My daughter was traumatised by Tashan

Director Vijay Krishna Acharya discusses his film for the first time

First off, why did Kareena's character require that sculpted physique?
It was a challenge Kareena took on herself to do a Kate Moss. I told her there was a lot of action. A woman doing crackerjack action is a big turn-on. Kareena played someone who can have men for breakfast. Her look was courtesy designer Aki Narula. The look I had in mind for Kareena was Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.

Tashan has comic-book violence.
Yeah, I didn't want the killings to be icky. But my seven-year-old daughter was traumatised when she saw Tashan. She's more into Walt Disney. Her father is not.

Have you been consciously staying away from the media?
I was. I didn't want to be a part of the campaign and say all those generic things.

The formula here is tampered?
I couldn't do anything straitjacketed. Good or bad, I did what I know best. Doing Tashan, I learnt a lot about myself. I'm a huge film buff. If it weren't for Martin Scorcese, Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, I wouldn't be here. I remember cycling down in my hometown Kanpur twice in two days for eight kilometers to see Ardh Satya. I loved its rawness at a time when everyone was doing potboilers.

So unless you try to break the mould, you'd never know. In Tashan, my effort was to try do mainstream the way I'd like to see it, to convey the full-bloodedness of the masala film. I kept asking Adi if we were pushing the enveloping too far. He kept assuring me I was doing the right thing.

What happens to my characters in Tashan is extraordinary. But I wanted them to be part of a believable world. Tashan is not for the lily-livered.

Akshay Kumar got the point better than other actors in Tashan?
He hasn't had the time to see the film yet. Woh zameen se juda hua hai. He understands the small-town mentality. I made the film for the ticket-paying audience at the grassroots. That community feeling when an audience sits down to watch a film together is unparalleled. My characters are neither noble nor virtuous. But there was a core of innocence to them.

As a first -time director, were you intimidated by Tashan's cast?
Not really. My antecedents — done theatre in college in Delhi, had assisted Kundan Shah for two years, etc — bolstered my confidence. Television where I directed Just Mohabbat and Jassi Jaisi…Koi Nahin made me economically sound. Then I wrote Dhoom, Dhoom2 and Guru. Spending time on Mani Ratnam's sets made me confident about stars.

I came to Mumbai for a lark. I wanted to meet two filmmakers, Kundan Shah and Rahul Rawail.

What next?

I'm going to be working with Mani sir (Ratnam) again. I wrote the dialogues in Guru for Mani sir. I haven't had this kind of connectivity with anybody. I couldn't have made Tashan, if I hadn't been on board with Guru. I love Quentin Tarantino. But I'm a bigger fan of Woody Allen and Patrice Leconte. I've a couple of ideas for what I want to direct next.