Source: Fullhamchornicle
Date: May 12 2010
Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan, who is flying high with 'Kites', tells DEVANSH PATEL the film may redefine how romance is portrayed in Hindi cinema HRITHIK Roshan is a guys' guy and, obviously, a ladies' man. It is not just the good looks, the voice, the charm, the political and social awareness and the not-phoney compassion - it is the whole package. He must be too good, surely, to be true? The Hrithik effect is even more astounding. You can attract your own little fan club just by announcing that you are off to meet him. Within minutes of telling people I was interviewing him, I started receiving comments from friends on Facebook. Girls label him a 'Greek god' and boys call him 'the Italian stallion'. I simply call him the sexiest man alive. He is being firmly guarded by his film and personal PR executives when I arrive for the interview in his vanity van. India's busiest star has just had three costume changes in a photoshoot and I am waiting for him to unwind before he calls me into his private room in the van. But as soon as I clap eyes on him, and take in that kittenish smile, the leonine eyebrows and, of course, the lush whip of unwashed, curly hair, all my anxiety instantly vanishes as I ask him about his new film, Kites.
Q: You very rarely give interviews. Why is that?
A: Yes, I am a rare find because I am not easily accessible. I regard that as my shortcoming. Other actors are able to do what I do, plus do the other social and media responsibilities. I can't. I can't do two things at the same time when I am trying to give 100 per cent to one thing. It becomes a distraction. The kind of roles I am doing are too different and it makes me immerse into the world completely. I don't see the point of being in the news and on the face of all covers just for the heck of it. It makes sense when I have something to talk about.
Q: So you're like The Joker from The Dark Knight. You get sucked into your characters, huh?
A: (Laughs) Not really. I am not that crazy. It's not about my character sucking me in. It's also about my personality. I've always been shy. I don't interact too much.
Q: You have been flying high recently. How does it feel to be up there on cloud nine?
A: I am happier standing on the ground than flying high. Feeling good about wherever you are is more important than thinking that you will feel better if you're up there. I've been through failures and successes, and have understood that there are no bad experiences in life. Every experience is good. My mission in life is not money, fame or to be the best, it is to evolve as much as one can on a personal level as a human being.
Q: Will Kites be used as a teaching tool when it comes to romance in films? Is it going to reinvent romance?
A: I don't think anything that is creative can be taught. But I think Kites might prove to be successful in accessing people's minds and hearts. An honest space is the source of all creativity. Kites is honest when it comes to every single frame we've shot, every single aspect of its making, every single twitch, and so on.
Q: You debut as a singer in Kites too.
A: Yes, I tried. When the director Anurag Basu told me to sing in the film, we thought that if my character sings, it had to be my voice. You can't fake that. So, I went through two weeks of training and that's all they gave me (laughs).
Q: How tight is the screenplay of Kites?
A: I don't believe in such words. They are manipulative. If a scene requires a certain pace, then that's the pace. If the scene requires a certain sensibility, so be it. The audience liking it or not isn't the question. The story you're expressing has to be expressed in complete sanctity. I don't think there is any right kind of film-making. You have to be convinced, inspired and enjoy what you're trying to do.
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Source: Boxoffice India
Date: May 14, 2010
It’s that time of the year when blue-eyed boy of the Hindi film industry Hrithik Roshan will be seen on the silver screen after a hiatus of almost 18 months. Post a string of super hits delivered mostly under the directorial guidance of his father Rakesh Roshan, the svelte actor decided to take it slow and focus on quality cinema rather than quantity. With Kites, another nugget of lavish filmmaking from the Roshan’s stable, Sagorika Dasgupta has the actor chatting up about his biggest film so far and an assortment of topics
Let’s start with a cliché – what are your expectations from Kites?
I expect Kites to get what it deserves. Every film has its own destiny and all I know is that we have done an honest job. Beyond that, I don’t have any extraordinary expectations. I believe water finds its own level and it’s the same with creativity. Whatever you create will find its rightful place in the hearts of the people. That is a very relaxing thought. I know that there’s a certain law to the nature of things and everything happens as it was meant to. You always get what you deserve. So no fear! Having said that, I am nervous, I am anxious and all those emotions are obviously there but deep down, I know this is what it is.
You’ve always delivered a big hit whenever you’ve worked under your home banner. But this time, Rakesh Roshan is only a producer. Any apprehensions?
