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| Having Shahid in the film, makes the film very fresh: Rani Mukherjee By Websmaster, 15 September 2009, Filmicafe.com | |
 Any reactions from the friends who saw the trailer? You know, my friends are all biased towards me and they always love whenever they see my movies and my trailer but for the last few films of mine I don't think I saw that much of excitement but with DBH, , I saw excited reactions from my friends and from my family so I am just hoping that these reactions are to the promos and not to me coming after a such a long time. Your experience with debutant director Anurag Singh. Anurag is very simple by nature. He is very nice and very religious, a very God fearing and a very good boy. I felt really nice working with him because its his first film and the best thing I liked about Anurag while shooting the film was whenever he used to get the file of his shot division, he always used to have a Sai Baba photo and a Durga Mata photo in it. After seeing that, I used to always feel that this faith of him will definitely be fruitful for all of us. I don't think so anyone else could have so much faith like him because whenever we used give a good shot, he always used to show me the file and say it is done by Baba and it is done by Mata, so this thing about Anurag is really sweet and I had a lot of fun shooting with him. A memorable experience while shooting for DBH. It was my first schedule for DBH. We were shooting the song "Bhangra Bistar" and I had this get up where I am supposed to be a man and it so happened co incidentally that SRK was shooting for RNBDJ and Aamir was shooting an ad at YRF at the same time and both of them looked at my guy avtar and they were quiet taken in by the looks. Aamir also infact came and helped me put my moustache and he showed me the tricks , what you have to do while you put the moustache and how you have to get it right ,so that was really sweet. And they were all eager to see what I am doing in the song and I if I am playing a man so they came and kind of gave blessing to our set in a way. It was really sweet because Aamir and SRK are two very special people in my life and by them being on the set on my first day of the shoot, I just felt it was a happy co incidence and that is something I will remember in the making of the film. Your experience with co-star Shahid Kapoor He is extremely hard working, dedicated and a very sincere actor. By nature he is very serious towards his work. I think that is what is going to take him a long way. He knows the medium of cinema. He is always very clued on. He is really an asset to the film. Having Shahid in the film, makes the film very fresh, very contemporary and he is looking so good in the film, that every time he would come on the set, I used to tell him "Oh my God Shahid you are looking so handsome!" and he used to always get embarrassed by this compliment but I am sure he liked it from within. I think the first time I met Shahid was on a Pepsi ad that I did with Shahrukh and Kajol way back in '98. That time Shahid was one of the dancers for Shiamak. He reminded me again when we were shooting that the memory he has of mine is of the night when we were shooting the ad, I just came and ruffled his hair and he remembers that very fondly and I told him its not changed, even now I'll come and ruffle your hair. I have enjoyed working with him as an actor and as a person. I think he is great to work with. He is very chilled out, very helpful and he is also very accommodating, very easy going. Both of us hit it off really very well, so it really helped our chemistry to work on screen. I think the entire crew of Hadippa, has worked like little kids trying to get our school project right, so that our teacher, which has to be Aditya Chopra, sees our project report and says that OK this project is really good, so we are all trying to make him happy. That's why it is a very sweet, simple film and I hope it connects with everybody the way it connected with us. Your experience with co-star Sherlyn Chopra. Sherlyn is a very good actress, I never expected that she would do so well because she was very prepared when she came on set, she knew her lines. She was extremely professional and it was great working with her because I have seen her videos and she is a very good looking lady but when she shot with me, we were all very pleasantly surprised because she was very professional on the set and we saw that she can do even more and that's why I kept encouraging her because it was very important and that's the way I see it as an actor, because when we are all performing in the scene, we all have to work with each other well only then the scene will look good. So it was in the best interest of the film that I used to motivate her and inspire her to do better. This is what I learnt from my seniors and the colleagues I have worked with. When I was new and I worked with say Aamir, SRK, they used to inspire me to do my best. I think I did the same because I felt it's her first film and all she needs is a little motivation, and if you will see the film you will know that she has performed really well. Your experience with co-star Rakhi Sawant Rakhi is very entertaining off and on the set. I felt that there is a movie going on off the set also for her. She is basically a very entertaining person, but this time when I met her for DBH, I saw another side of her, where she is very serious, which is different from what I know of her and see on TV. She is a very nice person to work with. She is very professional. She is very hard working and ofcourse that shows in her work. We did a song together and we all had a good time together. Not only Rakhi, even Vrajesh has done a nice job. He is there with me in most parts of the film, because he plays my friend. He is very funny. He used to come up with these one liners. He was also great to work with and a very good actor. Fond