Come fall in love ... again- Exactly 20 years after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, t2 had a SAPTAMI date with the Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol magic once more on the sets of Dilwale in Hyderabad |
| Priyanka Roy |
| DDLJ TO DILWALE, SALMAN THE GENEROUS TO SIMPLE B'DAY PLANS... SHAH RUKH KHAN AND KAJOL IN DILWALE ... All that was on the table as Team Dilwale " SRK and Kajol, Varun and Kriti " sat down for a chat on Saptami evening. Shah Rukh and Kajol, how have you managed to create that chemistry over and over again for the last 20 years? Kajol: I will take complete credit for it! (Laughs) What do you have to say? (To Shah Rukh) But familiarity is one thing, freshness another... Kajol: He does the familiarity and fondness... I bring in the freshness! (Laughs out loud and punches SRK on his knee) Shah Rukh, Dilwale seems bigger than Happy New Year, which, in turn, was bigger than Chennai Express. How do you manage to do it every time? SRK: The idea every time is to make an event out of our film. It's an annual celebration that I bring for the lovers of cinema and for me, there is no compromising on that front. Each time, the audience should feel that they are watching something bigger... something made with a lot more love and attention to detail than anything that they have seen from me before. The romance needs to be bigger... the action bigger. Every time a family goes to watch my film, they should feel that visually and technically, they haven't seen anything so grand before. My friends Adi (Aditya Chopra) and Karan (Johar) keep asking me: Why do you spend so much money making a film?' And I always tell them: Because the audience spends so much money watching my film' (smiles). You started the six-pack phenomenon with Om Shanti Om and carried it further with an eight-pack in Happy New Year. What will we get to see when you take off your shirt in Dilwale? Kajol: Shah Rukh's six-pack and Varun's (Dhawan) six-pack will give you What does Dilwale bring for the SRK-Kajol fan? SRK: This film is made for the family... for the children. This has a lot of humour. You will see Kajol doing a lot of humour in the film. We have Varun Dhawan and Varun Sharma, both of whom are very funny. Kajol, what made you sign Dilwale five years after My Name Is Khan? Kajol: He (SRK) drew me out. I loved the idea... I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and this seemed like the perfect film to do, so... Kriti and Varun, how much of a learning experience has it been working with Shah Rukh and Kajol? Kriti Sanon: Shah Rukh Sir is amazing. He's the most giving and helpful co-star. He's constantly jumping around on set... his energy is insane. Before the shoot, Varun and I would think: My god, it's Shah Rukh-Kajol... how will we make our chemistry noticeable?!' But somehow, both of them just made us so comfortable that the chemistry happened very naturally. Could you pick a scene or song which you feel will be very special for the SRK-Kajol fan? SRK: A scene becomes special for the people in it. You never know which scene may become special... like the bench scene in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (where his Rahul and her Anjali meet after years and catch up on each other's lives), we had no idea it would become so big. We hope every scene between us in Dilwale becomes special for the audience. Twenty years from now, will people remember Dilwale as much as they remember DDLJ? What was it like recreating the DDLJ image that we see in the poster? Kajol: Everything was the same... apart from the fact that I was much lighter 20 years ago! Both of you were around before social media. How have you embraced this medium to promote your films now? SRK: I like social media because it's personal, it's quick and it's effective. It's also an equaliser... stars talk to fans on a one-on-on basis. I don't believe in this enigma thing at all. The enigma of a star lies in baring your whole life to the world and yet managing to hold on to your personal life. I am very active on social media, Kajol is not. But I admire the fact that she only tweets when she has to say something about the cause she's attached to (child health and hygiene). She has a unique voice and she uses it judiciously. Shah Rukh, do you wake up in the morning like the rest of us and say: I still have that left to do!' Kajol: Make another baby! (Laughs out loud even as SRK smiles) SRK: For all of us artistes who have been around for a long time, at the end of the day, what matters is not the money, the awards or the rewards... what matters the most is making the audience happy. For me, the need is to surpass everything I have done before. I always have to be better than what I have done before. The trailer of Dilwale will be screened with Salman Khan's Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Now that's quite something... SRK: We requested them if they could show our trailer with their film. It's very difficult for people to cut down on their own film to accommodate someone else's trailer, but both Soorajji (Barjatya) and Salman (Khan) were gracious and generous enough to accommodate our trailer. I believe that Prem Ratan Dhan Payo will be the biggest film of the year and it's wonderful that people will get to see a bit of Dilwale with Prem Ratan... Like Happy New Year, will we see your son AbRam in Dilwale too? He's been spotted on set here... SRK: I will be very honest... my wife (Gauri) has now told me not to expose my children anymore on social media or in films and I think she is