Source: Mid Day By: Shradha Sukumaran Date: May 21, 2006 When you listen to Rakesh Roshan, it’s difficult to fit the pieces of what he describes, to his gentle jigsaw puzzle expression. “With every film, I still feel like a beginner,” he says, his voice low and measured, his face calm behind his desk in his sleek Andheri office. “My hands still get cold when I start out and I have sleepless nights before my film’s release. After I see the first copy of my film, I can’t watch it again. I don’t go to the theatres. If a phone rings, a baby cries, or if one person gets up and leaves, it disturbs me. I can’t see the movie if the print is too dark or the sound isn’t correct. I think it’s just better I don’t go.” Roshan may be several films and superhits old, but his work is peppered with words like “perfection” and “luck”. Three years after the phenomenal success of his sci-fi film Koi Mil Gaya, Roshan is almost done mixing and dubbing Krrish into Tamil and Telugu for a June 23 release. The sequel is the story of superhero Krrish, born from his mentally-challenged father Rohit in Koi Mil Gaya, but Roshan says besides the genes, the two share few similarities. “In fact, Rohit and Krishna are like the North and South Pole. Krrish has a physique, is rugged and smart. He’s a very natural character though and down-to-earth. All of his powers are believable – Krrish is very quick, he picks up things fast, climbs trees and mountains faster than a monkey. But the story is really that of a love story.” Love story it may be, but audiences are already drinking in trailors of Hrithik leaping over boulders and flying through the grey skyline of Singapore city. As the trailor airs, come incidents of scenes lifted from superhero flicks Spiderman and The Hulk. “People even said that Koi…Mil Gaya was just ET,” disagrees Roshan, “I know that it wasn’t and even Krrish isn’t like anything you’ve seen. My budget doesn’t even allow me to attempt those kind of effects.” What Krrish is, is a typical Roshan fantastic theme, made at his pace, over three years. “I don’t like to work in a rush. When you have deadlines, you compromise with work. I don’t physically have the energy to work through the night. I plan things well and am very strict that my actors report punctually. My first condition is that an actor be on the sets on time; otherwise my mood goes haywire. There were days when I planned just two-three shots in a day with five hours for one shot. Out of the 175 days I shot, 90 were just for action.” Roshan adds that he plays on incredible themes because those are the films he sees; after all, everybody else makes films on real life. “It’s that fear – how will I make this film? It drives me against the current. I make my own path.” He doesn’t give special significance to Hrithik’s success seeming entwined with his. “He’s a good actor. His producers may have been going through a bad phase.” Even after all these years and the odds, the director puts it down to luck. “If you have luck on your side, good thoughts come. If your time isn’t good, everything looks bad.”