CHARACTER Artist

Your turning music director came as a big surprise to everyone.
You know I have always loved music and cannot live without it. I always had music playing in the background while taking a bath,eating,sleeping,travelling or working,since childhood. So finally there was the need to express myself through music.

Which is your favourite song in the film?
Sau gram zindagi it is like life en-capsulated into a song.

We heard you singing at the music launch of the film,you sing pretty well.
Now please dont expect me to sing too,I think that is best left to the singers..

Can we take it for granted that now you would be composing music for all your future ventures?
No,no! This was just a one-time thing.

How did Guzaarish come about?
Guzaarish came to me in 2003 when I was shooting the first song of Black.

The title song Bas itni si guzaarish hai,yeh jo baarish hai was born then. But it was after Saawariya when life became a little difficult due to the reception that it got that propelled me to make Guzaarish. Again I wanted to walk the fearless path and make a film that was never made before in Hindi cinema.

Did you meet any quadriplegics during your research?
Yes,I met several quadriplegics,interacted with and learnt a lot from them. The main purpose of this film is to fall in love with life again. After making this movie,I have emerged a much better person in life and I am enjoying every minute of it now.

How did you think of making Hrithik Roshan,your protagonist,a magician?
Life is very magical,in fact we are all magicians,and create moments of magic in our lives. In the film,Hrithik plays a magician who becomes a quadriplegic and then finds magic in real life. I am so thankful to him and all my technicians,the Bachchan family and my producer Ronnie Screwwala who believed in the film more than I did.

This is your third film with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. What do you find endearing about her?
Aishwarya is not only a beautiful girl but also has a beautiful,sharp mind. She asks questions and provides solutions. Her mind is what I cherish while working with her. And over the years I feel that her exposure to world cinema and the Cannes Film Festival,meeting all the international actors and directors has made her a very evolved person.

Besides,we bond beautifully. She enjoys every moment that we create. I feel blessed to work with an actor who can interpret what I want to say without having to say it. It started with Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and then evolved with Devdas.

This time around,I would just look into the monitor and wish that she would do something a certain way,and she would actually do it without me telling her! My assistants would wonder how she did it.

It was like two minds so connected that they understood the scene and the script and where it needed to go and reach. I am blessed to have an actor who understands me.

What attracts you to create characters who are challenged in some way or the other,like Nana Patekar and Seema Biswas playing a mute couple in Khamoshi,Ayesha Kapoor and Rani Mukerji as a blind and deaf girl in Black and now a quadriplegic Hrithik Roshan in Guzaarish?
I think it is interesting to take up subjects that are not made into films often. Why cant children of a lesser God be the protagonists,why cant they have a love story? I find these characters intriguing as they are children of destiny,they are what they are because of the trauma they have gone through. Thats Gods way of testing them and the strength of their characters in the worst of situations. That has been the recurring motif in my films test of character. Likewise it will come through the quadriplaegic character in Guzaarish who teaches you so much about life,about living it to the fullest,about being a good human being. It makes you aware of the beauty of life. I will keep making such films.

But do they reach out to the people?
Cinema doesnt necessarily have to be entertaining. So many people say that a certain film is not for the masses,but I have been stopped by a rickshawalla and told that Black bahut accha,badhiya film hai.

I think the masses have their own intelligence and aesthetics. You talk about dark and intense things of life and yet package the film so that it reaches out to the audience through music,laughter and beautiful visual frames that are like paintings.

How do you look back at your films?
Each subject is different,whether it was Khamoshi,Devdas,Black and now Guzaarish and each film has its own challenges. I have always walked the rope thats difficult. So each one has been a satisfying experience. Though Saawariya was not celebrated,it was one of the most important films that I have done. I wish it had got the acknowledgment.

geety.sahgalexpressindia.com