There was a clash thirty years back on this day when a veteran actress scored over one of the emerging Khans who would go on to become a huge star in the next decade. The film featuring the Khan was expected to do better but it lost the fight from day one.

The clash was between DIL HAI KE MANTA NAHIN which featured Aamir Khan and PHOOL BANE ANGARAY which was a heroine orientated film with Rekha. PHOOL BANE ANGARAY was not expected to do well as there was supposedly a lot of negativity around Rekha and this was the case with the media and within the industry. This was because her husband had committed suicide and the industry and media was putting the blame on her. But PHOOL BANE ANGARAY which released around this time opened to excellent response all over and sustained very well.

The first day collections of PHOOL BANE ANGARAY were better than DIL HAI KE MANTA NAHIN even in Mumbai city though eventually DIL HAI KE MANTA NAHIN fared better in Mumbai city. The only cities across India where DIL HAI KE MANTA NAHIN opened better were Bangalore and Chennai and this was because PHOOL BANE ANGARAY opened a week later in Bangalore and almost a month later in Chennai. As a result, lower comparable collections were pretty much inevitable. Hyderabad was lower on day one but went ahead by the end week.  

In a major metro like Kolkata, it was a one horse race as the collections of PHOOL BANE ANGARAY were double of DIL HAI KE MANTA NAHIN. The main centre of Bihar, Patna, collected more than three times higher and it was a similar story in Indore and Bhopal. In Delhi it was tight as DIL HAI KE MANTA NAHIN nearly caught PHOOL BANE ANGARAY by the end of week one but the Rekha starrer remained 20% ahead despite having cinemas with lower capacities. However if we take the numbers from the whole circuit of Delhi/UP, be it day one or final, then PHOOL BANE ANGARAY won by a distance. 

In the final run, PHOOL BANE ANGARAY emerged a solid HIT while DIL HAI KE MANTA NAHIN was Semi Hit/Average fare mainly due to a pretty good run in Mumbai city. There was a third angle in this clash with HAFTA BANDH which had Jackie Shroff as lead but that film managed a good initial in Maharashtra only and that was all it could as it faded fast.

Bhushan Kumar gears up to take father’s legacy ahead with new instalments of Aashiqui, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 17, 2020)

On July 23, 1990, Gulshan Kumar’s romance musical Aashiqui opened in theatres, unveiling debutants Rahul Roy and Anu Agarwal whose faces, through the promotions, had been hidden behind a jacket. They became overnight stars and the film is still remembered for Nadeem-Shravan’s chartbusting score.

A sequel followed in 2013, with the original director, Mahesh Bhatt, joining hands with Gulshan Kumar’s son Bhushan to produce it. Bhatt’s nephew Mohit Suri was at the helm and Aashiqui 2 relaunched the careers of Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur.

There have been talks of Aashiqui 3 ever since. Bhatt, who was to produce the film with Bhushan, confirmed to Mirror (March 16, 2016) that the franchise was returning. He admitted that his daughter Alia and her then-beau Sidharth Malhotra had been approached, but added that they hadn’t signed the contract.

A month later (April 11), Sidharth informed that scripting was in progress and the film would be up and running by the next year. “Aashiqui 3 has lots of angst, love and music… Mohit wants me to sing. Maybe Alia and I can sing a duet, that’d be a first for an actor and an actress who debuted together,” he’d laughed.

However, soon after, there were rumours that Alia had lost interest in the project. In August, 2017, she took to Twitter to rubbish them, describing Aashiqui as a “special brand” and saying working with her father for the first time was “equally special”.

Three years on, Mirror has learnt that discussions on Part 3 are underway. “Aashiqui is special for Bhushan as it’s among the most successful romantic franchises. Like the earlier two films, this one too will be a musical, with an intense love story in its backdrop,” revealed a source.

That’s not all. The producer and his team also want to take forward another Mahesh Bhatt directorial, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin. The 1991 romcom, featuring Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt, was a box-office success, and like Aashiqui, had unforgettable music. “It’s another simplistic musical love story, a genre that has taken a backseat. Both films will take off when things get back to normal,” the source said.

