10 years of D-Day: Nikkhil Advani says Irrfan Khan refused to work with ‘director of Kal Ho Na Ho’, Rishi Kapoor was shocked when asked to play Dawood Ibrahim

“It gave me a new lease of life, correct the path that I was possibly going down on and set up my production company. It is special in so many ways,” the filmmaker adds. Also starring Arjun Rampal, Huma Qureshi and Shruti Haasan among others, D-Day opened to rave reviews and was a box office hit.

In an interview with indianexpress.com, Nikkhil Advani talks about the making of the film, its casting, how the jugalbandi of Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan happened on sets and how he ended up watching “a lot of” D-Day, despite never revisiting his films.

Edited excerpts:

How do you look back at the film? 

I feel a better filmmaker for sure because the way I was approaching storytelling was very structured, in the same space as what I had learnt as an associate director working with Adi and Karan (filmmakers Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar). Irrfan was the one who basically told me, ‘You don’t have to be so rigid in the storytelling, let it be a little more organic, let us also drive the way you’re going to be achieving your scenes.’

I remember the first day of the shoot, when I did a breakdown of 50 shots and came because I was trying to impress him. He was the guy who had come after working with Ang Lee! In fact, Irrfan didn’t want to work with me! He said, ‘You’re the Kal Ho Na Ho guy, I don’t how what Ritesh and you are going to do with this script eventually!’ I had to get Anurag Kashyap to speak to him and tell him that I’m also the guy who also wrote Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahi, worked with Sudhir Mishra. That’s where his heart actually was, so I had to get Kashyap to speak to him!

That’s a fascinating story…

Ya but that’s how it happened. In fact on the first day of shoot he looked at me and said, ‘Nikkhil you have a good script, we are all good actors, your DOP is also good, so just sit at the monitor and have fun. If you don’t get what you want, tell us, but thode maze kar (have fun). That became a mantra for me, that’s how I approached POW, Mumbai Diaries, Batla House. I’ve become a little more organic and courageous in terms of me collaborating with my actors.

When was the last time you watched the film?

I tend to not watch anything once it releases. I meet people who tell me how they grew up watching Kal Ho Na Ho, mention their favourite scenes in such details which I don’t even have a recollection of. So the Friday when a film is released or a show is dropped, I feel it is no longer mine, it has become somebody else’s… Actually, I saw a lot of D-Day when Irrfan and Rishi Kapoor passed away one day after the other and people started posting its scenes on the internet.

Do you remember what was the feeling like when the film released?

I remember, we had done some 20 previews before the film was released, where people kept praising it. Amitabh Bachchan came and saw the film, then later did a Facebook post, Javed Akhtar spoke to the writers and complemented them, everyone talked about Arjun Rampal, the song Alvida became a cult and Shubhra Gupta, who has perhaps given me one and a half stars after that, calls me up and tells me how Irrfan mentioned that it is possibly one of his favourite films. The film has allowed me to be a relevant storyteller, for someone who was totally written off, the film got me five-star ratings by some critics and most importantly people said, ‘We can’t believe the director of Kal Ho Na Ho’ has made D-Day.’ So suddenly people even acknowledged that I even made Kal Ho Na Ho.

You mentioned getting Irrfan on board with the help of Anurag, what was the story with Rishi Kapoor?

We had worked in Patiala House together and were fond of each other. We were also neighbours because I lived in a building right next to his house in Pali Hills. I became somewhat of his buddy, we would meet, watch films together. I actually went to him with Nassar sir’s role (who played Chief of RAW Ashwini Rao). But he wasn’t that kicked about it and then he showed me a still of Rauf Lala from Agneepath (2012). I went back home, and the next day told him, ‘Chintu ji you are right, why don’t you play Dawood Ibrahim?’ He was shocked and told me, ‘Paagal ho gaya hai kya, ye main kaise kar sakta hu (Have you lost it, how can I do this role)? But I insisted we do a look test. When he came out of the van, he said, ‘Let’s do this.’

Rishi Kapoor was this outspoken personality; Irrfan was the calm and composed personality. How was their combination on set like?

They had two scenes together, one of which became folklore when people shared their last frame — of both of them sitting in a car. I had got everything we wanted and we were going back to the base after the shoot and the camera rig was still connected to the car. Irrfan said let it roll, we might get something while we are driving back. There’s this look that he gave, which everybody shared after they passed away, where he just looks at him and starts smiling, thinking like, ‘For 14 years I have been trying to get you and you have just fallen in my lap.’ It’s that kind of a look. After their death, people interpreted it as Irrfan saying, ‘See you upstairs.’ The other scene was the farmhouse sequence.

What happened there?

Everybody had known and heard of Irrfan as this great actor, who had also worked in international films. Chintu ji came from this world of being a superstar, but despite the ups and downs in his career, that stardom remained. When we were doing the scene and Irrfan started giving cues, and because he was such an organic actor, in every scene his take changes. So Rishi ji would be like, in his inimitable style, ‘Hello! Sunn, tu bohot bada actor hai, tune Ang Lee ke saath kaam kiya hai (Listen, you are a big actor who has worked with Ang Lee), but you have to give me the proper cue, otherwise I won’t be able to say my line!’ They became such good friends after that.

In fact, when we were shooting the climax at the Rann of Kutch, Irrfan wanted to stay there in a tent. He told Chintu ji, ‘Aap yaha pe aajao, main aapke liye chicken banata hu (please come and stay here, I will cook chicken for you), I will cook for you’ this and that but Rishi ji was like nope, I want AC.”

What’s the fondest memory of the film that has stayed with you?

Several, but the one thing that I have been not allowed to forget is the song Alvida. It came from a dark space that I was in. It was all or nothing for me in that moment. I thought I can’t go below this, so let me push the envelope wherever I can. I remember telling people I want to do this song at this point in the film and Rishi Kapoor was vehemently against it. Irrfan said, ‘How is it possible? You don’t need songs in a film like this. Mujhe pata tha Kal Ho Na Ho ka director aayega he aayega (I knew the director of Kal Ho Na Ho will definitely strike).’ But I was like, let’s do this, you all don’t understand now what I want to do with it.

Even Tushar Kanti Ray, who was my DOP, finally understood what I was trying to do with it when we were shooting the song! There was no choreographer in the song, it’s just Tushar and I doing what I want to do. I had learnt giving count, ‘1-2-3-4’ from Farah Khan because I had assisted Karan and Adi, so that came in handy. Alvida was the last thing we shot in D-Day, where we put up a small set of brothel in Goregaon, Mumbai. That’s how it was achieved.