Hrithik interview on Kites

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Just before our conversation, Hrithik was giving media bytes, when someone mentioned that he’d lost weight. “People have been saying this to me for four years now. But yes, it’s good to hear that I’ve lost weight, after the 36 inch-waist for Guzarish,” he replied. So, how busy was he with the Kites blitzkrieg, the session continued. “I am already a little tired, but it’s fun. And it’s an honest film – that was the brief my dad (Rakesh Roshan) and Anurag (Basu, the director of the film) had given me. It’s not within the safety zone of a manipulated commercial film.”

Hrithik went on to explain how India now has the means to make films that can stand their own on a global platform, and that we have the budgets to do so now too. And that therefore, we must begin to think in those terms. “Take films like Scarface or Once Upon A Time In America, for instance. Nobody breaks into a song. So, we too should let go of the safety nets,” he opined. But he himself sang for the film. “Like I said before, it’s an honest film. The guy wanted to sing at a given point, and Anurag was very sure it had to be actually me. Good singing, bad singing, it didn’t matter. But the singing had to be from the heart.” Did he practice, he was asked. “I had asked for two months. I got two weeks. So I practiced everywhere. In the bathroom, even while brushing, I went sa re ga ma … ”So, while speaking to him later on, we do a bit of retake on a couple of things. Like Kites; the film’s tagline could have very well been ‘controversy.’ Says Hrithik, “It was a catharsis of sorts – working with people like my dad, Anurag Basu and Barbara. I had to do a lot of unlearning, and let go of all the things I was good at, or had built up as my forte.” Like? “After movies like Dhoom and Jodhaa Akbar, I had worked out the camera angles, watching myself to see if I was good, and those sort of things. But with this film, I unlearnt all that, and learnt to let go in front of the camera. And I was working with impetuous, spontaneous people – like Barbara, my dad … I was the odd one out. I was the one who had always graphed it out, and planned everything, act and scene. But the grammar of this film is different. There is no interval in the film, for instance. In India, we always judge a film in two halves. You know, ‘interval se pehle achha tha,’ or ‘interval ke baad achha tha,’ is how people decide whether they like the film or not. That’s not the way people the world over watch movies. They go, watch the whole film, and come back and comment about whether they liked the whole film or not. That’s how it should be. No half measures. It’s either a six, or out. And my dad has always been like that. When everyone perceived Krrish to be a foolish kids’ movie, he boldly went ahead with it. And with this film, he’s again taken a bold leap.”

He so often brings his dad into a conversation, that it’s obvious that they share a great bond, despite rumours of Hrithik having walked out of his dad’s house, etc… Do they never have arguments? “Oh, it happens everyday,” he replies, “We disagree on many work-related issues. And that is bound to happen because each individual’s creative perceptions are different. And that’s a good thing, because when working, there is no ego coming into play. It is never ‘my thought’ or ‘his thought.’ It is a thought, and that thought becomes important. I believe that where there is ego in the mind, there cannot be creative space. And for everything that is truly creative, there has to be a space of ‘no mind.’ I don’t have any ego. I’d like to keep my creativity brimming all the time, and for that, I listen to everybody who has any creative inputs that will add to my work’s calibre.”

For someone who’s willing to talk at length about his professional fundas, why does he choose to remain silent every time there’s something in the news regarding his personal life? Almost for a year now, we’ve been hearing about his ‘affair’ with Barbara Mori, issues with wife Sussanne, etc. “A certain section of the media has tried to instigate me to come out and talk. But that is one of my… let’s call it shortcomings – that I don’t get into all these things when I do a film. I am totally into it, in the world the movie demands me to be. I am focussed, and don’t want any distractions.” And now? “Barbara will be here soon, and she will be here for a month,” he says.

There were other rumours too. “Yes. Some stupid and silly ones. Like Rajkumar Hirani wanting to edit my film, like Sussanne and me having issues, like us having bought 10 bungalows in Mumbai. You know, we began to get calls from our neighbours because of this one. The media showed the bungalows we’ve apparently ‘bought’, and they wanted to know what it was all about. Then there was this thing about me having walked out of my father’s house… I don’t feel the need to explain anything because the people who are close and have faith in me, people who know me well, believe in me, and that’s enough for me,” says Hrithik.