Farah Khan shares what went behind the sexiest teacher ever created
Upala KBR (DNA; September 4, 2016)

Farah Khan introduced Sushmita Sen as the sexy, glamorous teacher, Chandni, in Main Hoon Na romancing Shah Rukh Khan and teaching a bunch of college kids. After the dowdy, plain Jane teachers normally seen in Bollywood films, hot Sush in gorgeous saris was a refreshing change. On the eve of Teacher’s Day, Farah tells us how she conceived the character.

Sush as Chandni
Says Farah, “Main Hoon Na was a very educative film! Sushmita was the most remembered teacher in Bollywood. I don’t know why, but I always had Sush in mind. When I was writing the story I didn’t have Shah Rukh or anybody else in mind, but I knew I wanted Sush as Chandni. When I choreographed Sushmita for the first time for Dilbar Dilbar in Sirf Tum I had told her that when I make my first movie I will have a fabulous part for her. She always remembers that and tells me I was one of the few people who keeps my word because I went back to her four years later for MHN.”

Young boys’ fantasy
The filmmaker wrote Chandni’s role keeping in mind the fantasy of young boys. “This hot teacher is every boy’s fantasy. I know from my own experience as my brother Sajid used to have these crushes on his school teachers. You know how boys are... They drop their pencils and hope their teachers pick it up. Every guy that I know including Shah Rukh used to have this fantasy teacher that they would be in love with. Usually, teachers are boring and drab in movies, but as it was a commercial one I had to make Chandni look beautiful. My teachers for sure didn’t look like this as I was educated in a convent school.”

Sush scared to walk in a sari
Sushmita adopted the persona of Chandni beautifully. Farah gushes, “I love Sush and I can go on record to say that she’s the best heroine I have ever worked with. She would be there on time and be most enthusiastic about being on the sets. I would never hear her complaining about anything. She’s such a warm and positive person. I call her queen because she lives in her own kingdom and can’t be bothered about anything else. I have never heard her bitch anybody out. When I narrated the role and told her about the look, she was most worried about wearing saris on screen for the first time. Earlier, she would be attired only in western clothes like gowns and leather pants and never had this Indian look so she was concerned about how she would walk. I drove her stylist, Manish Malhotra, nuts as I insisted on her carrying matching folders with her sari. When I saw the first cut I thought her role was the smallest and wondered if I had done justice to her role. I never expected people would go mad about her!”

SRK as college boy
Initially, a romcom, MHN was later changed to fit SRK into a college boy’s role. “It was about a boy falling in love with his brother’s teacher, but then we had to work ulta and find a reason why he’s going back to college as Shah Rukh refused to play a college kid at the age of 35. I had to explain about him going undercover. Then I said let’s make it bigger and brought in more angles like India-Pakistan one.”

Teacher’s advice
Any advice to kids as she plans to start her teaching course on choreography. “My advice is to parents more than children. I tell my kids not to get pressurised by school exams, etc, but enjoy their schooldays because when we grow up we realise that was the best time of our lives,” she says.