Sit with Hitlist: Farhan from the madding crowd

Back when Farhan Akhtar was a kid a common visitor to his home used to be family friend ace photographer late Gautam Rajadhyaksha Gautam was once assigned a photoshoot for a pressure cooker ad in which a child is supposed to look excitedly at the contents of a cooker mdash ldquoLike this is the best matar pulav I have eaten in my life that expressionrdquoGautam asked Farhanrsquos mother Honey Irani a child actor once herself if her little boy could pose for the ad She agreed and he did For the longest Farhanrsquos face had remained associated with the pressure cooker ldquoIrsquom talking about the rsquo80srdquo he recalls This is in fact the first story he also recalled to his childhood friend and later his producerpartner Ritesh Sidhwani when he first learnt about Riteshrsquos family businessldquoYou mean you shot an ad for Marlexrdquo Ritesh asked naming the kitchen appliance company his father owned and the son worked in as well ldquoOh nordquo said Farhan ldquoIt was for your biggest rival Hawkins We were rivals when we were kids Now the two opposing giants of the kitchen corporateworld are collaborating togetherrdquoGautam hired the ldquonaughty boy Farhan for his mischievous streakrdquo Which Farhan offers another evidence of when I ask him how he got a scar under his right eye mdash the permanent identification mark on his passport also something yoursquoll notice especially when he plays rugged parts in films like Lucknow Central 2017 or Toofaan 2021Farhan Akhtar with Ritesh SidhwaniIs there an interesting story to that injury Not really he basically tripped and fell on the side of a table when he was two In school though when kids would ask him about it hersquod look them in the eye and go ldquoVietnam accent on namrdquo Imagining a story in his head similar to how Sylvester Stallonersquos character has his face slashed across in Rambo First Blood Part II 1985 his favourite film thenRitesh and Farhan went to Juhursquos Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School together Which is also where he reveals the name of the production house they jointly founded Excel gets its name from ldquoThere was a tossup between two names The other day we were trying our hardest but couldnrsquot remember what that other possible name was Besides its obvious meaning Excel comes from our school motto There is no excellence without labourrdquoThe two Maneckji boys mdash who later went to Jai Hind College while Farhan dropped out mdash came together only to make the film Dil Chahta Hai DCH 2001 where Farhan was explicitly the writerdirector and Ritesh the producer Itrsquos during the film that Ritesh sat Farhan down and reasoned ldquoThis is something you want to keep doing mdash then it really is important that you keep ownership of your workrdquoldquoMaybe it is a business lesson that he had learnt from what he was doing earlier in life Things have to belong to you mdash when you work so hard to create themrdquo Farhan agreed By then he had already spent few years learning production in Adi Pocharsquos ad film company Script Shop He obviously came from a film family mdash both his parents Honey and Javed Akhtar having been accomplished screenwritersEntertainment editor Mayank Shekhar connects with the actorsingerfilmmaker who was in Los Angeles at the timeldquoThe closest Ritesh came to film was putting a VHS tape into his VCR playerrdquo Farhan laughs of the time his business partner quit his family firm placed both his trust and money into a movie and an industry he had such little idea aboutAnd yet he says it is actually Riteshrsquos continuous commitment to produce more and more movies that inspires him ldquoIn our industry Ritesh is known as a hard negotiator That is what I hear about him And in business being a hard negotiator is a good thing Thatrsquos what you are supposed to bePeople also respect him because he is always there for them Six years down the line after DCH Lakshya Don and Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd mdash by 2006 in fact producers would call him to find out how is it that we were doing certain things differently Of course we were only doing or putting systems in place that is commonplace in say LArdquoWhich is where Farhan 47 is speaking to us over the screen from Itrsquos 8 am for him 8 pm for us A morning person ldquofor 1516 yearsrdquo hersquos usually up by 6 am to hit the gym The regimen works best for his health ldquowhich is something you owe yourself and your loved onesrdquoOf course he wasnrsquot always this way ldquoI was also a teenager once mdash not wanting to wake up before 1112rdquo Which is the phase from Farhanrsquos life that his father Javed he says had probably modeled Hrithik Roshanrsquos character Karan Shergill on in Lakshya 2004 that Farhan