It’s not so much because it’s a home production but more because I am involved right from the moment the germ takes seed in my father’s mind. He comes rushing to me and says, “Look, I have this idea…” So I’m involved with the entire process from the second it starts to the final release and beyond that as well. Because my involvement is that much more, I give it that much more and that determines my level of excitement and passion.
Was it your idea to rope in Anurag Basu or Rakesh Roshan’s?
I would never tell my father which filmmaker is best for me or go against his decision. That would be ridiculous and foolish. I regard my father as someone who has achieved everything and knows filmmaking like the back of his hand. In fact, he wants to keep learning even at his age.
So today, if I ask you – whose baby is Kites?
Kites is my father’s baby. For this project, he decided to step back and allow a younger mind to give expression to his vision. My father wanted to see how Anurag executed and moulded the film with his interpretation. Dad just wanted to sit back and learn as he works without any ego. Not many people can afford that much passion and selfless love for the art like my father does.
Basu has been known for making films with a medium budget but Kites is his biggest film. Today when you look back, do you really believe placing faith in Basu was worth it?
Kites is the biggest film for all of us. There’s something really refreshing in the way the film looks. It’s a small simple straightforward and honest love story. It’s like you are watching chapters in a life through a keyhole. That’s Anurag Basu’s style. In Kites, his style, which is compact and intense, has merged with my father’s style. It’s a combination of the compactness of Anurag’s style with my father’s style of scale and grandeur. So my father has put in the mountains and locations and he’s brought in the helicopters and taken that little story and given it a mammoth scale. That is the blend that makes the film look refreshing. When I look back, I feel all my previous films were just preparation for Kites.
Why do you say that?
Right from Koi Mil Gaya to Jodha Akbar, I see my career growth in three chapters. The first chapter was from Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai to Koi Mil Gaya. I had great passion for my first film, pushing myself to the maximum by the sheer love of what I was doing. I was excited about every film I did. Post that, what I call the ‘reference mode’, where I was searching and was being nudged and pushed by conditioned mindsets into doing what was regarded as the right thing to do. At that time, I was told to focus on pushing my image and keep doing whatever was working for me. It was a kind of insecurity where you wanted to be that star in a particular genre and simply cling to that. So everything that I did was simply reference acting. (Pause)
Please go on…
(Smiles) The reason I call this ‘reference acting’ is because you either saw some other actor do something that you really liked and were impressed. It was like you wanted to hold the gun in the same way another actor did or repeat all those things that worked for you in your first film. I was being put up on this pedestal and being showcased to the world. Then came Koi Mil Gaya and it reminded me of why I wanted to be an actor. There was purpose and meaning in what I was doing and it was not coming from a place of mental manipulations. That is when I decided I would do everything for the love of my art. It may not make me into the biggest star but it’s my true search. After that, it was about finding the right stepping stone that would lead me to that magical light. I can see that light and I’m heading towards it. I’m not following anyone and no one is following me. Those stepping stones became Lakshya, Dhoom II, Krrish, Jodha Akbar and now Kites.
Recently, we saw you in Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance and now we’re going to see you working with Anurag Basu followed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shekhar Kapoor. Is this a strategy to work with directors you have not worked with before?
See, I have been fortunate enough to be moulded by directors like Farhan Akhtar who taught me how to be indifferent to the camera. Lakshya and Koi Mil Gaya was where I felt different in terms of acting. I don’t know where that came from, maybe a place of no mind. And that’s what I started looking for where I could do a shot and come out of it and not know what I did. That feeling was magical and I kept looking for that feeling. Dhoom 2 was another extreme of the craft. I completely touched base with the craft as the film was all about my look and how to face the camera. So I did that to my heart’s content. Then through Ashutosh Gowariker’s guidance in Jodha Akbar, I learnt to let go. He didn’t allow me to see the assist. He knew I could perfect it but he didn’t want that perfection. I used to have sleepless nights but I never said a word to him because I trusted him and knew that something good was coming my way. My work in Jodha Akbar was appreciated. Then Kites happened, where I came into my own. I told myself I was going to be honest and not worry about brownie points. According to me, Kites is my most honest work.
And we will also see you shake a leg in Kites after a long time as you play a salsa teacher.
Dance has done something magical in my life. I have never considered myself a great dancer. I’m surprised to see where it’s taken me because that was not what I was trying to sell. I’ve come to the conclusion that dance just looks good on me because of my body type. I have very narrow feet and really long legs because of which my centre of gravity is very high. So it is easy for me to give the illusion of tipping over. That’s why many people say, “Oh my God, he’s like rubber!” But if I go to a disco, I’m always at a loss for steps. But people around say things like, “Look how humble he is. He doesn’t want to show off and is deliberately dancing badly!” For the kind of films that I want to do, I would love it if these dance sequences come in at a logical point in the film. That is what we have attempted to do in Kites. There is a dance song but it is not a choreographed piece. There is no signature step in the film that people can copy or could become a symbol for that song.
There’s been speculation over the delay in the film’s release. How do you think it will affect the film?
Kites was ready for release in eight months. Then Brett Ratner came into the picture. We had immense faith in him because he felt the film had great potential in Western markets. He asked us to give him five months and let him work on it. It would have been pretty stupid of us not to take up that offer. He was not looking for money or fame. He was just asking for five months. I mean, he is Brett Ratner, one of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood.
The trade is always cribbing that films are not doing well. Do you think it’s the responsibility for big actors like you to have multiple releases every year so that the ticket counter is always buzzing, like Akshay Kumar who do five to six films a year.
I’m not the kind of actor who calculates business. Your mind needs to be switched off from commercial aspects if you wish to create something truly special. Only then will it access that part of the audience that goes beyond the mind and hits the heart. If I need to help the industry, I’ll do that in different ways. (Laughs) There have been times when people have told me my films won’t work, like when I was doing Fiza or Jodha Akbar. Even during Krrish, my friends laughed at me. They poked fun at me saying I would look stupid in a cape and a mask but I still did it because I believed in it.
Post your debut film, you went on a signing spree and then suddenly you stopped taking up projects. In fact, your fans always complain that they see so little of their idol. Don’t you think you should at least have two releases a year?
I don’t make any decisions except follow the rule of being honest to myself. I don’t do a film because it will present a certain image of me. I will do a film if it helps me vent my thoughts or my perspective of the world. It should reflect the sensitivity inside me. We need the clap traps and the item songs. They say, as an actor, we need to do comedy after too many intense roles. This is what makes our films masala films. But these films do not go too far. I mean, you can’t present these films to the world market.
Well, you’re yet to do an out-and-out comedy. Any plans?
(Pauses) I believe my visions will manifest itself. I don’t need to go looking for it. I don’t need to go plan it. Your entire life is a manifest of what you subconsciously envision for yourself. Whatever your innermost signals are towards the universe, they will come back to you. (Smiles) So I have been sending out signals of a certain kind of comedy, maybe through this interview, and it will come to me.
Your mother had revealed to us that (Pinky Roshan wrote this in an article written exclusively for Box Office India on Hrithik Roshan’s birthday special issue) you are interested in a particular kind of comedy. Will you tell us what kind?
It will all happen in good time. But I don’t believe in slapstick comedy. My comedy will be a serious film. And it is that seriousness that will keep you clutching your stomach and laughing. You know, I mean really serious humour. Not dark humour but probably on the lines of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron or Peter Seller’s The Party. And I love the kind of films Ben Stiller has done. His kind of comedy, something like Zoolander, the funny walkoff in the film was just hilarious. That is the kind of film I would really do well. (Laughs) See, I’m again sending out these signals!
On Indian Film Industry Going Global
Dishonest films can never cross boundaries or transcend languages barriers because we have been making very successful dishonest films. Not all of them. For me, Dhoom 2 was a very honest film. The motive was honest. We asked the audience to come with their popcorn, their drinks and have a blast. You don’t make a film like Kites and put in an item song. Promise real cinema to the audience and just stick to that. I think it’s time we took our cinema to the global audience. We have had enough fun in our little pond and it’s time to explore beyond. You have just one life, so why keep doing things that you are good at and not want to grow? Trust me, it’s so much fun to find out what’s in store. Kites will cross over to many countries and audiences. It will open many doors and remind people how to make honest films that we can present to the people. We keep wondering why our films don’t make it to the Oscars. It’s simple: our films lack honesty. There have been brilliant films like Scarface or Once Upon A Time In America or Pulp Fiction. Those foreign filmmakers never worry about what others have to say. We keep undermining our audience. We keep feeling the audience won’t understand this or that and so we don’t make intelligent films. Mostly we worry about things like, ‘Arrey yaar woh Punjab mein kya sochega? Or Bihar ke liye bhi kuch hona chahiye…” That’s why we get manipulative and calculative.