Bhushan confirmed the news to Mirror, saying, “Yes, Aashiqui and Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin are great franchises to take forward. Both films were big hits back in the day and it’s a great responsibility to carry my father’s legacy forward.”

Actress shot for the recreated version of a ’90s song recently
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 18, 2018)

Last month, Isabelle Kaif and her co-star Sooraj Pancholi wrapped up the shooting of Stanley D’costa’s Time To Dance.

Now, Mirror has learnt that the Bhushan Kumar and Remo D’souza production will also feature a recreated version of the song, “Adayein Bhi Hain,” from the 1991 Pooja Bhatt and Aamir Khan-starrer, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin. Isabelle and Sooraj recently shot for the new version.

A source reveals, “It was shot over a few days at Dover in Kent. It has been given a contemporary twist with new lyrics and beats and was choreographed by Stanley himself, who has previously assisted Remo D’souza on his songs.”

According to the source, actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh is also on-board the film to give playback to a song, which is picturised on Sooraj and composed by Tanishk Bagchi.

In her acting debut, Isabelle plays a competitive ballroom and Latin dancer, while Sooraj is a street dancer showcasing Salsa, Zumba and Bachata styles. It also features Waluscha De’Sousa and Saqib Saleem.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 28, 2018)

On Sunday, Shah Rukh Khan revealed that the following day would be exactly half a lifetime of being ‘others’. “Of expressing love, happiness, sadness, dancing, falling and flying...” The tweet ended with the hope that he had touched small bits of our hearts and would continue to do so through his lifetime, rhapsodising, “Roshni meri bahot door tak jayegi, par shart yeh hai ki saleeke se jalao mujhko.” His first mainstream film, Deewana, opened on June 25, 1992 and kickstarted his star trek. But producer Guddu Dhanoa reveals that SRK stepped in to play Raja, who woos and weds a widowed Kaajal (Divya Bharti) with her mother-in-law’s blessings only after Armaan Kohli’s exit. “Armaan had differences with Shabnam Kapoor on another film, Insaaf Ki Devi. Shabnam’s husband Sweety (Lalit Kapoor) and Raju Kothari were co-producing Deewana with me and his dad, Rajkumar Kohli, called to say Armaan would either do both films or neither,” Guddu reminisces.

The maker was simultaneously working on the prep of Bobby Deol’s debut and Dharmendra, his first cousin, had deputed him to coordinate with Champion’s scriptwriter Javed Akhtar and director Shekhar Kapur. En route to Chennai to see the special effects of Mani Ratnam’s Anjali, Guddu confided to Shekhar that he’d lost his ‘hero’, who instantly recommended Shah Rukh Khan who’d impressed in his TV shows, Fauji and Circus. “I couldn’t recollect his face till he entered a restaurant at Connaught Place and then, knew instantly that he was my Raja,” narrates Guddu.

SRK, juggling five films — Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, King Uncle, Chamatkar, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa and Dil Aashna Hai — had no dates but agreed to a narration at his home the next day. After a barren first half, when Raja is nowhere in the picture, he suggested they break for lunch. “When we resumed, the story grabbed his interest and at the end of the narration, he told me, ‘Guddu, I’m doing your film. But I can shoot only if another maker cancels his dates. I paid him a signing amount of Rs 11,000 and returned,” says Guddu.

After a month, he got a call from the actor whose Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman schedule had got cancelled. He had 20 days off. ‘When can you shoot?” he asked and Guddu replied, “Tomorrow.” They started a day later, and the film he had no dates for, was the first to release.

“God up there writes our screenplays, we are just actors playing out roles,” philosophises Guddu, remembering how they’d take the ferry to Madh Island for the shoot at Poonawala bungalow. “One day, I told him some industry people were saying Shah Rukh was a good actor but didn’t look good in songs. He shot back, saying, ‘Meri filmein chalin toh main rahunga, else I’ll return home to Delhi.’ After a beat, he added, ‘Par main chaloonga.’ I liked his confidence,” Guddu smiles at the memory.

