Sunday, July 6, 2003		In The Spotlight

Will Koi Mil Gaya break the jinx?

Rakesh Roshan’s soon to be released Koi Mil Gaya could prove a test case for both the director and son Hrithik, who hasn’t had a hit after the in-house production, Kaho Na Pyar Hai. Will the second father-son production break the jinx? Lata Khubchandani speaks to the senior Roshan.

RAKESH Roshan is busy at the moment doing the last-minute wrap-up of his upcoming Koi Mil Gaya, his second film with son Hrithik. The film is important`A0for several reasons. After Kaho Na Pyar Hai none of Hrithik’s films has succeeded. Both father and son have a point to prove. The film has a huge budget apparently with special effects by Mark Colbe of the USA.

As a producer/director, this film, like every other, is important to me and to everyone associated with it. In Hrithik’s case, after his first film none of his films succeeded. So this film is like a test. See, actors can’t prove anything. Film is a director’s medium. An actor has to do his job, nothing more. If my film doesn’t do well, Hrithik shouldn’t be blamed for it. The actor just follows the instructions. It is wrong that we tend to bank everything on the hero.

How did you get this idea of having an alien in the film? Won’t audience’s credulity be stretched too far?

I don’t think so. We underestimate our audience. We assume they want to see cabaret, fights and cleavages but basically, they want to see a sensible film. When we made Kaho Na`85we had two characters with no relationship with each other. Some in the industry advised to establish some relationship- a long lost twin, etc. But I thought, we do see unrelated people having a resemblance -don’t we? This time when I decided to make a film I felt we were getting stagnant. So I was thinking of something different. Luckily, I’ve a home production, a star son and a music composer brother. So I thought, let me do something new. If the movie does well it’ll bring a lot of changes here. Hrithik is not the usual hero here.

I don’t know. It just occurred to me one day. I got up and wrote one line and rang up Hrithik who was in Delhi shooting for Yaadein. I already had another subject in mind but I wasn’t very happy with it. I felt that I was not doing anything that`A0wouldmake me feel that I was moving ahead. He jumped at it and said I must do it. But to`A0detail this one line took a lot of hard work. I wanted to make a film everybody would enjoy.

I worked on the subject for one year. Then came the problem of budgeting. The same film Hollywood would’ve made in 400 million dollars but we have to make it in 6 or 7 million dollars and that’s also on the higher side. For me it was a
question of who would do the special effects. I went to Australia and there I attended a workshop. I told them, they understood my concept and created`A0it for me. It was very close to what I had imagined. It took them one year to execute it. I didn’t want a tacky job. Then I went to Los Angeles to meet Mark Colbe who has done Godzilla, Independence Day etc. I told him my idea`A0but admitted that I didn’t have`A0his kind of money. I said Hollywood releases 3000 prints;`A0 we release only 400 to 500. He promised to give me the same effects that he had given`A0other films.

Yes, kids and entire families are who I wanted to target. Kids are very important as audiences. The earlier project I had in mind also had kids.

No. In the three hours that the filmmaker has, whatever he shows will be accepted if it’s presented convincingly. If this were not so, films like ET or Star Wars, etc would not have run.

Hrithik is a very sensitive actor. He understands the medium very well, he understands the director. `A0He is also punctual and disciplined. He never brings a character home but he does rehearse at home. For this film when I had long schedules, he checked into a hotel three days before shoot with his script and dialogues and didn’t meet the family at all because the character is very different and it required thought. The role was the kind which required fine tuning.

I used to tell him at every stage that it’s a difficult character but he had understood that. He decided on his look himself. He designed the clothes and the look himself, taking help of Rocky, his designer.

Yes, he does. Many times when`A0I’ve explained a shot I gauge what he will do but`A0he goes beyond my expectation and that surprises me. TWF