Farah Khan: Setting a world record?
DOMINIC FERRAO
INDIATIMES MOVIES
When it comes to Farah Khan's films, there's always something to talk about -besides the phenomenal cast, of course. While Main Hoon Na had an entire song which was shot in one take, for her latest Om Shanti Om she's roped in no less than 30 stars for a single song...
Manmohan Desai roped in superstars for a song in Naseeb years ago, and now we hear you've done the same in Om Shanti Om ?
"Well, it's 20 years since that song, and we had to step up the star-power. Seriously, Manmohan Desai's song was an inspiration. The best thing is that since Shah Rukh is playing an actor in Om Shanti Om, it made sense to have so many stars in one song, which happens at a party – it doesn't look forced. In fact, we have stars right from the 70s till date."
Have you shot the entire song at one go or did you have to break your head over star dates?
"We wanted to shoot the song in five days but it took us seven days to do it, because we needed time to co-ordinate everyone's dates."
Any special reason for selecting exactly 30 stars, 15 male and 15 female?
"Actually, we wanted to get more stars, but we couldn't do that because some stars were out of the country and some didn't have the dates. It just so happened, that we got 15 male stars and 15 female stars for the song in the end."
Are they cast as couples?
"No, not at all. Some of them are cast as couples, but others are in groups and still others are solo. Like we had to cast Rekha as a single star. Getting Sanjay, Salman, Saif and Shah Rukh in one frame was quite a high. It was quite an exciting experience."
Is it true that A R Rahman allegedly asked for 33 per cent of the music rights when he was approached to compose the film's music?
"Yes, we did approach A R Rahman for the music, but the deal fell through. There was a lot of red tape, he had a new agent, and things didn't fall into place. The problem with getting international celebrities is the contracts which come as baggage. In the Hindi film industry we often work on the basis of a verbal contract. In fact, the stars I cast sweetly went out of their way to be a part of the song. Mithun was shooting somewhere else but actually flew down to shoot for two hours. And Dharmendra even came and said some shayeri (poetry)."
http://movies.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2017759,curpg- 1.cms
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