Almost Famous

Khemu may barely be called a star in Bollyood’s galaxy,but the ring of bodyguards that surrounds him as he enters the venue,would have anyone believing that he’s one of Hindi cinema’s legendary Khans.

The movie,Khemu informs me,“is an out and out comedy”. Khemu and Paresh Rawal play a pair that is simply out to make money in any way possible. “They formulate plan after plan to make money,but all of them fail,they even set out deliberately to make a bad movie as part of their crazy formulae,” he says. And does that plan work? He replies,“I’d much rather not give that out. You should just catch the movie.”

The promo of the movie is equally zany — Khemu and his co-star Soha Ali Khan look on,as contests for an unresponsive audience are announced. The challenges range from answering questions about the movie to finding music CDs hid around the venue.

Khemu started out in the industry as a child actor,with movies like Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke and Raja Hindustani. His first movie as an adult actor was Kalyug,about the pornographic film industry and how it devastates people’s lives. His next was a Madhur Bhandarkar film,Traffic Signal,about the life of people who inhabit Mumbai’s pavements. Khemu informs he doesn’t deliberately set out to work in movies with a social message. “I choose movies that have an interesting plot,” he says,“the director is also important,but ultimately I base my decision on the storyline.”

Khemu’s work in all his movies so far has only got positive reviews from critics,even though box office success eluded most of the projects. Unlike many industry people,he’s honest enough to admit that critical acclaim does matter to him. “Of course mass popularity is important. But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t appreciate the good things that critics have said about me. I feel motivated by it.”

But tax him about his lack of solo hero roles and he goes on the defensive. “I have done such projects — Traffic Signal,for example. I agree that they’re not typical ‘hero’ roles,but the days of those kind of roles is over anyway,with the exception of a few like Ghajini.”

As Khemu and Khan throw up fistfuls of fake cash,stamped with the movie’s logo,into the air and the crowd scatters to collect them,one can’t help wondering if there is any truth to the rumours of the two being a couple. “I don’t want to give you the same cliché answers,but the truth is that we’re just good friends,” Khemu clarifies. He may not be a star yet,but he sure knows how to handle questions like this one.

Wish-list
* Ashutosh Gowarikar
* Ram Gopal Varma
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali
* David Dhawan
* Abbas-Mustan