Harshada Rege (DNA; September 21, 2014)


World’s my playground
I was born in Almora, lived in many parts of Uttarakhand, but mostly, in Gharwal. The great thing about being brought up in such sleepy small towns, is that the world is your playground. There are no restrictions. In my town, nobody locked their houses. Can you imagine that? I could walk into anybody’s house. That gives you a certain belief in human beings and relationships. It gives you the basic feeling of trust that lasts all your life. In my town, you could reach your house and somebody could be sitting inside…probably in your kitchen making tea. You can’t imagine that happening in a big city. Maybe it doesn’t happen in smaller towns anymore either. I use the word dhoop a lot in my poetry... like Tu dhoop hai, chham se bikhar, dhoop ke makaan, that comes from the mountains. As a child, when there’s nothing much to do, you keep watching the sun move from one mountain to another. It registers in your subconscious and brings you close to nature. At home, it was all about music and literature. My parents had done their Master’s in Music. They’d do riyaaz together. My father used to be in charge of the library. After closing, he would come home then I would take the keys and spend hours in the library in the night. I read a lot… maybe some books that shouldn’t be read as a child, but primarily it was literature. All this created a certain kind of wiring which is responsible for the way you shape.

The Ad-mad world
After finishing my MBA, I joined advertising in Delhi. I was asked by my company to head its Mumbai division. Having stayed in the North of India, you don’t know what Mumbai is going to be like. I knew the city, but shifting base was an important decision. My wife was more comfortable. I think it’s important to grow up somewhere other than Mumbai. Mumbai is overwhelming in terms of what you do here. You need sometime when you don’t do anything, but just absorb, soak in life and experiences. Mumbai doesn’t give you that time. It became my karma bhoomi. It’s a place where I practised what I learnt. It doesn’t give you time to learn, but it gives you time and opportunity to express yourself. Then I changed job. There was a canvas in front of me, and there were good brands. So I took the challenge and started building and working on those brands. I had a unique combination of being a management graduate and was well-versed in poetry and literature.

Zara hatke
I was a poet, writer, musician, but on the other hand, I was also a business graduate. It made me unique person in advertising. It made me more sensitive towards my consumer. I would be handed statistics, but I would tell them ‘don’t give me number, tell me about one person’. I wanted to know who that person was — mother, daughter, sister, wife, an individual. I saw people as human beings and not numbers. My writing background gave me an insight and allowed me to do that. That was the difference in my approach. Another aspect was my understanding of smaller towns. When you see my work like thanda matlab Coca Cola you will find it is the language that people around India speak. People in advertising wanted to reach out to that consumer, but did not know how to do it. They didn’t know that language and didn’t know how to use it. I understood that language. I would talk in language and metaphors that they were not used to. But at the same time I could speak the marketing jargon, so they could identify with that. They couldn’t identify with the cultural side of me. That made me an alien in their world. But being different was good. What made me alien to others became my strength.

Word watch
When it comes to lyrics in movies, some work doesn’t make me happy. We shouldn’t lose our sense of humour and become too touchy about everything. You should look at the intent. I don’t mind people making adult content, but then it has to be bought and presented as adult content. The problem starts when you try and hide it behind a garb and take advantage of the situation. That’s being dishonest. We should bother about our children. It is our responsibility that if something is beamed in the mass media and our children are going to get exposed to it, we need to put the filters right. People keep saying that it’s all about the evolution of language. I practise many languages and I completely understand that language keeps changing, but we have to keep the sanctity of a language intact. The journey of a language has to be towards better not towards worse. I have written songs which are entertaining without making any kind of compromise. Personally, I have earned enough respect that nobody can force me to do the kind of work that I don’t want to do. I would rather not work with a person who is manipulative that compromise on my standards.

Why remakes work?
People want a tried-and-tested formula. I am not cynical about remakes. Everyone can’t explore a subject like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. For almost two years, I was working on my own. If I didn’t have a regular job, how would my kitchen run? When it was being developed no one wanted to come forward and fund it. We don’t have incubation fund here. Yahan pe paka pakaya maal jab ho jata hai toh sab khaane aa jaate hain. So how does one work on such a project? People want sure hit. They don’t want to spend time on developing a project and that’s the reason there are more remakes.

The special project
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was unique because I was involved right from the inception and developed it for over two years. We had to decide how much to fictionalise, how much of the actual facts should be retained. It was a difficult film to write where you had to mix fact and fiction. I was creating a Bollywood hero out of a real person’s life. I had to reflect reality, but I had to dramatise it. I had to make sure that people are entertained. I had to make sure that my hero can also dance, sing and entertain. Developing that character was a remarkable journey. Writing the story, screenplay, dialogues, songs… it was a mammoth task, but it has given me the confidence that I can probably get into production as well or maybe direction.

Ad world and Bollywood
It is essential for me to work in both. I learn a lot from the film industry and use that in advertising, and vice versa. But yes, I have to find and divide my time. For five days in a week, I don’t touch film projects. If I have to work on something, I do it in the night. I work on weekends and also on holidays. That’s the price you pay for doing the things that you love. But it’s this work that energises me. For me, writing is meditative. When I finish writing a beautiful song, the next day I am extremely energised at work because that part of me has been expressed well. Even if it’s a lot of work, I’d rather stay happy than frustrated.

Not an ambitious guy
I don’t have that killer ambition in me. I was asked at the Cannes Advertising Festival how it felt to belong to a small town and come so far. But I always say that there was no plan. I just feel that I should be engaged in doing something which allows me give my 100 per cent. I can’t do anything half-heartedly. I am fortunate to have found things that can consume me. I always find something that will interest me so that I am not forced to do something. There’s the concept of ‘arranged love marriage’. Similarly, even if your job and profession have been arranged, if you find a way of loving it, there’s nothing like it. Sometimes people indulge themselves too much. They feel they are not getting what they want. But my question is why do you want so much? You never know what life has to present to you. Try and love things that come to you. Don’t pre-decide things you will like. If you have already decided the kind of things, people and project that you will like then you are bound to become a cranky, finicky person, which I am not. But when life offers me something new, I don’t resist it.

Looking ahead
Right now I have finished writing songs for Margarita With A Straw along with a couple of other projects that I am developing. I am also working with fellow ad filmmaker Ram Madhvani on his movie. I might co-produce or extend myself in other capacity like direction in the future, but I don’t believe that there any hierarchy. I would like to excel in what I am doing. My ultimate goal is not to produce a film. But yes, I do feel that I would like to nurture a product more and have more control. And for that reason if I find the right partner then I won’t mind producing a film. It will allow me to develop a lot of ideas which today I may have to convince people to invest in.