Working with friends in the mercurial movie industry can be tricky. Amidst sorting out creative differences, there are also personal equations to safeguard. In Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani have managed to strike that balance. After working on the successful Don franchise, the trio is coming together once again in Rahul Dholakia's directorial Raees, co-produced by Farhan and Ritesh's Excel Entertainment. In a conversation with BT, SRK, Farhan and Ritesh share what made the journey of Raees so exciting. Excerpts...

After Don, this is the second film the three of you have collaborated on. How was the experience this time around?
FARHAN: It was more or less the same, except, this time, some guy named Rahul Dholakia came in the way (laughs). On a serious note, he was very clear that he wanted to make a mainstream film that would appeal to the masses. It's interesting how we all came together. Dimple Kapadia had called me up as Rahul had narrated the script to her. She suggested that we should meet. When I heard the story, the first thing I did was approach SRK. Since I had seen Parzania, I had a very different impression of Rahul and his kind of cinema. I was surprised to learn that he was making a commercial film.
SRK: Rahul is known for extremely realistic movies. But when Farhan and Ritesh came on board, they decided to make the film in the real zone, yet give it a popular swing. We would all sit with the script and give our inputs, while it was developing. Though we took the film into a commercial zone, we made sure to retain Rahul's realism. Also, in Don, we knew exactly what we wanted. This time, it was a challenge as we had to bring together two very different worlds. Rahul could have made Raees a niche film, but we've made it larger than life. We decided to go for huge sets and action sequences...
RITESH: Even though Raees is a gangster movie like Don, both are very diverse in their look; the former is earthy, while Don was more stylish and high flying.

It is easier to work with friends, but is there a fear of personal equations getting in the way?
SRK: Farhan would read the script whenever he had time and share his ideas. But he is very righteous - just because it's his idea, he doesn't expect it to be executed. When you work with friends, you realise that no one is giving their inputs for any other reason than to make the film better. We had disagreements too, but we'd always figure it out. We did it before with Don, so we have the confidence in each other.
FARHAN: I think it's always easier to work with friends and people you get along well with. Luckily, I didn't have to convince SRK, the script did the convincing. Of course, you want to work with people who are doing well or have great ideas but if he didn't like the script, he wouldn't have agreed to do the film.

Rahul's brand of cinema is very different from the kind of movies you all are associated with. Was it difficult to find common ground?
RITESH: It was never my way or the highway. Rahul was always open to suggestions. If he felt his vision was right, he would try to convince us and vice versa.
SRK: I am not trying to take credit away from niche films, whether it's a Parzania or a Chennai Express, but with Raees, we have tried to make a film with substance and turn it into a commercial one. Most filmmakers try to achieve that. It's the Holy Grail. When we were shooting Laila Main Laila with Sunny Leone, Rahul was all smiles because it was quite unlike what he had done in his previous films. I told him, 'Rahul, this is from our world (laughs)'. The discussion was always about whether we got the right balance between Rahul's substance and our commerce.

Farhan, you shared inputs on how Laila Main Laila should be shot...
SRK: Farhan came on the set and told me, 'Shah, it's not going to be like an item song.' So, we were all very clear that we didn't want the song to come across as an item number. I am not saying the word 'item' is derogatory, but it's weird. I had a song like that - Lovely in Happy New Year - but there was still some logic behind it, because the character was a bar dancer. We didn't have any wrong intentions. In Raees, we didn't want to put in an item song for no rhyme or reason. Laila Main Laila actually takes the story ahead. It is the turning point of the film.
FARHAN: In the 80s, when they wanted to add an item song to the film, they would have dialogues like, 'Sardar, banjaron ki toli aayi hai' and get away with it! We haven't even gone that far to create such a situation for the song.

The film was delayed for many months due to SRK's injury. Was it a major setback?
SRK: Ritesh was like 'Koi baat nahin... Shah just take it easy' but andar hi andar, he was fuming (laughs). But what could he do?
RITESH: The gap was almost seven months and Rahul was very worried. He kept saying that we should start shooting as soon as we can. We had to shoot intense action sequences and had also constructed a huge set, so maintaining it was an issue. But we were surprised when SRK returned after all those months on the set, because he didn't forget any part of the continuity. He remembered exactly how the scene was.
SRK: When I do a film, I completely get into the zone and start living the character. I don't do any strange preps or have character sketches. It's automatic. Somehow, I adapt to the body language. If today, Farhan asks me to shoot a promo for Don, it will take me an hour at the most to get into the character.

There are many films based on the chor-police theme. How did you make sure Raees was different?
SRK: Yes, chor-police films have been attempted a thousand times. So, we decided to have one good and one bad character, and both of them can't exist without each other. They have a love-hate relationship. A famous filmmaker had once told me that he wanted to make a chor-police film with me. After several years, I gave him a chance to narrate the script. He told me, 'There are two roles - ek police hain aur ek chor . Kahani mein phir jo hota hain, wahi hoga. Toh aap police ka role karna chahoge, ki chor ka? Chor ke liye ek extra gaana hain, toh woh role aap kar do.' The narration was over!

Farhan, you were supposed to play Nawaz's role. Why did you opt out?
FARHAN: Actually, it was just a discussion that we had in office. It wasn't decided that I would play the role.
SRK: Initially, I wanted him to play the character because he's a wonderful actor and though we've worked together before, it was in the capacity of an actor and director. But there was just one problem - the police uniform. Both of us are too urban to get into it (laughs). It would have been a lot of fun. We even discussed it at length as it's a really nice role.