Source: Movie Mag
Submitted by: Vanita, Co-Webmaster HrithikRules
It’s a gorgeous three-tiered apartment-three top floors actually. Its here that the two generations of the Roshan parivar reside. Hrithik-Susanne have one floor to themselves (the gym to die for or the bathroom large enough to play squash, are tiny asides). Parents Rakesh and Pinky live on another floor while the top most is shared by all of them, especially when there are meeting and visitors.
It is this celebrity house that Hrithik Roshan looking suave in a red T, tears himself away from a script conference and come in for a long chat.
For an actor whose only film Lakshya has just reached the cinema halls, Hrithik Roshan looks pretty much the confident star in control.
How come there’s no show of nerves when there’s no other film on hand?
If I had no work maybe I’d have felt insecure. But I’ve had a lot of work. I’ve just come back from my world tour; I’ve danced at almost all the award functions this year. So I think everybody’s okay about me sitting at home since I am still earning! I’m not just sitting at home and doing nothing. I’ve done a lot more work as far as earnings go; I’ve earned more than I did last year!
I don’t have the time to feel insecure, I’ve been really busy with the publicity campaign of Lakshya and there are more stage shows happening. I’m listening to scripts endlessly; I’ve been making time for family and friends from the film industry with whom I hadn’t interacted outside the sets. I’m doing that now and I’m enjoying it. It’s a part of my career that I had missed. I’m doing thing I wanted to but didn’t have the time for, like I am doing something for AIDS awareness. When working I’m so stressed that I cut myself off from everything else. I hope I can carry on with this feeling when I start working on a film again.
We are also sitting everyday on the script of my dad’s new film. If I go out for a show, I come back and catch up with what I missed. The films already very exciting! But lets see how it finally looks. We don’t even know if this will be the film that we’ll finally make. We’re completely honest with ourselves, that’s how my father is. Very honest. If at the end of the entire screenplay, he’s not happy, we scrap it and start afresh with another idea. That’s the only way you can make a film, which you are convinced about.
In your recent film Lakshya, you were choreographed by Prabhudeva for the first time. How was it shooting for ‘Main Aisa Kyoon Hoon’?
The dance was completely new for me. It was the first complete dance I’d ever done. Initially I was scared because I was being choreographed by Prabhudeva. I was nervous wondering whether he’d get my style or I’d get his. But the guy is so easy to work with. He is the funniest man I have ever worked with. He’s really humble and polite he makes you so comfortable. I could really level with him and say sir, I cant do this step sir, please sir. He would give me the confidence and say, you don’t even need rehearsals. You just come on the day of shooting and you’ll be fine. Its truly my first complete dance, I enjoyed doing his steps.
When there was just Lakshya in the kitty, did you have sleepless nights over ‘what will happen if it doesn’t do well’?
I think I’ve passed that stage. I’ve seen that stage where people have said, ‘Finished’ and one film has turned thing around to place me even better than before. So I think I am Okay!
But a lot of blood and sweat, watching the discipline in the armed forces, shooting at minus 14 degrees, all this went into the making of Lakshya. So of course it does matter that all your effort should be rewarded. I’m sure it will. I believe that you get what you deserve and I believe we all deserve a certain reward for putting in what we did. In what way the reward comes is a different thing but I’m sure it’s there, its waiting for us!
(Lakshya has taken a phenomenal opening by the way and critics have gone ga-ga over Hrithik’s endearing performance once again)
Is the absence of insecurity because there is a difference between not signing a film and not being in demand?
A lot of people tend to misunderstand what I’m trying to do, they think I want to do one film a year; they think iska dimaag kharab ho gaya hai. I’m not taking myself seriously at all. For the first time, I’m going completely by instinct. If that means saying ‘NO’ to a big banner, then that’s the way it is.
There are atleast two films currently running in town that you’ve said ‘no’ to. Have you seen Yuva and Hum Tum?
I wouldn’t like to name the films I’ve said ‘no’ to. There were reasons other than that I didn’t have dates for not doing those films. I thought they wouldn’t suit me at that time and place. I have tried to take the other route, done films that didn’t inspire me, just for the sake of being busy and making money. But out of the 11-odd movies I’ve worked in, how many films will I be remembered for? Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum and Koi…Mil Gaya? Maximum four films if you count Fiza too? The rest of the movies work out to about two and a half years of work that I have done, which I’m not going to be remembered for. I don’t regret doing them; it was the right thing to do at the right time. But I’m trying the other route now, I’m trying to look for films that will completely inspire me and as passionately as three films that really made a mark.
