Farah Khan is scripting a woman-centric film; promises to be a supporting wife to Shirish when he starts his next film
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 7, 2016)

While speculations have been rife about the cast of her next film, a woman-centric story, with names like Alia Bhatt and Parineeti Chopra doing the rounds, choreographer-director Farah Khan jokes that all this talk is confusing her. “My writer and I feel that we still need to work on the second half of the film before it can roll. Meanwhile, if I have another idea for a big film, I’ll dive into it,” she says.

Does she plan to work with close friend and her favourite leading man, Shah Rukh Khan, or maybe Salman Khan, in her next? “They can do many things but I doubt they would want to play 21-yearold girls, that’s who I’m looking for,” Farah says, tongue firmly in cheek.

While she’s still debating the follow-up to Happy New Year, the filmmaker is gearing up to join the reality show, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, as a judge this Saturday, and has been simultaneously focused on facilitating dialogue on gender empowerment. “Discussing the gender issue is something I usually do not do but I’ve begun to enjoy it,” Farah reveals, adding that she got her son, Czar, to tie rakhis on his sisters, Diva and Anya’s wrists this Raksha Bandhan. “They didn’t like the part where they had to give Czar gifts,” the proud mum smiles.

She lets us in on her strategy to play judge on Jhalak: “I say things in ways that aren’t hurtful to people. If they haven’t danced properly, I will tell them where they need to improve. It’s basically constructive criticism. Even contestants know that if I give them 10 points for a performance, they have earned it.”

Meanwhile, her brother, filmmaker and funnyman Sajid Khan, is back on the small screen with buddy Riteish Deshmukh as hosts of a chat show about celebrity friendships. Farah recently shot for an episode as a guest with bestie Karan Johar. “Whenever I did a show of my own, Sajid and Riteish always showed up. It’s like having family over. I’d let them shoot it in my drawing room; it’s that comfortable among us. Karan and I did a lot of bhanda-phod on the show. Even Sajid didn’t know some of the secrets about me that Karan decided to reveal on national TV,” Farah laughs.

Buzz is, her husband, filmmaker-editor Shirish Kunder, has begun work on his next. Farah says she’s happy to just play the ‘Best Supporting Wife’ admitting that, “we start fighting when we work together”.