Sajid Khan talks about films, friends, failures and women in his life...
Sarita A Tanwar (DNA; June 4, 2014)

Sajid Khan is not a very liked man. Because he speaks his mind. He doesn’t mince his words. Now that is a quality that should be admired. But no one likes to hear the truth. People want to hear a version of it that suits them, or is easily digestable. But they kept on listening when Sajid was ‘barking’ (his words, not mine) as long as he was successful. When he delivered one dud after three megahits, they decided it was time to tame him. And they succeeded. He is now a changed man. But he maintains it wasn’t failure that changed him. It was a certain realisation. Read on as the director talks about growing up, growing responsible and growing wings...

How is this Sajid Khan different from the one before his last release?
Very different. Not like split personality. I think a little maturity, a little growing up, a little understanding and realisation has happened. Things go wrong in many people’s lives but their critics really don’t bother. But in my case I just realised that people really cared to bother to make sure that no one bothered about me (grins). I realised that when somebody’s film doesn’t work, people usually should say ‘bechara’ In my case they said, ‘achcha hua’.

Yeah that was the reaction...
Also, Himmatwala was probably one of the few films in the history of cinema where the film wasn’t reviewed, the maker was. Which was a little sad but I think I had it coming because somewhere I feel I have been a little arrogant. And the reason for that to be honest with you, is that I felt that success was slightly denied to me because of the image that I had of this nuisance value guy on television.

Yes, on the show you made fun of everyone...
Including myself.

No one took it in the right spirit.
I realised that. But you can’t deny me success. What kept happening is that I was screaming from the rooftops, ‘give me my respect’. I didn’t want to be respected as a stand-up comic or a compere, a TV host, because I had 20 years of that. When I gave a bonafide hit with Heyy Babyy, I wanted people to stake notice of me as a filmmaker which wasn’t happening. They said it was a fluke. Then came Housefull, then again I started screaming: Take me seriously as a filmmaker. I made statements before Housefull 2 saying this one is going to be more successful, it’s going to be Akshay Kumar’s biggest hit, it will be my biggest hit. I think it was also foolishness or bravado childishness... But somewhere God was kind and the film did very well. That’s when I went completely mad. People tolerate your madness when you are getting successful. I was just going on barking like a mad dog. There was this sense of arrogance when I spoke figures...

But figures are facts!
Yes, but I started making predictions that ‘My film will be the biggest hit, , you will not get tickets for the next three days’. When Himmatwala was made, I went completely berserk because everyone — from Ajay (Devgn) to the producer of the film, to the other actors, to UTV — were all super confident about the film, we were planning a success party. We were planning a full page ad next day saying we made `100 crore. The question wasn’t if we should put it, but whether in the first week or second week. But when it released it was Pearl Harbour to us after the bombs dropped.

Analysed why it didn’t do well?
Yes. Because that genre shifted. A lot of movies after Himmatwala in a similar genre didn’t work at all because that genre moved. But they were not spoken so much about as much as Himmatwala. I am not trying to defend it but I would like to say that I don’t think I have made a bad film, I think I made a wrong film. Also, I became the biggest enemy of the film because my name is synonymous with comedy. I feel my own perception went against the film. People thought the film is going to be a spoof on the 80s and when they saw it, they realised it wasn’t, and they got very disappointed and said what the fuck he has made. Everyone including my own mom said that.

No way!
She told me a week before the release, when she saw the film, ‘This is not expected from you.’ I hope it does well because you are my son but you know people are going to be a little surprised. And I was like ‘Mom, I can make any kind of film, you see what’s going to happen’.

But moms know better.
Yes, so when I wrote Humshakals, the first person I gave the first draft of the film to, was my mum. She read it like over night and in the morning she woke me up and said, ‘I am very proud of this script. This is very funny; and I wish this was your first film, seriously because this is your best.’

You shut yourself off after Himmatwala. Why?
Because I felt I didn’t want any distractions. I began writing my next film. People were expecting me to hit out, abuse somebody, defend myself, the film. I just went off the grid and now I have come out. I think as a slightly more matured, easier and calmer person. When I look back my old interviews on YouTube and I am like, ‘listen, you have spoken like an asshole man, don’t do that because that effect will just last for a minute but the after effect is going to effect you a lot,” and that’s precisely what happened.

Please continue...
Do you know I wrote Humshakals on Monday after the Friday of Himmatwala flopped. It’s not an easy job to direct and write a comedy, especially not one where there are triple roles, but I was fortunate enough because I sat with Akash Khurana’s son and Robin Bhatt on this screenplay for about 60 days. We worked very hard on it and that should not be any solace to the audience, because they don’t care how hard you work. They just want to come to the theatre and enjoy themselves.

Do you feel like you have boxed in comedy now forever, or will you try a different genre?
I don’t think so, why should I? I think certain brands work in a particular way because people are accustomed to seeing them do that.

But won’t you be bored of it?
I don’t think so. And quite honestly why should I attempt something else when I feel I have such a good time laughing and enjoying while making such films.

Kids love your films..
Not only kids, I think teenagers. as well..

Does Humshakals have slapstick humour as well?
Of course. It has every shade of comedy. I view comedy as a very serious business because I feel what may not make you and me laugh, will make an 18 and a 20-year-old laugh.

Do you laugh at slapstick?
Sometimes When Jim Carrey does it, I laugh. Peter Sellers has done it. Kishore Kumar…Why do we revere them as Kings of Comedy? But the the correct word to describe my film is situational comedies.