He himself was confident of Deewana working after the music, released a month before the film, topped the charts. “Aisi Deewangi” was playing in cabs and hotels while we were shooting in Shimla. It was the first song to be recorded. “Payaliya”, “Teri Umeed Tera Intezaar”, “Sochenge Tumhe Pyaar” and “Koi Na Koi Chahiye” were equally popular. Sameer bagged the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist (“Teri Umeed”), Best Male Playback went to Kumar Sanu for “Sochenge Tumhe” and Nadeem–Shravan were Best Music Directors.

“I came across Nadeem-Shravan when scouting for a heroine for Bobby in Champion. I’d picked up a reel of Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin so we could take a look at Pooja Bhatt. Everyone ended up loving the title track and Nadeem-Shravan were signed. It’s another thing that Champion never got made and their compositions were used in Barsaat with which Bobby eventually made a beginning. While ferrying them for music sittings at Sunny Super Sound, I told them about my film, and they agreed to score for it too,” he says.

After the film was complete, Guddu had some sleepless nights following rumours that SRK wouldn’t dub for Deewana as the makers of his solo release wanted to come out first. But he assured them the film that was done wouldn’t be stopped and kept his word. “Manmohan Desai who’d taken the Delhi–UP territories for distribution had a problem with Kaajal staying with Raja at the end and insisted she returns to her first husband, Ravi. Since he was an experienced maker while we were newcomers, many suggested we listen to him. But we refused and listened to our hearts and our love story had a happy ending,” says Guddu who ended a two-year dry spell with the film.

But Mahesh Bhatt admits Pooja is his fave daughter
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 4, 2016)


Alia and Mahesh Bhatt may be the strongest father-daughter unit in Bollywood but they are polar opposites as professionals.

While the 23-year-old actress arrived at Mehboob Studios at 4pm sharp for a chat show, BFFs, dad didn’t need to show up until 5pm, joking that unlike his “super-pretty darling daughter”, all he had to do is change from one black shirt to another. When the cameras rolled, he couldn’t stop gushing over how radiant Alia, dressed in a tan leather skirt and denim jacket, looked. She spoke candidly about her penchant for dressing up, confessing that her fashion choices keep changing “but I really like Kangana Ranaut’s style”.

Bhatt Sr managed to embarrass her when he sighed over how lonely it would get for him and her mom (actress-filmmaker Soni Razdan) after Alia moved into her new apartment with sister Shaheen. But Alia sweetened the deal by admitting that she cannot move until she finds the right cook!

She also admitted to swiping right on Hrithik Roshan and Arjun Kapoor, left on Tiger Shroff, Sooraj Pancholi, Varun Dhawan and a definitive “right” on Katrina Kaif in a hypothetical situation that required her to be on an online dating app. However, on her relationship status with former beau, Sidharth Malhotra, she remained tightlipped. “We look hot together!” she exclaimed when the show's host Kamal Sidhu fished out a magazine with them on the cover. Even a question like “what would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with Sidharth” elicited a rather lacklustre “We would do what we always do… talk!” But she did add that they'd definitely work together in future.

The chat, which airs on Colors Infinity hit an emotional high when Alia recounted stories her dad shares at the dinner table — about how Sanjay Dutt and Kumar Gaurav saved him from jumping off a roof and how he misses his drinking days. She added that the best advice she’s ever received from him was, “never put off things for tomorrow”.

The 68-year-old veteran admitted his firstborn, Pooja, was his "favourite daughter" and an unfazed Alia brushed it off saying it's “no secret”. But then he made it a “Daddy” moment by saying if he could go back in time, he would have cast Alia in Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin. Awwww!

She will star with Sonam Kapoor in her next, and he just completed a romantic film with Aruna Irani. Veteran comedian Tiku Talsania and daughter Shikha talk about taking life, and Bollywood, one laugh at a time
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; July 3, 2016)

Actors, also father and daughter, Tiku and Shikha Talsania, joke as they pose for the mid- day photographer at their Malad East residence. “Make me look good, okay? She has make-up on, I don’t,” Tiku delivers a wisecrack, when Shikha suggests they show off their tattoos. “No, no,” he brushes her off with a hint of embarrassment. “He was the first to get one — it’s of Shiva. We all just followed,” Shika continues.

