Getting experimental

Modelling the leading lady, Parineeti Chopra on a toon character was a risky proposition for debutant director Vinil Mathew, but the experiment paid off

Vinil Mathew

Hasee Toh Phasee garnered a business of around Rs.39 crore in the first three weeks, and 40 shows of the film were running in theatres last week. Did the collections meet your expectations?

Frankly, when I was making the film I was not thinking about collections. My aim was to make a different kind of rom-com, that was humorous, without being subtle or going overboard. Thankfully, the film did extremely well in metros and also abroad where it collected about Rs.13 crore worldwide. In fact, I was expecting it to do well in single screens as well, because Parineeti Chopra and Sidharth Malhotra’s characters were quite desi and rooted, but that didn’t happen. What also disappointed me was that the film didn’t open well on Friday, even though it picked up on Saturday and Sunday. But it was heartening to learn during my visits to the theatres, that families had come to watch the film for the second time. I could hear them repeating the dialogues with the actors.

What was the response to Parineeti Chopra’s character, Meeta, who comes across as quirky and a bit looney?

Parineeti’s quirkiness was intentional to add a fun element to the film. Her mannerisms resembled a cartoon character, because we were also pitching the film to kids. But it had me worried all the time, as it was imperative to ensure that the tone and pitch was right — neither too loud, nor too subdued. I kept five options for every shot to get each mannerism right; at times, the creative team would almost come to blows. That we managed to get her mannerisms just right for a person with a bipolar disorder was conveyed to me by a few doctors after the film’s release. They said the way Meeta reacted, (doing inane things) was exactly how a person with a disorder on pills behaves.

What kind of criticism has come your way about the film?

I faced criticism for the Punjabi wedding sequence. We had several retakes for the track and spent a lot of time over it to make it look like a traditional Punjabi wedding and at the same time, balance it with Parineeti’s quirkiness. But many people said that it was out of context and felt that it didn’t seem a part of the film.

The casting of the film was unlike a Bollywood film. How did you perfect that?

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I have known Mukesh Chabra, the casting director for the past 15 years. He has done the casting of almost all my ad campaigns, and when it came to Hasee Toh Phasee, he knew that as always, I would want every character, primarily all the relatives of the protagonists, to be right. I was a bit sceptical about Sidharth, who joined the cast when Karan Johar came on board, because of his serious image. But when I met and discussed the part with him, I realised I could make it happen.
But I must make a mention of the casting of the old twin ladies, Dhanika Jaggi and Devika Gidwani . We auditioned for their characters in several places like Indore and Nashik and finally we found them in Mumbai, four days before the shooting. One is actor-director Vivek Vaswani’s aunt and her twin is journalist Rajeev Masand’s grandmother!

Considering the film was unconventional, did anyone tell you that the ending of the film was quite conventional, with the boy and girl eventually getting married despite the obstacles?

Some people did say that the end was too conventional, like a typical love story. The writer, Harshwardhan Kulkarni and I did think of many options, but then decided to bring the actors together. Hasee Toh Phasee was a love story after all, so why not have a happy ending?

geety.sahgal@expressindia.com

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