memories after pack up. I have so many fond memories and specially the Punjab schedule because we were there for nearly two months. It was really smooth shooting there in Chandigarh because the police there was really accommodating and even the people of Chandigarh and the outskirts and in Amritsar were very warm and loving and never did we had a problem of not being able to shoot because of the people gathering there and if we used to tell them we need to shoot at this place they would be very accommodating and nice. I think Punjab is one of the best places to shoot in India because it is really very easy to shoot there. Punjab is known for its food and for the people on Punjab. I think the food in Punjab is absolutely delicious and we used to be shooting in the outskirts of Chandigarh and Amritsar and on our way back to our Hotel we would stop at these dhabas and we had fantastic maggi noodles and fantastic dhaba tea. So we all had a blast shooting in Chandigarh because we were eating, watching films and we were just laughing away. It was a very Punjab unit at the end of the day. Tell us a little bit about your gym routine It was quite a health conscious unit because everybody in the unit was health conscious, Shahid is a lot into workout and gymming, I was also working out because I was playing this character in the film who had to look physically fit, then there was Shudeep da who was doing his cardio regularly, then I also introduced Vaibhavi to Yoga at that point in time, then there was Rekha aunty and Chinni uncle. The only fact that remained constant was that Anurag never came to the gym. We never saw him in the gym. He never came to look after his health even once. He was only eating and eating and shooting and eating. We kept persuading him that Anurag once just come to gym and he flatly refused us so we missed the opportunity of gymming with. But he has promised that by the next film he will lose all his weight and is going to gym with us, if we are there in his next movie. Tell us about the movie that you went for while shooting This experience was fantastic. I will not name the move that we went for, but it was an amazing experience, It was Vaibhavi, Shahid, Anurag , all the assistants, my staff . We were all so excited that we are going for the movie in a group and it was so amazing because the movie was so good it just made our shooting the next day even happier because we were so happy in the night that we were rolling on floor, we were laughing. I won't say it was a dramatic film or a comedy film but whichever film we went for, we were literally falling on each other laughing. It was a really excellent film. Tell us a little about the set getting destroyed. I remember that twice we had a problem during the shootings of the songs. I don't know why but we were destined to have problems when were shooting the songs. Probably because Anurag was making us work really hard and was not giving us any break, so may be it was God's way of giving us a break and of course we can't fight against nature. When Discowale Khisko was being shot, we were all very geared up for the next day's shoot and early in the morning I got a call from Bhushan, who is the Production Executive saying that please don't leave for shooting because the set we had created for Bhangra Bistar has got flooded and if there is anything and we can shoot I will call you. We discovered that at 3 in the morning, Anurag woke up hearing the storm and called Bhushan to go and check if everything was ok on the set that we created, but unfortunately the whole place was flooded and we lost 3 days because there was continuous rainfall for 3 days and the set wasn't drying and Vaibhavi was very sure that she wanted a dry set because it was a dance song and none of the dancers or the actors would be able to dance. So we had to lose 3 days but infact we covered it up, we took about 4 days to finish the song. And the next time, I remember, we were shooting for Ishq Hi Hai Rab. What happens with the shooting in the morning is that a lavish breakfast is laid in the morning and after the breakfast everyone starts shooting. So I had reached early that day and was sitting in my van. I could see everyone having breakfast from the window of my van. I suddenly saw somebody was having dosa and the dosa just flew from his plate. It was really a bad storm and I saw the entire crew panicking and running here and there for shelter and it was like the entire area had become cloudy, just like how it happened in Lagaan, when they see the clouds coming , coming and coming and covering the entire area. So it happened exactly the same way with us. And you know, with Anurag being the Director, these filmy things have to happen. It started raining so heavily, that we had to immediately leave the area. There was a little lake over there, so we were told that if we don't leave immediately, we will be drowned, so we had to pack everything and leave ASAP. And when we went back it was quite a mess. Which character of yours was more fun to play? For me playing Veer was very challenging because it's something that I have not played before. I am playing another gender in the film. I am playing a man so that was challenging , something new for me and strangely whenever I would become Veer, I would just transform into Veer, I would probably become another person. I enjoyed it a lot more than playing Veera because Veera is like playing my character again, or something I have done before. Even Veera's character is challenging but if I had to choose between the two, I would choose Veer. And strangely, even unit members used to behave very friendly with me when I was Veer, and when I used to become Veera , they will again be very respectful and very in control and soon as I became Veer everybody used to get more relaxed and say Shahid or everyone else became easy with me because they felt I am just another guy with them. I really enjoyed being