A new initiative, Screen Preview, is a teaser to the season’s most-anticipated movies. The film’s team – stars, director and producer - are put in the dock – to answer frequently asked questions about the best scenes, favourite songs, behind-the-scenes equation and a lot more. Imtiaz Ali’s Love Aaj Kal, top-lining the mercurial Saif Ali Khan and sugar-n-spice girl Deepika Padukone made it to the first edition. And if the quick-witted repartee about kissing scenes, on-screen chemistry and love in Patiala was anything to go by, there is a blockbuster in the pipeline. Excerpts from the livewire interaction
Teaming up
Dinesh: Saif and I were staying together in the same hotel at Panchgani while working on Being Cyrus .
Saif: The hotel seemed haunted. Dinesh is a little scared of sleeping alone at night in hotel rooms so he came over to my room and we sat up talking all night till 5 am. That is when we decided that we wanted to work together. Eventually things fell into place and we got together for Love Aaj Kal as co-producers. I am really excited. I have been an actor doing films for other people for more than 18 years. I thought it was time for me to take more responsibility and contribute more to a film than just being an actor.
Imtiaz: When I landed up at Saif’s doorstep, one of the first questions I asked him was why he wanted to turn a producer. From what he said I realised that Saif was a man with a vision and with a Vijan! (referring to co-producer Dinesh Vijan). My whole idea was to find out what was so great about his vision, which was important to me because I was going to commit my life to him for two years. I was, in fact, pretty rude and obnoxious, but I must say that all my ghosts were exorcised.
Deepika: I have known Dino (Dinesh Vijan) even before he started Illuminati Films, I had no apprehensions about signing the film. It was one of those times when you just know you are getting into the right thing with the right people.
Role-Playing
Deepika: When you go in for a narration, you have to find a connect with the script and in this case, Imtiaz was sure that I could relate to the character. But other than that, I think it is the entire experience of everyone being together while working on the film that makes it special. We were in London for a good one-and-a half months and then in Delhi for almost a month. I am privileged and honoured to be a part of Love Aaj Kal and having worked with Dino, Saif and Imtiaz.
Saif: It is essential that an actor trust the director’s instincts. You have to trust the director like you trust a healthy parent. Imtiaz and I are like-minded people and the minute we decided to work on the film I knew we were committing the rest of our three -four months to each other. So much discussion goes into making a film that it is almost like signing a pre-nuptial agreement! Imtiaz and I were looking at doing something new. It was almost as if we instinctively decided that we wanted to work on a love story, which had something new, with fresh dialogues and interesting situations. It is not like I didn’t know Imtiaz before we started working on this film - since the time Kareena was working on Jab We Met she had kept saying that Imtiaz as a director was one to watch out for. It was an actor-to-actor recommendation that worked in my favour.
Imtiaz: The great thing about Saif is that he is a believer. He trusts and he will not intrude because of that. And he is smarter than we think!! Actually, Saif’s been acting for a long time. He always has many questions in his mind and a hyperactive imagination. You could say that his brain is not in his control (Laughs) and I have to be in tandem with that and try and know where he is going. He’s very different from the actors I have worked with. I would shout something out to him at the last moment and he would just do it, because he trusts.
Real and Reel
Deepika: I completely related to Meera’s character. I just had to walk on to the sets and react the way I would in real life. Imtiaz would tell me to continue being myself.
Saif: We have facets to our personality and I am happy to have got the opportunity to perform completely two different roles in the film. As an actor the film challenged my potential. My character Jai is a lot like me in the sense that he is very spontaneous. Jai thinks and speaks at the same time, not because he is stupid but because there is no backlash. In real life, I love giving interviews and interacting with the media because I am spontaneous. I do not prepare answers for my interviews and thankfully I haven’t gotten into too many problems except for press conferences.
Imtiaz: Saif’s character was so close to him that Saif had a problem playing the character! And after I shot the New Year party sequence, Deepika came up to me and asked “Do you know me?” because she had the same problem!
On-screen Chemistry
Deepika: I don’t think a couple needs to have a great off-screen chemistry to create it in front of the camera.
Saif: Chemistry has a lot to do with the script. If the director is able to bring out the chemistry in the script and translate it on screen, it works. There are so many real-life couples who have zero chemistry in reel life. Two people might have an amazing chemistry in front of the camera but they don’t necessarily need to like each other in real life. Every person has an aura and you instantly know when your auras match. Deepika has a very earthy quality to her that keeps me grounded. We look like a complete package.When we weren’t shooting we were practically stuck to the ‘phone because we were both involved with someone else in our personal lives, but when you see the film, the chemistry is great. I guess off-screen couples don’t make for a good on-screen pair because there is lack of tension between them.
Imtiaz: I don’t think that there are any special ingredients needed for chemistry on-screen. By definition, any chemistry always happens on its own. But yes, if the characters have a chemistry, the actors acquire it too.
Most romantic moment in the film
Deepika: I think it would have to be the scene, where ( if I told you then, it would be giving away the story), Jai comes back to Meera.
Dinesh: I loved the scene in which Saif is sitting on a cot with Qutub Minar in the background.