Plus I feel that we make too serious an issue of it. I feel its completely okay not to be doing film after film.
Especially if you are still in demand, right?
I hope I am still in demand. Considering Koi…Mil Gaya was my last release obviously I’ll get offers. I want to have a clear perspective and I think this is the way I want to be, as opposed to watching other people and doing what they’re all doing. I’m not saying they are wrong. This must be the longest route to take. But hell,I want to, I can afford to, so why not? Its one way of finding out if following ones heart is the right thing to do. Let me also make it clear that its not as if I want to do just one film, I’ll do ten films as long as they inspire me, excite me.
Would you compromise on the price if the offer was good enough?
We always compromise on the price, to suit the film, to suit the producer. You have to earn you bread and butter but its it’s a film that super-excites me, I don’t think I’ll even come to a point where I’ll as for or discuss my price.
To return to it, have you seen Yuva and Hum Tum?
I’ve seen Yuva I really enjoyed it. I was a little lost, I didn’t identify with it. But I loved the way it was made it was technically superb. Hum Tum works completely because of Saif and Rani. Plus the dialogues and scenes were so casually and brilliantly written. I think Saif is the only actor who could have pulled off that role.
I wish I had the confidence to say; I could’ve done it. But I’m glad I didn’t because maybe with me it would’ve become a different film. Every actor has his own style, his own forte. You can’t say that because Saif is so good in this film, he’s a better actor than Ajay Devgan or Amitabh Bachan. Even Mr. Bachchan in this film would not have worked. It’s the chemistry that Saif bring to the role with the kind of person he is. It works with him. The role was tailor made for Saif.
How was your world tour? There were reports that it was a flop take-off?
When I was told that someone had written that my showes were a flop, the first ten minutes were infuriating. Then I had a good laugh because we all knew what was happening out there. To give you a picture, we created history, broke records in a couple of centeres in the US like in New York. It had never happened in NY that you had a sold out auditorium a month in advance. Because of that they had enough time to increase the capacity by 2500 seats. NY has the largest capacity, about 20,000 people per show. That was the case everywhere; we had houseful shows all over.
To be completely honest, our first show, which was in Manchester, did not draw a full house. The thing about Manchester is that it has never ever had a full house. Additionally, the promoter was new; there is a lot of monopoly and control that other local promoters had over the tickets. So there was a lot of internal rivalry that was happening because of which out first show suffered. In spite of that we had a capacity of 75 percent, which was not bad at all.
So the first show was a shock for me, it was scary. But we had a days break after that, before the main London show. And we used that day to sort out the problems; we got our act sorted out. They kept the ticket sales at the gates for the entire day and we had a house full show in London.
The best show was in Amsterdam. I was shocked with the response Hindi films get there. It’s almost infuriating when something’s gone right and people are writing that its gone wrong. We has such an amazing show at Amsterdam that the promoter actually came and asked us if we could stay back and do another show the next evening because he already had an audience of 15,000 people who hadn’t seen our show. He was paying me, Saif, Amisha, all of us, cash on the spot.
We also did shows in Birmingham, San Francisco, another fab place with an amazing audience, Toronto, LA, Detroit, Dallas, Washington, Chicago, Vancover.
Did your brother in law Fardeen Khan make it to the show after he fractured his leg during rehearsals?
Fardeen’s act was one of the best acts of the show. He came to all the shows. It’s seldom that the audience gets to interact with a star on a one-to-one basis. What he did was phenomenal. He sent out mikes into the audience and he said, I’m here, the mikes are with you, the house is open, you can ask me whatever you want, professional, personal, whatever you want. They asked him all kinds of questions things like, at what age did you lose your virginity, or, how do you feel about your sister being married to Hrithik Roshan? Fardeen was completely honest. He had such a wonderful way with words that he handled it brilliantly and because of his wit he sometimes got away without quite answering the question.
On these tours do you manage to do anything ‘touristy’?