Soon, the two are tired of posing. “But this is the nature of showbiz,” Tiku, 60, says. He would know. The veteran gained fame as the blustering editor in Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin (1991) and followed it up with stellar performances in Andaz Apna Apna, Raja Hindustani and more recently, Devdas and Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara. But it was in 1986 that he first faced the Hindi film camera. It was for Govinda-starrer Duty. Since then, he has acted in over 200 films and television shows. When he is missing from Bollywood, he is going strong on the Gujarati film and theatre circuit. Tiku shares that he has just wrapped up shooting for a romantic film with another Hindi cinema veteran, Aruna Irani. The film is called Kai Karne Yaar (Do something, yaar).

Shikha, 30, made her first appearance as Ranbir Kapoor’s friend in Wake Up Sid (2009). Next came Meera Nair’s Midnight’s Children and My Friend Pinto. In between, she kept herself busy with theatre, and was recently seen on stage in Ladies Sangeet. Her next, Veere Di Wedding, holds promise to earn her mileage, since it stars Sonam Kapoor.

For Tiku, acting was a natural choice. He couldn’t study to save his life. From a family of doctors from Mumbai Central, he saw his “sisters suffer with all the studying”. Shikha quickly adds, “But even though they are all doctors, they are also actors. It’s one big nautanki.” Pursuing theatre in college gradually led him to the professional stage. And it’s here that Tiku met his wife Dipti, also an actress. “Did you know that I have also played serious roles, including that of a villian?” he suddenly asks. “But the comic thing worked best…” The man is full of stories, and our favourite is about Aamir Khan, the perfectionist.

“So in Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, there is a scene when Aamir comes to my office and talks of the story he is doing on Pooja Bhatt’s character. I give him a wad of notes and say, ‘we will meet soon’. A few days before the release of the film, I was summoned by Mahesh Bhatt [the director], and something told me they wanted to cut the scene. There, Aamir sat me down and said, ‘I don’t take money from anyone during the movie, not even from Anupam Kher’s character for saving his daughter. So I can’t take it from you, right? It doesn’t fit the character’. We then shot the scene all over again because Aamir was making sense,” he remembers.

The industry was different then than the one Shikha and her generation work in. “In our times, the life of the character artiste was different. We didn’t get paid on time. All the money went to the leads! And everything followed a formula. The hero does this, the villain does that. In a way, it let character artistes do roles that leads wouldn’t imagine doing. Now that Shikha is acting, I see that things are changing. The script is the hero, right?” he says looking at her. Shikha smiles, “Getting paid is still a problem. But yes, now, there are more roles for actors like me. After Wake Up Sid, I got offered only ‘fat girl’ roles. There were scripts that had me as the ‘she will even eat dog biscuits’ character. Rejection is an everyday thing, whatever size you are, but I think it’s now more about, do you fit the role?”

Unlike her father, who chose acting to escape academics, Shikha knew early that she wanted to perform. She had spent her childhood backstage. “Watching my parents has been educational — I have picked up the technique of timing from them. When dad does an emotional scene, his face scrunches in a particular way. I have practised that in front of the mirror for hours. And mom has a way of raising her eyebrows to portray a myriad emotions.” Tiku smiles as he listens to her, and then says, “I have always asked her not to take anything seriously, and always remember to have fun. If you enjoy what you are doing, everything will be fine. That’s the way to deal with any sort of professional situation.”

Ask him if he was hesitant when Shikha decided to work in Bollywood, especially with the premium it puts on the way a person looks, and he laughs, “Not at all. I think you need to find your place. I have worked here for a few decades and have never dealt with the conniving filmy type.” Shikha chimes in, “I think people here are as good or bad as anywhere else. My parents have taught me to keep my head down and keep moving.” They are back to posing now; him hugging her as he calls her “badmash”, and her mock-acting while she takes his blessings.

Serious — what’s that?