Saif: My favourite scene in the film is when Jay realizes that Meera is actually his soul-mate. Jay doesn’t know that he actually cannot survive without Meera. They go far away from each other and then he understands that she is the one. What happens to them in the situations that they have created themselves without a villain makes the film unique.
On-screen Kiss
Saif: Actually I didn’t have much of a choice. Imtiaz forced me to kiss in this film. But frankly, I think it is an actor’s job. At times, the script does not require it and at times it is necessary. If done aesthetically, it’s beautiful. When you start objecting to intimate scenes in the movie you compensate by including pelvic thrusts in songs. You kind of compensate for the sexuality in the film. That is when you have songs like Choli ke peeche.
There is a difference when a scene is done for cheap thrills to titillate and when it is done aesthetically. In American films, the love-making scenes are different. There is nothing to make a hue-and-cry about a kissing scene in Indian films.
Favourite romantic film/book
Deepika: I am a sucker for romantic films. For me, films like Serendipity and Jerry Maguire are the ultimate in romance.
Saif: It actually depends on the story. The first meeting could be the most romantic part of the story or the last meeting could be it. Moments like when you are going out with someone else and then you bump into your ex could also be romantic. Sometimes even breaking up would be romantic, but well, not really! I really loved the book Fountainhead. It is a beautiful love story, really intense and moves you deeply. She gets married thrice before she actually finds the right guy in life, which is so cool. Of my films, I guess Hum Tum was a sweet love story, Salaam Namaste was different and so was Parineeta. But I enjoyed working on Love Aaj Kal the most.
Love aaj kal
Saif: Emotions and sensations are two things that haven’t changed over the years. I think love as a concept hasn’t changed at all in the recent. It is ridiculous to say something like that because burning yourself with a candle feels the same as it felt years ago.
Imtiaz: I don’t think that love has changed aaj kal, but I could be wrong. Maybe I am trying to discover answers to my own questions on love through my films.
Most difficult part of the film
Saif: The most difficult parts of the film were the dialogues. We had to say the dialogues the way we talk in our day-to-day lives. The gaps, the pauses and the rhythm was very difficult to pick up. The greatest quality about Imtiaz is his ability to capture any moment beautifully yet realistically, to make it look like an actual guy and not like a romantic hero performing on screen.
Imtiaz: Since one part of my film is set in the 1960s, I wanted a train with a steam engine. I also wanted a station that seemed to belong to the past and I finally homed in on Patiala. I am glad we spent all that money and that my producers were willing to do so. It looks much more authentic than a set built somewhere. And even if a shoot was at five in the morning, there was complete clarity on every point. I was confident that there was a producer like Dinesh Vijan to watch my back no matter what when I went on the location or on my sets with all guns blazing. For me, Dinesh is the producer who made so much difference.
Words worth
Imtiaz: I come from a literate family and I am very finicky about these things. I cannot stand wrong words or grammar.
Saif: You have to be finicky about lyrics. We’ve seen songs been written in five minutes in a studio on a scrap od paper. If one line has naina, the rhyming word could be anything like dena! There was this glorious song that I danced to in the ‘90s from Yaar Gaddar. It was something about stroking then chooha, a Rat song, so to speak! I was dressed as a dance instructor with a beard and a protruding stomach teaching the kids. The song was gross and I had to pull out a white chooha from my pants. There was no censor issue and people didn’t even talk about it. We did the song back then probably because kissing was banned on screen!
Women-power
Saif: In all successful love stories the female protagonist’s role should be important. There has to be something unique about the girl so that everyone in the theatre falls in love with her. But I don’t think its fair to say that the hero is sidelined in a love story.
Deepika: In Jab We Met, Shahid Kapoor was good as Kareena but somewhere his performance went unnoticed compared to hers. Imtiaz is very perceptive director and understands his actors very well. He has definitely brought out a performance from me that I had not expected.
Imtiaz: The girl’s role in my film is always important. But if my heroines come across as remarkable, maybe it is because I am interested and intrigued by women than men. Women do seem to be more interesting, somehow!
Dinesh : Yeah, Imtiaz loves women!
Lessons learnt
Saif: Dinesh often sent me to the vanity van to sit with the mirror and said, “Saif, I want you to go and have a word with the lead actor.” And then I would look at the mirror and say, “Could you show up a little earlier? We’ve already had lunch and you’ve just arrived.” So respecting time is very important. What sets apart professional actors like Mr Bachchan is small things like turning up early on the sets, being ready for a shot in advance and contributing more to the film than just acting. I realize that an actor is given a lot of importance in the film. As an actor you have the responsibility of being the film’s face.
Great Expectations
Saif: When I saw the film’s final print for the first time I was happy. I was all over the place, jumping with joy like an over-enthusiastic school-kid. But later on, I started feeling nervous. As July 31 approaches, I am getting more apprehensive and nervous. Love Aaj Kal is a low- budget film but as a producer I have looked into every detail. Working with Imtiaz is almost like working with Farhan Akhtar. Imtiaz has one of the most organised teams in the industry.