directedAfter DCH of course mdash a Hrithikmania type directorial debut no less when viewed in hindsight Each year social media explodes on August 10 to celebrate DCH Day replete with heartfelt tributes and personal anecdotesWhich is quite common for a lot of movies mdash even random ones whose nonlandmark anniversaries get celebrated every other day Including messages like ldquoI wish this movie many years a long life 50 years golden anniversaryhelliprdquo As if films were humans who could otherwise pass on with a heart attackThe year 2021 nonetheless was special for DCH since it completed 20 years of relentlessly growing in public imagination Ever since Farhan himself has expanded his CV to become among the most hyphenated contemporary entertainers around mdash music composer rockstar movie star screenwriter director lyricist talkshow hosthellip His introduction has become a clicheacuteThe job description that doesnrsquot get enough attention still is of him as a consistentprolific producer for the longest mdash having established arguably the most successful creativecommercial collaborations in Bollywood with Ritesh Together theyrsquove produced 36 films and series according to IMDb mdash generating what should be a healthy balance sheet given smart calls like an early foray into OTT with franchise shows like Inside Edge Mirzapur Made in Heaven Even DCH you realise for all its creative acclaim was one of the early Hindi films to be insured for instance mdash opening titles credit United India Assurance Co Ajit GuptaldquoIt just wasnrsquot possible or a film to qualify for insurance against calamities in India until then mdash because of the way the film industry worked I guessrdquo Farhan says DCH was a commercial success of course but slightly eclipsed in the box office that year because ldquoon June 15 came Lagaan and Gadar Gadar at that point had become the biggest hit that India had ever seen Lagaan captured the nationrsquos imagination in a way that money canrsquot quantifyrdquoEverything about DCH though has become part of popular folklore since Starting with the back shot of the three lead actors mdash Aamir Khan Saif Ali Khan Akshaye Khanna mdash on Chapora Fort in Goa that is now called the Dil Chahta Hai Fort Farhan had obviously been to the fort on his trips to Goa ldquoJust never had the kind of deep thought Akshayersquos character has when they are staring outrdquoLikewise the line ldquoHum cake khane ke liye kahin bhi jaa sakte hainrdquo mdash thatrsquos morphed into a line with multiplex context ldquoThe story behind it is my absolute love for cakerdquo Farhan says ldquoI was a member of this club at Hotel Sea Rock that no longer exists and which used to have the amazing Black Forest and Chocolate Truffle I could not afford If somebody ever said letrsquos go somewhere it is my treat it was the happiest day of my life Later in college the cake could become a free meal free drinkhellip So I just threw in that line for Sameer Saifrsquos characterrdquoThe first actors Farhan approached for DCH were in fact Preity Zinta and Akshaye Khanna mdash both of whom had come to his home to audition for Kya Kehna 2000 written by his mom Honey and directed by Kundan ShahldquoAkshaye was already there in the film They were looking to cast a new girl which is how Preity came in She still hadnrsquot had her release of Dil Se and all the other films that followed I told her about what I was writing She asked me to meet her when I was done She became a massive star after but kept her wordrdquo Farhan had bonded with Akshaye on the sets of the latterrsquos acting debut Pankuj Parasherrsquos Himalay Putra 1997 where Farhan worked as an assistant directorPicsInstagramThe script Farhan wouldrsquove probably shown Preity and Akshaye was then titled Hum Teen ldquoIt sounded like an antiallergy tablet to peoplerdquo He later called it Dil Chahta Hai which in English would make sense as ldquoWhat your heart desiresrdquo Except in Hindi it sounds incomplete or so his father Javed asked ldquoDil kya chahta hairdquo Farhan was stuck and asked lyricist dad to bail him out To explain Javed came up with the song words ldquoDil chahta haihellip Kabhi na beetein chamkeele dinhellip Hum na rahein kabhi yaaron ke binhelliprdquoWhile DCH arguably alteredreinvented the grammar of popular metropolitan Hindi cinema altogether in the beginning of the naughties mdash it is in fact Farhan who wholly reinvented himself by the turn of the decade Branching out into fulltime acting instead mdash scripting a completely different direction for his career away from film direction itselfWas there a moment of epiphany ldquoI guess you see me as a fulltime actor mdash because that is my only visible work out there But I was very involved in producing a lot writing dialogues for Game Karthik