Har Dil Jo Paise Kamayega!

It’s a miracle, isn’t it? Despite the mostly-poor reviews that Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega earned from critics, the Salman Khan-Rani Mukherji-Preity Zinta starrer is making the cash registers ring with rising resonance. In the first five days of its openeing itself, the film’s collections stayed at a hundred per cent. By the end of the week, they stood firmly at 98.5 per cent. Eighth day collections totalled 92.68 per cent. Incidentally, the second week figures are looking good too.

Although he confesses he’d have liked to ensure that Rani Mukherji was given a little more prominence in the film, Sajid explains that with it his own career graph has moved upwards. Following Jeet and then Judwaa, he insists this one’s definitely the right step. He’s also excited about the fact that his efforts at curbing piracy and cable viewing of his movie has mostly paid off. "In the ten days since the release, we haven’t heard of the film being illegally screened on cable networks."

Remind him that he was once keen on dabbling in serious cinema, and Sajid smiles sheepishly. "You have to watch your movie about 200 times before it is released. I don’t think I can watch a depressing, realistic movie so often. It’s much safer making a light film," he says. Interestingly, he claims he’s seen his new film over 200 times. "In the last ten days, I’ve seen it about 40 times."

Watching people flock the cinemas for Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega, Sajid jokes that he’s thankful to the Lord for India’s overpopulation. "I’ve been receiving overflow cheques from so many centres," he says. And confessing, albeit hesitantly, that he will stand to make much money on the film, Sajid says the first thing he will do with all the cash, is pay his advance tax. "I don’t like the IT guys coming here looking for money. I’m just going to pay what I have to," he says grinning broadly.