on coming back with a bang. He had a rough experience working with Salman on 'Jaan-e-Mann', and Shirish was hardly going to be able to repeat him in his next. It was Farah who accompanied Shirish to Shah Rukh to narrate Shirish's new script to him. But Shah Rukh wasn't interested. Apparently, he told them that he was busy all through the year and couldn't accommodate his film. Farah, though disappointed, could understand SRK's decision, not wanting to take any more risky decisions at the moment. He'd just burnt his fingers with 'Don'. She set out to work on her new script, something that just couldn't be turned down. 'Om Shanti Om' was the result of that. Finally Shah Rukh was happy with the script and was going to produce it. The story of a film star, with Shah Rukh in the main lead began rolling in Filmcity, where a huge, ostentatious set was erected for a long schedule of the film.
Shah Rukh had again given Farah a free hand to work out the best for their film. So while she was to launch supermodel Deepika Padukone in the main lead opposite Shah Rukh, she roped in Arjun Rampal for a cameo in the film. Farah has always claimed to be a believer in the larger than life nature of movies, and wanted to go bigger and greater with her film. She made a list of a couple of dozen stars who she approached on SRK's behalf to play walk-on parts in the film. Except for a few rebuttals like from the Bachchans, Ajay Devgan and Sushmita, they all made their presence felt. Emboldened by achieving this feat, Farah decided to go lavish with her presentation. The ostentatious sets were refurbished for more opulence. Farah wanted to re-shoot some of the canned scenes she wasn't too happy with. Maybe it was the choreographer in her taking over that Farah wanted to add a couple of songs to her film. She was also planning a generous publicity blitz for 'Om Shanti Om', probably in a bid to prove that she could do things in a mammoth way and that she'd arrived on the big scene. Maybe she wanted to give Bhansali a run for his money.
Shah Rukh however, didn't quite share her sentiments. Farah's ideas were all good on paper, but would push the budget of his film much higher than he'd wanted and anticipated. It was time for the producer of the film to stand up and put his foot down. And that is exactly what Shah Rukh did according to our source. He decided he had to have a word with Farah before it was too late. He reportedly, told her that though he appreciated her ideas he couldn't go along with them, and she'd have to stick to her budget. Farah wasn't exactly heartbroken but she did feel disappointed. When the film is in the running for a record bid for distribution rights, what's the big deal with pushing the budget a few notches? But by drawing the line already, SRK has cleverly demonstrated that he could separate friendship from professional decisions. While Farah wraps up the film, a song less here and there maybe, she still has a friend who stands by her. SRK has averted any future grudges and possible acrimony that might creep in when you give in too much to a friend. After all, financial losses can be recovered. The only loss worth crying over is that of a friendship.
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