'Jassi was like a school girl...'

In our first column, we decided to chat up with Rajan Shah, the man behind shows like Kareena Kareena, Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi, Reth and Miilee. Ananya Sengupta, spoke to the veteran director, who has this uncanny habit of setting up a show and quitting soon after; who quits when on a high...but returns only to take his shows to a higher level!

On Jassi's wedding drama
The channel had hyped the marriage beyond all expectations, but at that point of time, I had thought, if Jassi and Arman get married, there will not be anything further in the story! But see, it's going strong...and I always thought that people who criticised the Jassi marriage episodes did that only after watching them...so my work is done! See, on a seriousnote, let me tell you that the Jassi-Arman scenes work like magic. The charm remains because they never seem to meet.
The vulnerability of the situation lends novelty to the scene.

On his high profile leading ladies
It is always a pleasure to work with people who are committed to their work. This was the one thing that is common in all my leading ladies. Mona (Singh, Jassi) is very humble. Initially, she was like a schoolgirl who would sit with her script for hours, but now she is a confident young lady. She has no attitude problems and she is more worried about her scene than her looks -- that is a good sign! She worked for 18 hours a day without any complains. Mona Wasu (Miilee) on the other hand, has amazing energy and whenever I have to shoot with her I have to watch out for that!

Kulraj (Kareena) again is a fresh face, she has no preconceived notions. I used to tell her not to learn her lines, so that it came across as spontaneous. You know, a strange thing about Kulraj is that if you give her two hours to learn a script, she will not do it...give her 15 minutes and she is ready! She is that spontaneous! Deepa Parab (Jia in Reth) is one actress who does her homework. She readily connects to emotional scenes and I have never seen her use glycerin. There was this one scene, where the whole set cried -- that was how good she was!

On his style of direction
I worked as an associate on shows like Sail and Those CAI Rhode chi Zaroorat hai. I did a love story for Sony, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahi -- I used what people now call 'gimmicks' to make this show look good. I used interesting colour schemes, location shoots and song sequences to mount the show to a higher level. It was filmed like a movie!
I don't believe in doing half hearted work, and that is the reason why I do a show till it gets monotonous. The producers, specially people like Deeya and Tony, with whom I have worked, know this and they always want me to come back to shoot important episodes. They know that I can be trusted to do tricky episodes.

On Channel interference
Initially, I had creative differences with the guys at the channel, but with time, I have learnt to work with it. Nowadays, the people making the decisions at the channel are qualified people -- they know about direction and storytelling as much as I do. They moniter a single episode scene by scene and then decide what track to take. The director and the channel have to sit together to have a good product.