a boy on Hadippa – it was really fun because Jay and Aparajita who are the writers have etched out the character of Veer really well. This is a character which I am going to cherish in my career because I have not done something like this before and it's very close to my heart. Are you ready to join the cricket team with the extensive training No, I am not ready to join the cricket team because that's not happening for me. I think, I can just about hit the ball with my bat and that is my achievement because that is something I wanted to do very sincerely and correctly because we have made the film for a cricket loving nation and everybody knows how to play cricket or at least they know the techniques of the game so it is something that I wouldn't fool around with. So I was really sure that whoever watches me play cricket on screen should not say that I hit a shot badly and I wanted the reaction to be unanimous. I am hoping that the hard work that I have put in all my practice sessions for cricket; I hope they all supersede my fears of people not accepting me as a cricketer. So I hope and pray the audience likes the way I have played cricket. How much did you prepare for the role? I think acting comes naturally to me. I don't know how, but I think its God's gift to me that I don't need to prepare for a certain role that much as I would want to. Because all my thought processes, all the thoughts I have on what I want to do with the character, I always get it spontaneously when I am on the set. And things just start happening to me. The only thing I thought or worked on is on my cricket because that was one territory which I didn't know well. I didn't know how to hold a bat correctly, I didn't know how my stance should be as a cricketer, I didn't know to walk with the pads on so I think that required a lot of training, it required me to learn a particular sport or skill so I have gone through a lot of grilling sessions for learning cricket. But for my character, I have observed so many people in my life, so I picked certain things from the people whom I remember, like I had so many Sardar friends in school, so I have subconsciously picked things from everywhere. Was getting into Veer's look time consuming? I used to get really sick and terrified when I used to get up in the morning and play Veer because I knew there will be glue on my face and there is going to be something stuck on my face and being a girl I am not used facial hair, or something sticking to our face or upper lip. So that was the only thing that made me so uncomfortable and made me scream and get out of the movie but I think my love for the character was so much more and stronger than the hate of the beard that I would just quietly sit down on the make up chair and I would tell the make up man to just quickly put the beard so that I am off from the stress of the glue and everything and once my beard was on and my moustache was on, I used to get transformed into Veer and then it never used to bother me that I have something on my face and then the stress would start when it would be pack up time, when I had to remove the make up and it is a more extensive process to remove the beard than to put. For removing you have to put those weird smelly lotions that you can't breathe with. I used to literally stop my breath till the time they used to remove the beard from my face. That was the most painful moment, but I guess there is no gain without pain. Which is your favourite track This is really a difficult question because I feel Pritam has given an outstanding music. I really like the music of Hadippa because it's my kind of music because I love dancing, I love having fun. Hadippa's music is all about fun, dancing & partying. The music of Hadippa makes you stand up, makes you happy. It would be difficult for me to choose one favorite track. Like if you take the title track of Hadippa, it is so fresh and so nice, it basically describes Veera's world in the film, it introduces Veera to the audience, How she is, her life which is so colorful, full of fun and her love for cricket and her love for life and everything together makes up the Hadippa song. Jaideep's lyrics have made the song so new because you must have never heard of the lyrics that goes "chewing gum……" and when you understand the word, you understand that it is talking about the world of Veera. So the title track of Hadippa is very special to me. Then the remix of Hadippa is really great. The hip hop groove in that is really cool. It makes the song very contemporary, it makes the song so yuppy that you want to dance. Then "Discowale" is about Desi beats and Bhangra. It just talks about the real India where Bhangra is the real beat, where the beat just makes you raise your arm in the air and go bhangra bhangra. Disco is from the west and Bhangra is from India, so just make way for the Desi beat . So " Discowale" will pep up the Indian audience because Indian beats make you dance like crazy. A track like " Bhangra Bistar," if you see the lyrics, you will wonder what the writer is trying to say, but then you realize that it describes the life of a Punjabi man and that's the way Jaideep has written it. I would say its kind of a slang but the way its in the movie, it looks very convincing because there is a truck driver who is dancing to his beloved and the beloved is explaining how a Punjabi man is, so it's a great combination of what a man is trying to say and what a woman is thinking. It is a very ethnic song with me playing the man and Rakhi Sawant playing the girl in the Nautanki set up. You must have not heard words like "bhangra, bistar, beer, bater" in any item number, so it makes the song very cool. Jaideep is a genius and he comes up with simple words which makes you feel that such simple words can sound so great. Then you move into "Gym Shim". The way Jaideep has written this song , the entire essence of Hadippa comes out in this, the way Jaideep