Subhash K Jha (DNA; August 25, 2015)

Rumours of a remake of Mahesh Bhatt’s 1991 romantic musical Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (DHKMN) have been doing the rounds. Pooja Bhatt refutes the speculation, “Mahesh Bhatt directed DHKMN. He cannot be replaced. And there’s no way anyone else will direct a remake. This whole speculation about a remake snowballed after I was asked by someone, if DHKMN was remade whom would you like to see playing Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt. I replied, ‘Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.’ That’s all there is to it.”

However, there is more to this than just that. A well-informed ex-groupie from the Bhatt camp says, “They are now in denial about the DHKMN remake. But it was a reality two years ago. Mohit Suri was going to direct the remake. Emraan Hashmi had been finalised to play Aamir Khan’s role. But then everyone suddenly woke up to the reality that DHKMN was a scene-by-scene adaptation of Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night. When DHKMN was made 24 years ago, laws about copyright infringement were very vague. Bollywood directors would happily rip off every film from Hollywood they could lay their eyes on. Now you can’t get away with it. If you are caught copying, there’s hell to pay.” Mahesh Bhatt has the last word on the supposed remake. “The stories doing the rounds of the media are pure fiction.”

Seema Sinha (BOMBAY TIMES; May 4, 2015)

Aamir Khan on never making compromises and how that has held him in good stead in his career
Sarita A Tanwar (DNA; March 27, 2015)

While his contemporaries – Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan -- will have two releases this year, Aamir Khan's next release will come two years after his last release. His thought: Let them do two films in one year. I will do one film in two years. But that's not surprising. That's how Aamir is, he follows his own path. The actor, who recently turned 50, discusses why he won't do what everyone else is doing, why he needs to get back into nine per cent body fat for Dangal. And remembers the incident that changed his professional life forever.

Tell me about your next release Dangal?
It's written and directed by Nitesh Tiwari, a writer-director who has done Bhoothnath Returns and was the co-director along with Vikas Bahl on Chillar Party. 

Have you seen these films?
No, I have not seen either actually. I loved the script and the manner that he narrated it. I could see that he has visualized it. What I have seen of his work is he has made these the latest KBC campaign. He also wrote those films and he directed those films and those impressed me. 

Dangal is based on a true story?
Based on, but it's not strictly that. It is dramatised. 

Are the kind of films being offered to you now, different from the ones you were offered a decade ago?
I am happy with the films I am being offered, but I talk about the films I am not doing. Are the films offered to me different from what I was being offered back then? Not really, no. They're pretty much the same actually. The same means that there are a good mix of things that are offered to me. Dangal is very unusual. Some of them are very mainstream. 

Both SRK and Salman are now doing two films in a year. What are the chances we will see Aamir Khan doing that?
Unlikely. I mean I did shoot Dhoom 3 and PK simultaneously for a bit, but that was because I couldn't manage it any other way. It was not meant to be that way. It happened that way. But I don't think I will do that again. I mean Dangal is taking me two years to make. I am doing prep for six months. I am learning Haryanvi, I am learning wrestling. The next six months that's all I am doing; getting ready for the role. I become the character... 

Maybe if you do two small films, you can probably do two films in a year as well?
I do small films also. Taare Zameen Par was a small film. So was Dhobi Ghat. They didn't have that kind of scale. I don't think the scale of the film really changes, or the number of days; not for me. The amount of effort that goes into a film is identical, whether it's a small film, big film, expensive film, not so expensive film. The effort is the same. Time taken is the same. 

But your contemporaries will have so many more films in their filmography as compared to you. That doesn't worry you?
No, no I am not worried. The quantity has never impressed me. I have never gone for quantity. What excites me is the journey that I live through while I am doing the film. Like PK came out in December of 2014. My next release which is Dangal will be December 2016, two years later. So instead of two films in one year, I am doing one film in two years. I don't know how to work faster. See, now for Dangal, I explained it to you. I am putting on weight, I can't play any other role in that. Suppose another film is offered to me, I might have to lose weight for that and I have to do both together. I can't.

