ON A SONG

So how did Akhtar find this new role? “I was busy focusing on directing my new film Voice from the Sky, for which we have finalised Akshaye Khanna, and my next acting role in Zoya Akhtar’s Luck by Chance, when Abhishek Kapoor came to me with a story,” he says.
Rock On revolves around a Delhi boy, who comes to Mumbai to form a rock band that, for some emotional deadlock, fritters away and regroups a decade later. It was a feel-good, realistic, underdog story that Akhtar couldn’t refuse as it “immediately took me back to the world and genre of Dil Chahta Hai.”
“Ever since DCH released eight years ago, a lot of people I have met the world over have asked me, ‘Why are you making war films and thrillers? Please do something like a DCH again,” says Akhtar. Debutant director Kapoor was one of the many Akhtar fans who wanted that magic back. And he was sure that if he were to make a buddy flick, it had to have Akhtar in it.
Kapoor also can’t stop raving about Akhtar’s singing skills—he has sung five of the nine tracks in Rock On—though the man himself is modest.
“The microphone is quite a villain because the way it magnifies the smallest inflection that you feel ‘Oh my god, I should quit,” says Akhtar. “Getting ready to face the mike was quite a process. First, I gave a demo to the film’s music directors for them to analyse and work out my singing range. Next, I practiced breathing exercises to work out the technicalities before we progressed to some truly complicated songs.” Akhtar calls the ballad Tum ho toh the toughest on the list “because of its slow languid pace with many portions holding single notes over many bars…”

Akhtar has more acting assignments lined up. Anand’s Surapur The Fakir of Venice is already complete and awaiting an international release. In Luck by Chance, he plays a Delhi actor who comes to Mumbai to realise his Bollywood dreams.
One wonders how he restrained the acting bug so long. The urge, he tells me, had always been there—it just took eight years to come the full circle, from behind the camera to the front. “ Kids don’t know what goes into the making of a film. They want to be the hero. On that level, I too was equally mesmerised by what I saw of Mr Bachchan, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor. I was a big fan of all their movies and for me all that anybody would do in a film was to look great, mouth wonderful dialogues, fight, dance…” says Akhtar. And though, eventually, he got drawn more towards the creation of a film, that secret desire never left him. “Which is why when I was asked in interviews during DCH and Lakshya, if I have ever thought of being an actor, I never said no. It’s something I have always been open to doing as long as the right roles come along.”
In all this noise of his acting debut, he still remains a director first. He has reportedly signed a six-movie deal with TV 18 worth Rs 230 crore.
While his last release Don (2006) has been the most successful and acclaimed remake yet, his debut film Dil Chahta Hai (DCH, 2001) is already rated by many as a contemporary classic. “I am very flattered, though I am not sure if the term applies to DCH,” he differs. “If, after 10, 20 or 40 years of a film’s release, people still remember its characters, their dialogues and how much fun they had watching it, that for me puts a film, on a slight cut above else and makes a classic though that might not be the only attribute.” Akhtar, can rest assure —the antics of Sameer (Saif Ali Khan), Akash (Aamir Khan) and Siddharth (Akshaye Khanna) are already a part of a generation’s favourite film lore. He is not too eager to be branded as a youth icon though. “Every cinegoer is my audience, not just the youth,” he says politely but firmly.

It’s a sureness that we have seen before. I am reminded of my first interaction with him at a press conference before the release of Don, where he maintained his calm through a volley of indignant questions from senior film journalists over tampering a classic. He never let his defence crumble. And he stands vindicated. The original script of Don 2 is complete and ready for shoot around mid-2009. “But no more remakes,” he says. “I have made the only film I wanted to remake. Don was a film that had held my attention for all these years, so by making it, I finally have exorcised my spirits and got it out of my system.”
After years in public glare, Akhtar now gives out a sense of equanimity, irrespective of the ups and downs of his career. “People could hate you or love you, but if they like your film that’s all you really care in the end,” he says.

As regards his career’s only flop, the expensively mounted Lakshya (2004), he still maintains that nothing went wrong with the film. “It, till date, is a really good film. I was disappointed with its box-office performance, not because it didn’t earn much, but the fact that not many people saw it enough to have either liked or disliked it,” he says.
These days, we also see a more accessible Akhtar, though he keeps his kids and family out of his profiles. The industry has stopped calling him arrogant. “Arrogant and me?” he laughs. “Having not been used to the public eye for many years, it took me sometime to get used to it. I felt my life is personal and I should keep it to myself. Maybe that made me a little silent, and that got misconstrued as arrogance,” he says.
Akhtar, though, isn’t ready to be a one-man army yet. “Acting is quite a lonely job. You have to constantly remain within a character. To act and direct at the same time is too difficult. People like Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor have done it in the past, so it’s possible to do so. But I feel a certain degree of skill and understanding of format needs to be reached before I can do it confidently.” As of now, he is only ready to rock on.

FARHAN’S FAVOURITES
Rock Band
Beatles, for their simple and amazing song writing, and Pink Floyd
Rock Star
The biggest impression on me while I was growing up was Axl Rose
Buddy Flick
Sholay
Hindi Song
Abhi na jao chod kar from Hum Dono
Onscreen Characters
Michael Corleone (Al Pacino in The Godfather), Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro in Raging Bull) and Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan in Shakti)