Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; February 24, 2022)

After an 11-year-long hiatus, Fardeen Khan is all set to step on the big screen once again. In fact, the actor recently wrapped up work on his comeback venture, Visfot, co-starring Riteish Deshmukh. In an exclusive chat with BT, the actor spoke about facing the camera after a long break and the journey ahead. Excerpts:

Now that you are back in the spotlight officially, what changes do you see in the way things work today?
It’s a whole new landscape in terms of the content and the way the system works now. There’s a much higher standard of creativity. Streaming has brought in a different kind of audience, and that has changed the way content is being created, and protagonists are being designed. The lines between OTT and theatrical content are blurred. Of course, the budgets, timelines and challenges differ, but unlike TV, streaming content has the same standard as a slick movie. I have consumed a lot of content over the years on streaming platforms, but to now see it functioning from the inside is great. What hasn’t changed is the human dynamism and the foundation of how we tell stories, how it continues to play on emotions and create an experience. The pandemic just turbocharged the change in the movie business that was waiting to happen.

How have people within the industry reacted to your re-entry into the fold?
Even though I was meeting fewer people due to the pandemic, I met Sanjay Gupta, Mudassar Aziz, Sajid Nadiadwala and many of my colleagues and friends with whom I had worked previously. I let them know that I am back, transformed, eager and committed to getting back to cinema. A lot of people thought I was not living here at all. Everyone I met was warm and welcoming, no upfront promises to work together, but a reassurance that we would team up for sure soon. This industry is where I belong, and I was always going to come back to work in some form. You need the courage to make a fresh start. It’s daunting and I feel like an intern again.

You have completed the shoot of Visfot. How was the experience of facing the camera again after more than a decade?
I was extremely nervous! (laughs!) I hadn’t slept a few nights before the first day of the shoot. We had workshops and readings. I was nervous about facing the camera again from the day I signed up for it. The film had its own kind of journey before going on floors. We changed locations from London to Goa and eventually to Mumbai, looking at the pandemic situation. I’m playing a character from a certain kind of background that I have never done before.

I wasn’t sure I would fit into that. I had apprehensions, but we got the look right, and that was the beginning. There were jitters; I wondered if I still knew how to act after 11 years of not doing it. The workshops helped me a lot to get a grip on the character, and it all started coming back. Knowing Kookie Gulati (director), Riteish (Deshmukh) and Sanjay went a long way in settling back in. They are my friends who had my back and they made me feel very welcome. I was fortunate to have the luxury of being treated rather gently for the first couple of days. A fortnight or so in, and the kid gloves were off! (laughs!) Then all of them were like, ‘He’s okay! Let’s get on with it!’ No more gentle treatment from there! I had a great time shooting at an outdoor place like Dongri. I have driven through it but never shot there. Shooting at one of their shopping streets was quite an experience. That day, I also realised that common people have not forgotten me, although it has been long since they saw me in a movie.

Earlier you spoke about how the way Bollywood functions has changed, what are the changes that strike you the most?
As an industry, we are now subscribing to a new standard of professionalism and creativity. Bollywood, in general, was operating with a lot of mediocrity. A percentage of the crowd did some amazing work, comparable to international cinema, but largely, we were still trapped in mediocrity, and that includes me, too. There is no room for that anymore. Everyone has upped their game today. You have to be on-point. Time is the most precious entity now and no one’s forgiven for wasting it. In this case, as Sanjay was involved with Visfot, I felt a sense of comfort as both of us are from the old school of Bollywood and we are together grappling with the new stuff. So much has changed; there are so many new faces and talent. The learning curve is huge, but I am enjoying the process. It felt like I was back in school.

Now that you’re back to the grind, have you introduced your kids to the work you have done so far?
Not yet. My daughter and I have not even seen a movie together. We have watched cartoons and other stuff. I think we will watch Heyy Babyy first. I have shown my children some of my film songs. My daughter (Diani) is older, and she is trying to wrap her head around the idea that there is something called acting for a livelihood. They have lived for the most of their life in the UK and one year in Dubai now. They have not been exposed to this side of what I do. Had the scenes allowed me, I would have loved to show her around one of my sets of Visfot. Even one of the last schedules had a lot of cussing and some extreme stuff, which is not meant for kids. But I hope to take her on a set soon. My son (Azarius) is amused to see the songs featuring me. The mere concept of seeing daddy act is new for him. Since they live in a different country and are not in the cinema ecosystem, it takes them time to understand all of this.