What do you get when you put together a group of directors in one room?
A whole lot of opinions and insight into this wonderful world of movie making, that's what!
This Sunday's special episode of Koffee with Karan features four filmmakers -- Rakesh Roshan, Rakyesh Mehra (Rang De Basanti), Rajkumar Hirani (Lage Raho Munnabhai) and Kunal Kohli (Hum Tum, Fanaa) and their take on their films and how the director is truly the 'captain' of the ship.
Here's a sneak preview of what's in store:
Karan: There has been one kind of a remark made by the film fraternity and people from the media that Hrithik Roshan works only with his father Rakesh Roshan... it's only his father that gets the best out of him till Dhoom happened... did you feel an internal divide at home?
Rakesh Roshan: No, not at all. On the contrary I was very happy because the film belonged to my son.
Karan: Did you actually feel personally that there is a generation that has forgotten Mahatma Gandhi?
Raju Hirani: The first recording of the song we were doing, there was a guy who came to serve chai. He asked, 'Film ka naam kya hai'? (that time it was called Munnabhai meets Mahatma Gandhi). He said, "Munnabhai to teekh hai, ye Mahatma Gandhi Kaun hai?"
Karan: Oh God!
Karan: I think the only mild criticism that came your way was about the climax of your film. There was a different take on whether the killing of the politician was justified and fell into the slot of the film. Did you feel the need to justify it?
Rakesh Mehra: The characters did what they did. If I would have felt otherwise I would have shot it otherwise. My point of view is that killing of a defence minister is politically incorrect. But filmmaking is not about being politically correct
Karan: Did you at all feel rejection when an actor turned it down or a production house that wasn't interested in it?
Rakesh Mehra: Rejection yes, but in a very different way. It only made us stronger because everybody who didn't do the film didn't reject it outright. It was meant to be that way.
Karan: Did you really imagine, envisage or pre-empt the kind of impact your film created globally?
Rakesh Mehra: Honestly, no. I thought my work will be over when the film releases which is January 26 but actually the work started on January 26.
Karan: Really?
Karan: Did you expect Fanaa to be the kind of success it was?
Kunal: Ah, I prayed for it. I hoped for it but I didn't expect it to be such a big hit. I had two fabulous actors -- Aamir and Kajol and if I hadn't delivered then...
Karan: People would have stoned you.
Kunal: Ya, they would kill me. People had such high expectations. Aamir and Kajol coming together for the first time. It was scary.
Karan: So, what do you have to say about critics Kunal?
Kunal: I have very little respect for most of the critics today because I don't think their knowledge of cinema is deep enough. Their passion for cinema is not deep enough and I think critics need to have a great knowledge about cinema. He or she needs to have no agenda, needs to be absolutely unbiased and I don't see that in most of our critics.
Catch Koffee With Karan on April 22 at 9 pm on Star One and Star World.