Calling Karthik Talaash Dil Dhadakne Do working with different directors doing Rock On 2 There was a desire to creatively extend myself in different ways I actually took a year and half away from acting itselfmdashto write and record my album as an independent musicianrdquo The album Echoes dropped in 2019Few artistes in Mumbai have freely allowed themselves as many avenues to max out their varied creative potential mdash whatever the eventual outcome that effort itself could be a measure of personal success Music of course happened naturally with Farhanrsquos acting debut on screen Rock On 2008 mdash about a retired musician who goes back to stage Farhan sang his songs instead of simply lipsyncingSiblings Zoya and Farhan Akhtar have collaborated on Gully Boy 2019 Dil Dhadakne Do 2015 Talaash 2012 Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara 2011 Luck By Chance 2009 among othersThe soundtrack was a smashing hit thatrsquos stood the test of time ldquoI had always wanted to play the guitar and been teaching myself from chord books and the Internet age 1617 onwards But it was a private passion In 2012 I tinkered with the idea of putting together a bunch of likeminded musicians to form a band Farhan Live Wersquove performed in over 100 cities since mdash colleges festivals mdash twice to the US Australia Middle EastrdquoFarhanrsquos last release as a director was Don 2 2011 Whatever your opinion on the film mdash there is surely a social media clamour for Part 3 mdash whatrsquos undeniable is how it spawned a series of sequels in Bollywood Just as his Don 2006 remake before that made old Bollywood remakes a thing to roll out every few monthsHis most challenging move as an actor until 2013 was to play the Olympian athlete in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag mdash a role he was even more determined to pull off convincingly once he heard a journalist in Chandigarh ask him why a Punjabi wasnrsquot picked for the lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singhrsquos part After the film released Farhan went back to Chandigarh especially reached out to the journalist mdash besides to gauge her response to thank her for inadvertently ldquoserving as great motivationrdquoBhaag Milkha Bhaag similarly unleashed a series of sports biopics mdash a gift that Bollywood canrsquot stop giving as we speak What does he make of the formula ldquoWell I guess if a car sells with a certain kind of artificial intelligence system now then all cars will go get artificial intelligence Because that is what people like If there is a new flavour in the chips packet suddenly everybody will have that same flavour That is how life is and how the world functions I guessrdquoThat commercial benchmark for films of course is the number of viewshits online or boxoffice figures in case of theatrical releases But creative failure can also be defined as mismatch between intentions and outcomes Have there been such instances he could talk about with regard to his own works as an actor or filmmakerldquoOf course thatrsquos happened A lot of things at times do not translate from script to screen as effectively as you want I donrsquot want to take names of those movies though Because there are other people who have their effort talent and reputation attached And it is not fair for me to speak about a work as if it only belongs to me or my learning from itrdquoFor a more particular example I bring up Rock On 2 2016 mdash did that turn out the way he wouldrsquove liked ldquoWell the first Rock On obviously had a lot more people loving it than not liking it With Rock On 2 it was a bit more mixed for sureBut we also got absolutely slapped in the face with demonetisation happening two days before the film released The carpet got pulled from under our feet People didnrsquot have enough money to buy food they were queuing up outside ATMs There were news stories on TV about how demonetisation had affected the film industry It was sad for me to see posters of Rock On 2 on walls in these clips mdash not a crow in theatres It was completely empty Which is understandablerdquoThe great part of the original Rock Onrsquos success though was it delivered for Farhanrsquos sister Zoya a saleable star right at home Given that shersquod been struggling to take off as a director for years taking rounds of herorsquos homes unable to cast for the lead of Luck By Chance 2009 mdash a Bollywood movie on Bollywood itself a subject supposedly too close for superstars to sign up forFarhan suitably stepped in Together as directoractor theyrsquove collaborated on Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara ZNMD 2011 and Dil Dhadakne Do DDD 2015 since Both those films coproduced by Farhan where he has also written the dialogues Giving one a sense that between the two perhaps Farhan has