Showing posts with label Dharmesh Darshan interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dharmesh Darshan interview. Show all posts
Censors passed the kiss in Raja Hindustani with 'U' but I had to cut a few frames to reduce the film's duration-Dharmesh Darshan
8:19 AM
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 14, 2020)
Interestingly, Raja Hindustani had what was the longest kiss in Hindi films at the time, between Aamir Khan and Karisma Kapoor. Dharmesh reveals that he had kept it a little extra at the behest of the producers, who were expecting some editing from the censors. “But they passed it with a ‘U’ certificate and not a single cut. Eventually, I voluntarily cut a few frames from the kiss because the market wanted the three-hours-twenty-minutes film shortened by 20 minutes,” he says.
While he doesn’t mind shortening the kiss without it losing its impact or inviting catcalls, he was heartbroken to leave out a dramatic sequence when on learning that he’s a father, Raja comes to the city to meet Aarti and despite her being out with the baby, barges inside into her room where seeing the cot, toys and clothes, he breaks down. Sensing an opportunity to further drive a wedge between the couple, Aarti’s stepmother Shalu provokes Raja and when he hits out, has him beaten and thrown into a gutter, following which he kidnaps his child. “We’d shot the scene over five days and both Aamir and Archana (Puran Singh) as Shalu were terrific. When I went to Film City to tell Aamir I’d decided to leave it out, he started weeping. I told him that I should be crying too, since I’d written and directed it. But even without that scene, Aamir swept all the popular best actor awards. Maybe that might have won him a National Award,” Dharmesh chuckles wryly.
He also chopped out a silent, almost Chaplinesque sequence of Raja climbing into Aarti’s bedroom through the open window, after a bee, determined that it would not disturb her sleep. “Then, I replaced a song, ‘Tu Bhool Nahin Payegi Mujhko’, getting Kumar Sanu to sing another version of Udit Narayan, Sapna Awasthi and Alka Yagnik’s ‘Pardesi Pardesi Jaana Nahi’ instead. I recorded it with Sanu and Alka alone because Nadeem ji was travelling and Shravan ji was engaged,” Dharmesh reminisces. “Pardesi Pardesi” bagged Udit, Alka and Sameer the Filmfare Award for best playback singers and best lyricist respectively. Nadeem-Shravan were adjudged best music director and Sanu lists it among his best songs.
Karisma also took home the Filmfare Black Lady after being voted the year’s best actress. Dharmesh had planned the film with his Lootere heroine, Juhi Chawla. After she dropped out over some issues with the producers, he thought of his cousin, Pooja Bhatt, who had teamed up with Aamir in Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin, but the duo hadn’t done another film after that. “I had not written the second half then. When the script was ready, we took it to Aishwarya Rai who had caught the eye in an ad with Aamir. Raja Hindustani was to be her Bollywood debut, but then, as part of her Miss India contract, she went for the Miss World contest, won the crown, and was out of bounds for a year. Since we didn’t want to wait, Karisma entered the picture,” he recounts.
Like he had done with Juhi in Lootere, and later Shilpa Shetty in Dhadkan, Dharmesh transformed Karisma, getting the blue-eyed actress to use hazel lenses, sitting with her make-up man and hair stylist to give her a different skin tone and a different hair style. “I even went shopping with Karisma, insisting that, for the wedding, she go with copper tinted pastels instead of the traditional pinks and reds. Karisma and Babita ji were a little upset but the outfit soon became a rage with brides-to-be and the song ‘Aaye Ho Meri Zindagi Mein’ played at every wedding. I had studied Oscar-winning costume designer Bhanu Athaiya’s work and had Hollywood actresses like Jennifer Lopez in mind for the western clothes. And Karisma became a fashion icon 36 years after her aunt Sadhana, her chiffon saris, dresses and salwar suits setting new trends,” he exults.