We have a ball when we go on these shows. We went down the famous ‘adult’ streets in Amsterdam, I just had to see what it was all about Susanne, Lara, Kelly, Saif, Amrita, it was great fun. We also went to Las Vegas. I don’t gamble but I did a little this time. I lost 100 dollars and stopped playing! We saw the shows at Las Vegas. If you had to choose the best of us to represent the earth as in physical perfection, they’re all out there in Las Vegas. Their acts are breathtaking, unbelievable acts. After watching those shows, I lost all fear of the stage. I said to myself, if people can do this, then I can’t afford, it’s shameful to be nervous about what I do on stage. I lost all fear that night, I saw these people do such impossibly amazing stunts. You’d be ashamed to learn that human kind is capable of so much more. To give you an example, a woman hanging by a scarf with a trapeze tied to the scarf. She wraps the scarf around her ankle with one swift movement of her leg, zooms up the trapeze and then breaks free up there, free-falling into the audience. If there’s a mistake, she’ll die. At the last moment a trapeze artiste comes from the side and swoops her up! That was just 2 percent of all that they do. There was this 80-year old couple, maybe older, really fragile and hunched, doing somersaults and jiving. You feel, stop making us feel so useless in life! The show is called ‘O’ and you realize that all through the show you’re going “OH” with astonishment!
When I travel, I also go for the food in a big way. I am a complete foodie; it’s in the genes. Its only that I fear of the world finding out that I have a bad body which makes me strive to have my diet in place and exercise right. Otherwise I’m a complete foodie I can’t stop eating! Eating is one of the most exciting parts of my day, its something that I look forward too. I am not as adventurous as my dad; I can’t try Alligator, Octopus etc which my dad tries. So food is one of the most exciting things I look forward to when I go abroad, I look forward to it right from the meal on the flight itself! You can just let yourself binge because when you’re doing a show, you’re so many calories away. It’s a grueling schedule we keep. It’s really tough. For four hours you’re just in a zone where there’s a buzz in your head and body, you completely focus single-mindedly on your item, run backstage, get makeup and clothes changed, run back on stage…after a point of time your steps become automatic. It’s a zone you get into.
After the show, you hang back and there’s this sequence of photographs you have to take with promoters guests and so on. That takes about an hour. You head back to the hotel, you pack, you sleep for an hour or two, take your bug suitcases down, take your flight, go to the next city, unpack and go straight to the stadium and do all your stuff again. You do that for three days in a row and by the fourth day you’re ready to collapse!
But I don’t think there’s a greater high in life! You’re on stage with 20,000 people screaming your name!
Have you watched other celebrity shows too?
I was watching the Celine Dion show in Las Vegas. It’s a phenomenal show, the kind if setup they’ve created, the kind of money they’ve spent. She’s just a singer but the kind of backdrop and platform they have given her are amazing. Since I also do shows, I was drawing comparisons. Of course out setup is 0.5 per cent of the setup she has. Also she’s in one place while we’re traveling and we get about four hours to set up our stage as opposed to months of preparation for her one show. The audience in a show like hers is more respectful and graceful; they applaud at the right places. The audience we Bollywood stars have is unbelievable, that’s a high!
Then I looked at the tickets. It said, 100 dollars for the best seats in the house. I said, My God, the shows so good and the price is 100 dollars. The ticket price for our shows for the front row goes up to 500 dollars! I quickly nudged Lara, Kelly, Sussanne and said, ‘Guys, people pay 500 dollars to see us and we’re sitting here feeling useless, watching this great show. So relax, we’re not that bad, we’re pretty okay’. Seriously the magic of our Indian films and the way Indians react to us all over the world is overwhelming.
Beck to Bollywood, are you on the verge of signing any new film?
Yes, I am. But nothing is official as yet.
We heard you were to do Shaad Ali’s next for Yashraj Film titled Bunty and Bubbli. But we suddenly read Abhishek Bachchan’s name as the hero.
(Sidestepping neatly) Adi is a friend and basically I’ve heard all the ideas that Yashraj Films make, whether I’m in it or not. I’m almost in their house more than in mine. So we keep hearing each other’s ideas. I know what they’re toying with and they know what dad’s making. So yes, it was an idea that excited me and I think Abhishek Bachchan suits it to the hilt. It’s going to be a film to watch out for; it’s an incredible idea. It’s almost classic. Take the title Bunty And Bubbli and think of it as a classic. Now I’d better not say anything more of Adi Chopra will kill me!