the edge in dialogue writing With Gully Boy behind her Zoya can easily stake a claim for the most interesting voice in current Hindi mainstreamAge wise the siblings are a year apart Zoya was also the casting director on DCH How are they different as directors I ask Farhan who takes a second to think this through and eventually boils it down to how they are different as personality types as wellldquoShe is more open about her feelings mdash more of a peoplersquos person than I am mdash better at communicating her thoughts Because she speaks with a lot of clarity I tend to keep things more inside which can be unnerving sometimes mdash an actor or technician could feel anxious about why am I not saying what I feel So there is thatrdquoThis seems like an accurate assessment even when you compare Zoya to Farhan from an edition of this series Sit with Hitlist on YouTube While Farhan does hold a more public job mdash facing the camera surrounded by selfiehunters massive audiences before a concert stage mdash it is Zoya who comes across as more naturally the extrovertShe develops screenplays with her longtime writing partner Reema Kagti But for the dialogue draft of DDD that required a lot of backandforth with Zoya for the number of voicescharacters involved Farhan says hersquos worked on all scripts alone by himself Which would be true for song writing an equally solitary job as wellFarhan was last seen on screen with a dramatic physical transformation playing a boxer in the film Toofaan 2021 He enters the ring as director next mdash first time behind the camera since a decadeWith Jee Le Zara starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif slated to open in 2022 Which is also the first time hersquoll be cowriting a screenplay with Reema and Zoya ldquoFor me this is actually going to be a new experience Working on screenplay maybe not dialogue so much but at least on screenplay with two other writers who are so handsonrdquoWhere the siblings are likely to meet on the same page Irsquom guessing are inevitably some inside jokes As they did with the popular refrain ldquoBwoyrdquo in ZNMD That caricature of a school teacher in the decadersquos breeziest Bollywood film was based on their common PT instructor at Maneckji Cooper mdash one Mr Dubey who is no moreMr Dubeyrsquos daughter who saw the film instantly got the reference and called up Farhan to convey how glad she felt that he and Zoya remembered her father fondly still ldquoAll these things from those years leave such great impressions on our minds isnrsquot itrdquoAkhtar siblings grew up in the seafacing Bandstand in Bandra which is where Irsquom hosting this conversation from I tell Farhan Itrsquos a few blocks away from his family home that Farhan intends to shift back into once he returns from LA On the other end of the same street is Galaxy apartments where Salman Khan grew up and still lives Both Salman and Farhan respectively being sons of SalimJaved the hyphenated greatest blockbuster writers of rsquo70s BollywoodJaved had come to Bombay to become a film director Salim Khan had acted in many films mdash realised he wasnrsquot getting too far and so stepped back to pursue screenwriting instead Both came full circle with their kids mdash Farhan turning director and Salman a superstarldquoI think we are making it too melodramatic with the observationrdquo Farhan cautions ldquoIn the rsquo90s my father was so busy writing songs working with everyone mdash I think in every second film or third film the songs were written by him I thought this is what he always wanted to do It was when we were doing Lakshya and he was writing it that at one point he spoke about having wanted to direct And that this is going to be a very challenging film etc I was like okay mdash I didnrsquot know you wanted to direct That is when I found out mdash at 29rsquoSalimJavedrsquos sons could not have turned out more differently still If anything Salman stands for larger than life ganjeeboots mardaangimasculinitymdashabout never going back on a commitment Let alone choice in dialogue script or films even in life outside cinema Farhan actively runs an NGO tackling toxic masculinity itselfWhat explains two lifelong neighbours with fathers who went by a common name for years turning out such polar opposites Farhan says ldquoThe interesting part of your question really is that our creative paths are different but we do come from the same pool Which is a pool that Salim uncle and my father kind of created That is the world we grew up in and those are the films we grew up on and knewBut why that happens or how that happens I donrsquot know I guess you are a product of your environment in some ways He Salman is massively successful I donrsquot think we should question his choices at allrdquo Mic dropWatch the complete interview below