Source: Filmfare
Date: Nov, 27,2013
Rakesh Roshan tells us why he enjoys toying with the impossible. Perhaps the most precious heirloom that director Rakesh Roshan could have gifted grandsons Hrehaan and Hridaan is a superhero of a dad – Hrithik Roshan as Krrish! With Koi Mil Gaya, Krrish and now the multi-crore blockbuster Krrish 3, the Roshans have successfully completed the superhero trinity. Interestingly, while most of his peers are content playing granddad and reliving past glories with sundowners, the 64-year-old Rakesh Roshan refuses to pause. In fact, he chose to converse with Gen X in their evolving cinematic jargon. The Krrish series can well be dubbed as our homegrown rejoinders to Hollywood’s fantastical tales like Iron Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man and Man Of Steel. “After watching the trilogy of The Lord Of The Rings, I thought if they could continue with the story why couldn’t we?” reflects Rakesh adding, “In Koi Mil Gaya, Jadoo passes on his powers to Rohit. In Krrish, Rohit passes them to his son Krishna Mehra.”
NOT WITHOUT MY SON
Hrithik has somewhere played muse to dad Rakesh’s experiments with the superhero genre. “Your body language has to be that of a superhero, or else you cut a sorry figure. Hrithik appears like a superhero. The grace with which he projects himself, his limb movements when he leaps from building to building or when he flies create an authentic effect. When you’re suspended from a cable, you have to hold yourself in a credible manner. If you slouch, it looks unnatural,” Rakesh explains.
Incidentally, Hrithik trained under Tony Ching (Chinese martial arts film expert) for the earlier Krrish. “Tony would ask his assistant to demonstrate the stunt for Hrithik. But Hrithik would better him. Ching would chide his assistant saying, ‘You’ve been doing it for the last 20 years but this boy has beaten you’!” shares the proud father.
“Had it not been for Hrithik, I wouldn’t have made Koi Mil Gaya in the first place. After he had tasted superstardom in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, I made him play a challenged character in Koi... People feared I was tampering with his image!” He elaborates on his synergy with Hrithik. “We’re on the same wavelength. Hrithik knows my strengths and weaknesses. I’m aware of his. Once the screenplay is locked, we don’t interfere in each other’s domain.” But there’s ‘a secret competition’ between them. “For Hrithik to excel, I’ve got to place the camera correctly. That’s where I’ve to measure up. He asks for a retake even after I have ‘okayed’ the shot. At times even four retakes. I let him as I know he’ll only better it.”
Another meeting point between the father-son duo is their penchant for fitness. In fact, the Roshans often bump into each other at the family gym. “If you’re unfit you tend to compromise on your work. When I am shooting I don’t sit for hours at a stretch. If I had to sit on the chair and direct I’d consider it my failure. To be mentally creative, you have to be physically agile.”
Recently, Hrithik underwent a brain surgery having injured himself during the shoot of Siddharth Raj Anand’s Bang Bang in Bangkok. “God gives you a jerk but comforts you too. I knew this would be taken care of,” he smiles grateful that the nightmare is behind them. “Whenever Hrithik does a difficult shot, I pray. Because nothing is in his hands. It’s in the hands of the guys handling the cables. When he lands from a height, the velocity of his jump is so great that if the technicians go wrong even by half an inch, he can break his legs.”
The daring father, who himself survived a bullet from the underworld in 2000, says, “We cannot restrict his passion as a performer. Mishaps can happen anytime. It’s for him to decide what can prove harmful!” On a philosophical level too, Hrithik has imbibed much from the senior Roshan. “More than his success, he has learnt from my failures. That’s why he’s grounded. He’s aware of the uncertainty of the business,” says he.
KRRISH 3 NO CAKEWALK
While Krrish was more about Hrithik, in Krrish 3, Vivek Oberoi’s character Kaal enjoys prominence. “Kaal is a super villain. He has a team of manwars (mutants) created from the DNA of insects, frogs etc. Kangana Ranaut, who plays the negative Kaya, is formed out of a chameleon. How Krrish vanquishes Kaal forms the story,” he states.
Krrish 3, with all its complex characters, was not a cakewalk he reveals. “We wrote the screenplay in the confines of the drawing room but when we ventured out to execute it, it was a complex task. The look of the mutants, the prosthetics… all had to look believable. Also, Hrithik is playing both the father and son. To get into the character of the father he needed four hours of make-up and then two hours to remove it. He also had to play the son. So on one day, we shot the father’s shots. The next day, with the same lighting and camera angles, we shot the son’s.” The VFX, which took a year and a half, was an unforeseen challenge too. He confides that he had moments of self-doubt.
“Aisa bahut baar laga, that I shouldn’t have undertaken such a complex film. VFX is another ballgame. It’s a humongous job; it can make or mar a film. In Koi… and Krrish, we worked with a foreign team. But this time, we worked with Red Chillies. We Indians may not be too experienced but we’re competent. I’m sure that after RA.One and Krrish 3, we’ll come into our own.”
DIRECTOR’S SPECIAL
Just last year Rakesh celebrated his silver innings as a director. His safeguard against redundancy has been constant reinvention. “I’ve explored different genres. Be it Khudgarz, Khoon Bhari Maang, Kishen Kanhaiya, Karan Arjun, right up to the Krrish series, all my subjects venture into the realm of the unbelievable. The challenge is to make them believable. It gives me sleepless nights.”
The 60 plus filmmaker is not threatened by young competition. “I make films at my pace. I value the fact that people wait for my films and expect them to be of a certain standard – they aren’t just masala films.” Yet he doesn’t bunk the unpredictability of the business. “No matter how big a film, it’s the people who buy the ticket. They decide the fate of the film on that Friday. My aim is to make a family entertainer, which can be watched by people from Jhumri Talaiya to Manhattan. The rest is destiny.”
Though the after glory of Krrish 3 is all for him to cherish he says, “After every project, I tell myself isske baad films nahin banaoonga. I take a break... till the thirst awakens again.”