Farhan Akhtar ‘never interfered’ in the making of Rock On, but ‘some disagreements’ crept up during the sequel: Abhishek Kapoor

Director Abhishek Kapoor’s 2008 musical drama film Rock On!! was a critical and commercial success. The film had an ensemble cast including Farhan Akhtar Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli and Luke Kenny, and was also produced by Farhan. Abhishek said that during the film’s production, Farhan never interfered with his vision as a director. Farhan was already an established filmmaker himself, having helmed Dil Chahta Hai, Don and Lakshya.

During an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Abhishek opened up on Farhan’s reaction to seeing the first cut of the film, and said, “The first person who saw the film was Farhan. I was not in town, I was Cannes and he had seen the cut and he was really happy. It meant everything to me because I have a lot of love and respect for Farhan. I have learnt a lot from him. And he never interfered while I was making the film. He knew he was the producer and he helped me do whatever I wanted to do but he never got in my way of expressing what I wanted to in the film. At the end of it, when he did see the film, he called me and said, ‘I saw the film and I loved it’. That meant everything to me.”

The film opened to critical appreciation, and box office success followed. So, when Rock On 2 was announced, everyone expected Abhishek to return as the director again. However, the sequel was directed by Shujaat Saudagar. Abhishek revealed that there were disagreements between him and Farhan, which led to him dropping out. He said that he still hasn’t seen the sequel.

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“Actually Rock On 2, I didn’t write the entire script. I was writing the frame of it but there were some disagreements (with Farhan Akhtar) on how we should proceed. So we both felt that its better this way and they decided to go ahead with somebody else,” said Abhishek.

The filmmaker confesses that he was hurt but has now moved on from the experience. “Chalta rehta hai (This keeps happening). It hurts but these are all experiences in life that make you richer eventually. I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know what’s missing in it or what could have been better. I was hurt but life moves on from there,” he said.

Post Rock On, Abhishek directed films such as Kai Po Che!, the film debut of Sushant Singh Rajput; Fitoor, Kedarnath and Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui.