Source: Deccan Chronicle
Date: June 9, 2010
With Kites behind him, Hrithik has moved on. He is in Spain shooting for Zoya Akhtar’s next and is looking forward to Guzaarish. The actor discusses his future projects.
Q Sanjay Leela Bhansali and your co-star Aishwarya Rai have done two films together already and have an equation. Did you ever feel like the outsider with them while shooting for Guzaarish?
On the contrary, I felt like Bhansali’s favourite child. He gave me everything. There were days when we didn’t even discuss our work, I even came up with new dialogues and he just let me be.
Q You’re looking completely different in Guzaarish. Did you really binge on cinema theatre samosas to put on weight?
Yes, I had a party with my diet. For 15 years, I lived on one extreme. This time, I ate everything unhealthy that I had deprived myself of. I needed to get a belly because I had to look haggard and unwell for the role of a dying man. I enjoyed it but it has also been easy getting back to my diet now that Guzaarish is over.
Q You’ve had a fantastic pairing with Aishwarya Rai. How do you feel she’s changed this time?
She’s my friend’s wife and I feel we’re similar actors who have honed our craft. We really juiced our craft out for Dhoom 2, then we followed our hearts a bit more and did Jodhaa Akbar, without caring so much about the lighting or whether we were presenting our best profile to the camera. Now with Guzaarish, we’ve done a film for the love of art.
Q In your last film, Luck By Chance, there’s a scene where your character, a film star, has street children trying to touch him through your car window. Is that how it is being Hrithik Roshan for your audiences? You can see, but not touch?
Yes, but in real life, I feel the need to break that barrier with my audience. When I’m stuck in traffic and street kids come up to me, I shake their hands but I do it from a selfish need to connect. It gives me joy.
Q In the past, you’ve said you’d like to direct…
Have I? No, I never want to direct. It would be so difficult to take the leadership of the entire film in that manner and try to control other people’s minds. I want to conquer myself.