One short of a silver jubilee, Raja Hindustani’s music still echoes in collective public memory thanks to its evergreen score. Sanu and Alka’s “Pucho Zara Pucho” played on the radio in a dhaba in Old Delhi in the Jane Campion-directed Holy Smoke, where Kate Winslet meets her mother who has come to India to convince her to return to Australia with her. And “Pardesi Pardesi” featured in Ethan Stoller’s BKAB (Speechful Mix), the 2.27-minute song which appears in the closing credits of the 2005 dystopian political action film, V For Vendetta, augmented by excerpts of speeches by Malcolm X and Gloria Steinem. The film features Hugo Weaving, the actor from The Matrix, The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, and Oscar and Golden Globe winning actress Natalie Portman of Star Wars, Black Swan and Closer fame. Woah!
I call myself a complete misfit-Dharmesh Darshan
7:54 AM
Dharmesh Darshan explains his unannounced sabbatical; why plans of Dhadkan 2 fell through.
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 8, 2016)
On Dharmesh Darshan’s 42nd birthday on May 16, 2014, Ratan Jain, who’d produced his 2000 romance drama Dhadkan, featuring Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, and Shilpa Shetty, asked him to announce a sequel. According to Dharmesh, he agreed to come on board as a “director making a comeback” out of sheer respect for his longtime association with his producer friend. Also, he figured he could give the second instalment a modern spin, mounting it on a much bigger budget than the original. However, two-and-a-half years since the film’s inception, Dharmesh has walked out of the project citing differences in negotiations. While he has seceded all association with the development of Dhadkan 2, the producers are now bringing on-board a newer, much younger director, Prem Soni whose last directorial was Preity Zinta’s debut production, Ishkq In Paris three years ago.
“Even though I had said ‘yes’ in principle, I wasn’t too sure after the negotiations that followed. There was a lot of back-and-forth and we worked on the terms of agreement for six months. I had absolutely no need to prove myself — over the years, Dhadkan has become a cult film as well as has made profits via satellite rights. I did not want to make a sequel just for the heck of it,” Dharmesh cleared the air to Mirror, further adding that he went on a sabbatical six years ago after 18 successful years in the film industry. “I was at the top of my game. My directorial debut, Lootere, released when I was 24 and was a super-hit. Four years later, Raja Hindustani made me a leading director at 28. My contemporaries, Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar, and Sooraj Barjatya decided to turn producers and my parents wanted me to follow suit but I didn’t want to chase money,” Dharmesh recalls, noting that he chose to make only seven films, including Mela and Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya, when he could have directed 70.
Aap Ki Khatir, the 2006 romantic comedy featuring Akshaye Khanna and Priyanka Chopra, would go on to become Dharmesh’s last directorial. On May 9, 2009, his mother, Sheila Darshan, daughter of Nanabhai Bhatt and the older sister of filmmakers Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt, passed away at 69, making the director retreat into mourning. “My world changed overnight. Two-and-a-half years later, my father (Darshan Sabharwal) passed away on December 31, 2011. In 2007, I had two big-budget films lined up, one whose script I had already completed and was on the verge of taking to the floors. But I returned my signing amount and chose to go a sabbatical in 2010, and have been on a break for the past six years,” he explains, quick to add that there is much more to do besides making films, like teach, and travel and that he has no regrets since he has already broken all box office records of his time and made films like Raja Hindustani and Bewafaa that were “way ahead of their times”. And there’s another reason for his time-off from the film circuit. “In a time of money-hungry producers, everyone courts controversy and everything is about a person’s visibility and validity, I call myself a complete misfit. Fame, name and moolah came to me early on in life, and while they’re important to me as well, I’m not a businessman. Maybe I’m foolish or an artist with integrity,” he asserts.
While he continues to receive offers to remake films or direct sequels, he does not want to touch any of the classics because he believes it is “impossible to redo a soulful film.”
Today, he lives alone, without a partner or any children to cater to. “All artists live through the noise of a film set and the loneliness when in a crowd. While filmmakers manage to work through all kinds of emotions and situations, I cannot exhibit my grief and vulnerability on set. Neither do I crave for the attention anymore, nor do I mind the loneliness,” he says matter-of-factly.
Isn’t the lure of making a couple of crores a tad tempting or worthy of prompting a comeback soon? “Demonetization has proved that anything can happen to your wealth overnight. We’ll never know whether the filmmaker who chased it all was the right one or the one who gave it all up,” he signs off.
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