right. My children have to make a name for themselves and I shouldn't expose them like this. Now and then I retweet what someone else posts on my children, but I am trying not to do that as well. Is everyone on set now intimidated by Dr Shah Rukh Khan?! Kajol: We've asked him whether we should put that in the credits on Dilwale! (Laughs out loud) SRK: I will be shooting in Goa. The kids will be on holiday, so they will join me there and we will have a quiet celebration with the Dilwale team. I know it's my 50th and people expect a big celebration, but if I throw a party, then I will have to invite every single person I have known in my 50 years and that's logistically impossible (smiles and shakes his head). People tell me that 40, 50 and 75 are landmark years. I don't think so. It's just another year. COME FALL IN LOVE: Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol on the sets of Dilwale Goosebump alert! Sitting at a distance of less than a feet from Raj and Simran just a day after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge turned a magical two decades. The stars: Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, Bollywood's most celebrated onscreen couple in the last 20 years. As I checked in to Hotel Sithara on the film city's premises around 9am, it all seemed eerily quiet. The word was that Team Dilwale " including SRK and Kajol, Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon and Rohit Shetty " had all called it a day after nightlong celebrations for DDLJ@20, even managing to recreate the iconic poster image with its leading stars (again, see chat) and also recording a video that captured the Raj-Simran romance. A GLIMPSE OF KAJOL Two hours later, I was showered and dressed after a quick nap, and still there was only silence in the Dilwale camp. Thirty minutes later, as I sat outside in the hotel's garden, enjoying the 25C weather, I saw someone walk out of the lobby quickly, ignore the back door of the car opened for her by the hotel valet and slip into the seat beside the driver. The car zoomed off, giving me no time to register that it was K-a-j-o-l. "Action!" I smiled to myself. Half-an-hour later, I found myself being driven in a bus with a few other journalists to one of the sets of the film, dotting the sprawling Ramoji Rao grounds. The sun, by then, had turned a scorching 38C and a five-minute ride later, I found myself on the set of a church, it's premises done up with flowers and confetti in the theme of white and pink. The whole set looked like a strawberry and vanilla cake. No prizes for guessing that a wedding sequence was being shot here " there was even a vintage car with the sign: Just Married'. But it was 2.30pm and there were still no stars on set. A quick lunch later, we were driven back to the hotel, with the promise that SRK and Kajol were all set to start shooting "soon". TUJHE DEKHA TOH: Raj woos Simran once again in the #20Yearsof DDLJ video, directed by Dilwale maker Rohit Shetty FINALLY, THE MAN It was only around 5.30pm that I found myself on the set where Shah Rukh and Kajol were canning their last few shots of the day. With SRK's plush vanity van parked in one corner, a part of the set had been converted into a typical Goa street, dotted with small shops and quaint cafes. As I turned a bend, I saw a swanky garage " with the signboard RV Auto World " staring at me, even as a cafe done up in sunshine yellow and aptly called Happy Cafe' had young couples sitting at a number of tables and looking on at the "action". "There's the man," a fellow journalist nudged me and I turned to see Shah Rukh Khan " grey shirt, black denims and Chak De! India beard " walking around on set, talking on the phone, the ubiquitous cigarette in hand. A second later, Kajol walked into view, also talking on the phone and sipping on a cold coffee, looking like a million bucks in a multi-coloured maxi dress. The whole set had a distinct Goan vibe " from the Mother Mary statue in one corner to the house " Shah Rukh's home " with its potted plants and cute verandah out front. With the sun sinking rapidly, the team was in a tearing hurry to wrap up for the day, but there was no tension on set. Rohit Shetty " dressed in denims and sporting his trademark mirror aviators " was joking around with his lead pair, only pausing to shout out instructions on appropriate camera angles to Dudley, the cinematographer on all his films, from Golmaal to Singham Returns. Time and again, SRK and Kajol disappeared behind a white screen to can their shots, but we did manage to spot the yellow Beetle that King Khan's two-year-old AbRam had been gleefully "driving" around on set " with a little help from Rohit Shetty " a few weeks ago, that had vroomed into the virtual world. HOME RUN With Rohit busy wrapping up the day's shoot, we were led into the house that serves as SRK's "home" in the film. Sprawling and tastefully done up, with a number of rooms over two levels plus a mini courtyard, a lot like the ones seen in the Golmaal films. While Team Dilwale was tight-lipped on the story and setting " we weren't allowed to click ANY pictures " the house gave away quite a few clues. For one, the miniatures of cars strewn all over the living room and the framed pictures of the logos of Fisker Automotive and Alfa Lowes on the walls pointed to the fact that Shah Rukh and Varun " they play brothers in the film " are motor enthusiasts (remember the RV Auto World out there?). And then... What would you want to gift Shah Rukh on his 50th birthday? |
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