has used the word Hadippa in this song, gives you a picture of what the movie is. It just comes with a bang. It is very special because it's quite a mad song and you realize that it is based on basically what people do in the gym. Then there is " Ishq Hi" where the girl is taking the boy to show the countryside and telling him what India is really about and while writing this song Jaideep was panicking and telling me how can I make a desh song look different and then he came up with " jhappiyon sa". The word "jhappi" is so new and strange and you suddenly think what is the word jhappi doing in a desh song. But the jhappi has given a new dimension to the song. When I heard the song for the first time, I told Jaipdeep you were panicking for no reason, the song is so nice. It is beautifully shot and it shows Shahid's character and my character coming together and feeling strangely for each other for the first time. It is a beautiful blend. All the songs are special to me in their own way and they all have something connected to the movie or the script. The songs basically take the story forward. Your experience with choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant and designer Manish Malhotra. Shooting the remix of Hadippa is again like a school project, and we are trying to make this project really work. We had our first A.D. Bharat, who came and said "Guys, if this video rocks – the film rocks! So we better get it right." I think we all had that in mind and we all said that we have to rock this video. Everyone was trying to make it look great and Shahid and I used to joke around that throughout the movie I am either Veer or Veera and he didn't get a chance to work with Rani Mukherjee, the actress. Then the video was shot and we all saw it and we said "Oh my God! How are we looking in the video, as if it's a different film altogether, it is not Hadippa." And we were just joking with each other. But it was a great experience. Vaibhavi was charged because she always wanted to do a dance video with me, she always in her own way wanted to tell people, that see my friend could dance so well, I on the other hand was trying to push Vaibhavi and tell her that you have to excel in the song and do something better than what you can do. This is a dance video, which is coming after a long time…whenever we see a video, we see people just looking good in the video and there is hardly any dance. Then there is Shahid who is such a good dancer. Vaibhavi has put a beautiful blend of Hip Hop and Bhangra. And I think only she can do it. It is really great because everybody pitched in their best and of course then Manish came in with his own genius. He wanted me to look my best. He probably even knows how hard I have worked in this movie in terms of losing weight or getting in shape, as I had to play a cricketer. He wanted me to look my best because I was doing such a video for the first time. So he went out of his way to do his best. Manish knows me since the day I gave the first shot in my career and till date. We have a strong working relationship and I think Manish always does the best with me; he makes me look the best because he knows me. Tell us a little about the look for Veera and Veer. The look of Veera's was a little complicated for Manish to do because there have been so many Punjabi characters that actresses have played. I myself have played a Punjabi girl in Bunty Aur Babli, where I was wearing short kurtas and salwars, so it became a challenge for Manish to design something which is done to death. He was very sure that the look should not turn out to be a Bunty Aur Babli look. So he came up with the use of a koti and throughout the film Veera is wearing stunning looking kotis. We were sure that it will be a better change and I personally love kotis. The threadwork and the colors that he has used are very interesting. For Veer, it was Anurag's brief that he wanted these track pants and oversized shirts and t-shirts and that was something basically what Sardar boys would wear while going for cricket practice. That was limited to a certain kind of look and he had to make sure that I don't look feminine in it and I look boyish. So we tried not to structure the pants so it looked like a boy wearing it. So he has balanced both the characters really well. What should the audience expect from Dil Bole Hadippa? I feel this movie is an effort from our sides where we have put in all our love, hard work, creativity and we have made this film like little babies, so I just feel they should not come with expectations, they should just come to enjoy the film. If they come with this mindset, I am sure they will like the film. You see all the characters, there is a lot of warmth and love between us and that love is translated on screen. I am coming out with a movie after a year. My last release was Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic. I am extremely close, extremely emotional about this movie. I have not done any film in this time. I have put in all my energies, all my hard work for this movie. It was a difficult film to do, to be a boy, to play cricket, I have done a lot to prepare for this role. I hope when they come to see my film after a year, they are not disappointed and they don't go back unsatisfied…they enjoy both my characters and when they come out they just say that they want to go for another show. What does Hadippa mean to you? When will your heart say Hadippa? Dil Bole Hadippa is a very happy title, very exuberant title and a very fun title. It makes me shout Hadippa! My heart will say Hadippa, the day my movie is released and I watch the television and I see all the people outside the theater saying Hadippa in a positive manner and when I see the audience is enjoying the movie and saying Hadippa, I think my heart will say Hadippa. http://filmicafe.com/celebrity_interview_detail.php?interview_id=746 | |
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