Upala KBR (DNA; March 25, 2014)

The posters of Humshakals show three sets of Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh. Both the actors have triple roles in the film. One of the pairs look quite camp. It sparked speculation that the two actors will be playing gay characters in their upcoming film. A first for leading actors in a Hindi film. While Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham played gay characters in Dostana, it was an act to woo the leading lady.

Director Sajid Khan claims his characters are not gay, “I don’t have gay characters in my film.” When we argue that Riteish and Saif’s characters seem camp, he adds, “They are a bit effiminate as they are momma’s boys and will appeal a lot to the ladies.” He takes great pains to stress that he hasn’t drawn any inspiration from Dostana, “Heyy Babyy came in 2007 before Dostana and it had plenty of gay jokes.” When asked like in all his films, will this one too have gay innuendos, which don’t go down well with the LGBT community, he explains, “But my gay jokes are never offensive. Most of the time they are there just to make the audiences laugh. I am not poking fun at anybody. I never have and never will. In fact, you will see that there is zero per cent vulgarity in my films.”

About his two lead actors, he says, “Riteish and Saif will be seen in the most difficult roles they have ever done. There are three sets of people in the film — the good, bad and ugly. Sometimes there were times when they had to stand in the same position for hours because there are nine of them. Saif, too, has never done this kind of a role or been exposed to this kind of humour before and he’s done an excellent job. I started working with an actor called Saif Ali Khan and by the end of the film, I’d become his fan. As for Riteish, he has done five films with me and I have always pushed him to different zones of comedy but in Humshakals you will see him doing something he’s never done before.”

The poster with the three stars in their triple avatars has got positive response all around. Sajid smiles, “Yes, I consider myself very lucky. It was a joint decision between Rahul Nanda and me. The creative camp has done a fabulous job. The idea of putting nine times the fun tagline was mine.”