As for comparisons... actually, I am not competing with Shah Rukh or with Salman or anyone. The fact of the matter is that I don't think we are playing in the same stadium. Like the kind of films I choose are very different from the kind of films Salman chooses or from the kind of films Shah Rukh chooses. I am not being qualitative about it, I am just saying that that's not my kind of cinema. I can't get myself to do that. 

Shah Rukh has the classes and Salman has his masses. what do you have?
(Smiles) I hope I have both. I don't think about this, I like to challenge myself and I like to challenge my audience. I like to surprise myself and I like to surprise my audience. So I have not followed any set pattern, I have not got any image. I want to do work that excites me. Each time it is something new and different, I can't do the same thing again and again, it's too boring for me. Each one is different, so I am not even competing with Shah Rukh and Salman. I don't think we even belong in the same space, if you ask me. 

Do you know what you will do post Dangal?
No I don't. I don't have a film lined up. 

What if someone came to you with a good script right now?
I won't read it because I don't want to be distracted by anything, I am very decided about this. I am happy doing what I am doing, why to waste time. 

But what if the script is amazing? You can always lock it now and do it later. Because later if might not be available to you.
Sometimes, that happens.. Occasionally I listen to scripts suddenly when I feel like it. But by and large, once I have got a script – like Dangal right now -- I will not listen to other scripts, I am very clear about that. I might start listening to scripts sometimes in January because we start shooting in September. September-December four months we shoot. Then I have to lose weight. 

Wouldn't it have been easier to shoot those portions now and then gain weight?
I prefer to do it the other way round. I have four months in which to get to nine percent body fat. Again come back to nine percent, how I was in Dhoom 3, that's the look. So that's the other part of the look. So I'll shoot that in May. It will take me four months, January-April to get into shape. So in that thing of getting into shape and losing weight, I can't shoot at that time. That's when I hear scripts, read scripts to plan for the future. 

You drastically change your looks for each of your films. Do you consciously choose scripts that need you to alter your appearance and body type?
I mean, my head doesn't work that way. So I am finding it difficult to answer this question... I am not an actor who thinks of what I want to do. It never occurs to me what I want to do. In fact, I have no plans whether I want to do an action film now or comedy, I have no such feeling in me. I believe that films have to happen organically. The organic way is the way a writer thinks of what he wants to say and a story comes out there. Then a director gets involved with it. Sometimes, the director is also the writer and I come in afterwards when the casting is happening and when I experience what the writer and the director have in mind, that either excites me or it doesn't. When it excites me, I do the film and I go into a new space. I could have never thought of Dangal. I never thought of Lagaan, I didn't think of Dil Chahata Hai, I didn't think of 3 Idiots, I didn't think of Taare Zameen Par. These are all films that came out of different people's minds and I got attached to them because I got excited about it. That entire new window suddenly opens for me and I don't know from where it's going to open. That's my excitement. I don't think what I can do, I don't think like that. I just want to do films that I enjoy doing, that I feel excited about. 

Well, you are in the position to do that now.
I am getting to that. I am really grateful for the kind of freedom I have enjoyed in doing the kind of work I believe in and the work that I want to do. I have also fought for that, but I have to also accept that are forces which are much larger at play that I actually can't control. So while I have fought for that freedom, at the same I have had the privilege of having that freedom which I am very grateful for. Not everybody has that privilege. 

You have earned that privilege.
No, that's a different matter. I am saying that from the beginning... Okay I'll take you back a little bit because that was the turning point in my life. See my first film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak released in early 1988 and it became a big hit. So within the next few months, I signed eight or nine films and when the shooting of those films began and some months passed, I realised what a mess I had got myself into. I was very unhappy with the kind of work that I was doing. I was working with people whose sensibility was very different from mine. I am not saying that it was good or bad, but I was very unhappy. I used to come home and cry. I am not exaggerating and I used to wonder what am I doing, this is not what I had planned. This is not what I had wanted. But that was also a learning experience for me. That was when my foundation was being built. That was my realisation coming from a lack of experience quickly turning into an experience. Then these films began releasing and they started bombing and the media called me a one-film wonder and rightly so. In all fairness, they weren't wrong. It was then that I knew my following films to come were even worse... 

