Bebo wanted to look thin & hot: Vijay Kri

By Subhash K Jha

Introducing Vijay Krishna Acharya the Tashan director talks for the first time.

First question, why did Kareena's character require that sculpted physique?
To be totally honest it was a challenge that Kareena took on herself. She probably took up the challenge of doing a Kate Moss. When I told her about the role 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 the designer Akki Nirula. 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 traumatized when she saw Tashan. I think 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 conscious part of the promotional campaign and say all those generic things.

But because of your reticence people didn't know what Tashan was about?
It's early days to really know how the film will do. We didn't want it to come on a Friday and be out in a week. We wanted to underplay the film as much as possible.

We just showed the songs in the promos and let the audience and come and watch and get sucked in. I hoped Tashan would be a clutter-breaker.

The formula is here more tampered than pampered?
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 wasn't for Matin Scorcese, Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani I wouldn't be here.

I remember cycling down in my home -town Kanpur twice in two days for eight kilometers to see Ardh Sarya. I loved its rawness at a time when everyone was doing potboilers. So unless you try to break the mould you'd never know.

Chandan on Friday. I was vindicated by the audiences' reaction.

In Tashan my effort was to try to do mainstream the way I'd like to see it, to convey the full-bloodedness of the masala film. Very frankly my action in Tashan was a little orgiastic.

I kept asking Adi if we were pushing the enveloping too far. He kept assuring me I was doing the right thing.

Why do you think critics are looking for logic in Tashan?
Sometimes the makebelieve of the mainstream seems a little plastic to me. 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.

Where did all the violence come from?
I think it's part of all of us. We live in violent times. I've lived in Kanpur and Delhi. North India used to be more aggressive. No more so. Today when I see all the factional violence in Mumbai I'm aghast. It wasn't so ten years ago.

Akshay Kumar got the point better than the 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 the awesome cast in Tashan?
Not really. My antecedents—done theatre in college in Delhi,had assisted Kundan Shah for two years, etc— bolstered my selfconfidence.

Television where I directed Just Mohabbat and Jassi Jaisi…Koi Nahin made me economically sound. Then I wrote Dhoom, Dhoom 2 and Guru. Spending time on Mani Ratnam's sets made me confident about stars.

Did Aditya Chopra give you a free hand?
I don't think I could've got better producers. It takes some amount of guts to back a film like Tashan. And it requires some balls to make it. I came to Mumbai for a lark.I wanted to meet two filmmakers Kundan Shah and Rahul Rawail.

Has the absence of Tashan from multiplexes made a difference?
I'm not too sure of what the intricacies of the situation are. But by a happy coincidence when we saw the final print of Tashan I had commented it would be perfect for single theatres. But I'm sure it'd open in multi-plexes soon.

What next?
I'm going to be working 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 broad with Guru.

I also love the works of Quentin Tarantino But I'm bigger fan of Woody Allen and Patrice Leconte. I've a couple of ideas for what I want to direct next.