Is Humshakals like Angoor in any form?
Not at all, because Angoor by itself was a remake of a film called Do Dooni Char, which was based on Comedy Of Errors which is world property like any of Shakespeare’s plays. Most classic double role films always have a blood line. By which I mean that they end up brothers or they end up sisters in the end. Humshakals is not. No one is connected. It’s co-incidental. I think in terms of coolness it’s cooler than Heyy Babyy.

So you had fun making Humshakals?
The biggest proof I can give you of how much fun I have had and how hard I have worked is this: During every film I have put on weight, this is the only film in which I have lost weight and it’s very difficult to lose weight when you are 42.

How come?
This is the only film where I have worked 18 hours a day. I have not been in a relationship during this film so my only focus was the film. I have not had a single day off since the day Housefull 2 released on April 6, 2012. We worked on bank holidays, and even worked on Diwali. I have become a workaholic in the last two to three years because I feel my time is very limited. I am 42, I don’t know how long I can keep going.

Woody Allen is still making movies in his 80s...
Yeah I know. My thing is I would like to retire before I quit. I would like to make as many movies as I can. I don’t make two or three movies at a time. I make one movie a year, so I guess I have about 10 or 12 good movies left with me, and all comedies, which I can probably sit back when I am 55 and may be watch them and laugh.

Will you cast Jacqueline Fernandez in any of these movies?
The film does its own casting. Every film has its own commitments.

She got a lot of flak when your relationship ended. The general opinion was that she walked away from you at the worst period of your life. Do you agree?
I think it’s a question better posed to her than to me. I have just realised one thing in my life that one must have the courage to go on and that’s precisely what I have done. I have been like a horse with blinders where the only thing that mattered to me was my film. I know that I have been a good son, a good brother and a damn good friend and a damn good boyfriend. I know that and I don’t need certificates from anybody... It’s like this realisation. I have been shooting my mouth off not realising that the other person is thinking that I am an asshole. But the other person doesn’t have the courage to tell me that I am an asshole because my film is successful. But wait till one of the films doesn’t work, then that person will have the courage to tell you ‘listen, you are an asshole’. Why does the person have to gauge you by your success or failure. Why can’t this person just be fond of you? I am a very nice likeable guy. I am fun guy to be with…

You put your heroines in bikinis but didn’t want to see your girlfriend in swimwear. Isn’t that double standards?
No, how is it double standards. In Housefull, there were bikinis, Heyy Babyy, there was a lot of glamour, in Housefull 2, the girls have done a very hot song wearing hot pants. Housefull 2 wasn’t the kind of film which required extra leg show or swim show because every scene of the film had a father in it. I have never ever done anything distasteful in my film. I would like to keep it in such a zone where they look hot, sensuous, and sexy but you can watch it with your family and not feel embarrassed. I have never had double standards and for me no one is above my film. My film is God. My film is what the audience needs to watch and enjoy and I cannot let anything, personal or impersonal, professional or unprofessional, come between the audience and my film. That has been my structure for life even when I have been doing stand-up comedy on television or hosting shows. I used to not really bother about what the channel said. And that is how I will always be about my work.

Do you think you are a likeable guy?
Yes.

I don’t agree. You speak your mind, which people don’t like to hear.
No, you live in the past. In the last two years I have not changed completely as a person but I now know what not to say. I also think I have become a little more reserved. and a little more politically correct.

But that’s not you, right?
How do you know?

Because you call a spade a spade...
Yes, nothing wrong with that but I have now realised that if you call me home for dinner and ask me how is the food, even if it is bad, I am not going to tell you that. I’ll tell you, ‘Next time you come to my house’. May be you will get a hint. But earlier I would have told you that is the worst food I have had in my life and I want to throw up, where is the dustbin. But so I guess people will say, ‘achcha yaar, now he is trying to put on this good boy act’.

Yes, everyone will think this is only till your next hit, and you will go back to being your old self.
I don’t need success or failure for me to change, you are not understanding. I changed because I realised that with all the negativity which Himmatwala carried, that something is very wrong and it’s not got to do with the film, it’s got to do with me. Please understand that. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to being nasty again in my life, irrespective of whether Humshakals works or not. Of course there will be certain people even now who will not want even Humshakals to work. But that is the mark of the film industry. As an industry we are not very happy with somebody else’s success.

That’s true. The image of the industry being one big happy family is a mirage.
But at the end of the day I am not trying to win a popularity contest of being Mr Nice. It’s just that, I think I have understood one thing. I have got my Mojo band and my Mojo was that I used to be very funny. Over the last three to four years, I had stopped being funny. So what if my movies were funny, but my funny was insulting. My funny was hurting someone. Now I am funny on my own. I am having a better time in my life and I am happier just working and laughing and I have started wearing funny T shirts.

Failure made you a softer person...
(Laughs) No, it’s made me a little harder person because the softness around the bulge of my stomach has gone. I have lost 20 kilos.

What’s with the Tamannaah Bhatia rumour?
Okay once and for all, Tamannaah Bhatia is a kid sister, there you go. I hope that ends it, please. It’s the stupidest rumour I have ever heard. I am very protective about all my heroines and my actors for that matter. Do you know that I used to walk all my actors to their cars. I have done it with Akshay, Ajay, Saif, Riteish…

Okay finally, three reasons why people should go and watch Humshakals.
Well, if people have enjoyed my comedies like Housefull and Housefull 2, then they will certainly like this one a lot.