Please continue...
So I realised the situation I was in and that I was already unhappy about doing those films. I was in a jam and at that time I swore to myself that no matter what, I was never going to do a film unless I am really happy even if it wipes me out of the industry. I still make mistakes. Films are difficult to make. Sometimes, you start with something in mind and you end up somewhere else. But I am going to be very excited and happy otherwise I am not doing the film. Anyway, my career was at its worst at that time and my films were flopping. I felt I was in quicksand, I could see myself drowning in it slowly. I was sinking and there was nothing I could do to stop it. On the one hand, I had decided I was not going to sign films, I was going to finish these, and by the time those got over, I'd have no offers, so at that time some very important thing happened. 

What was that?
I got a call from Bhatt Saab. He said 'I have a script for you.' I got maha excited and I said, 'Thank God.' See Bhatt Saab was his peak that time. Saransh, Arth, Naam all these films had just released. So when he called me, I said, 'Thank God this is the one thing I needed to save myself.' Just the announcement that I am doing a film with Bhatt Saab would give me a new lease of life. I can absorb another four flops. So I went to meet him and he narrated the script to me. And I didn't like it. I was devastated. I asked Bhatt Saab, 'Can I sleep over it?'. He said, 'Ya, ya, think about it, we'll meet tomorrow evening.' So the next evening I went to meet him. So I went home and I was like, 'What should I do?' My logic and my practical side was telling me do the film, so what if I didn't like the script? Just do it because that one announcement will give your career a lease of life and then you can do other stuff that you like. But I didn't want to break the promise that I had made to myself which was I am not going to do a film unless I was happy with it. So do I save my career, do I follow my heart? Anyway I went back to him the next day and I said 'I am really sorry Bhatt Saab, but I can't do the film. I have to be honest with you, I didn't like the script and who am I to tell you what a good script is and what is not. But if I am not excited, I can't do it, that's all I have to say and probably after this you won't work with me. But that's the honest truth and maybe I am making a big error right now but I have to be true to myself.' It was very difficult for me to say that because I had seen my career disappearing in front of me. He was very sweet. He said "No, no, don't worry, if you don't feel like doing it, you should not do it ". Later on, we went on to do "Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin". But what I am trying to say is that that was the turning point in my life. If I had compromised that day, my career would have been something else. I would have constantly been compromising. When at my worst, I held on to my dream. I was honest to myself, I didn't compromise with what my heart wanted. At my worst, I did that. Later on, that one decision gave me so much strength that it made me feel that 'Chalo, I may not have a career after this, I don't know what's in store for me. But at least now I am finally living and working the way I want to. I am not doing something that I am not happy with.'

Thereafter, I have done films which I wanted to do. I may have still made mistakes. I may have still done films that have not turned out that well. But from then onwards to now, I have done films that I have believed in.

Emraan Hashmi on his son's fight with cancer and the much talked-about international debut
Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 24, 2014)

Emraan Hashmi has an hour to go before starting the shoot of Kunal Deshmukh's Raja Natwarlal and he is spending the time, pacing around his hotel room while the repeat telecast of a football match plays on TV. It's obvious that his mind is not on the sport. "I'm thinking about the character of a conman I have to slip into soon. Just like an actor aspires to be an Amitabh Bachchan or a Dilip Kumar, it is a conman's dream to to become a Natwarlal, the biggest conman. That's why I insisted we change the title from Shaatir to Raja Natwarwal. The film has all elements of a potboiler," explains the actor.

He admits that his return to the 'Bollywood potboiler' format is a conscious attempt to reclaim his box-office standing after twin disasters, Ek Thi Daayan and Ghanchakkar. "Both were experimental films but didn't work. In our industry, if a film is accepted, it's a huge hit, otherwise it's a damp squib," he sighs.

However, he continues to experiment with a Mr. X which is a departure from the traditional Bollywood format. Then, there is Danis Tanovic's film, White Lies, which he has already completed. Danis, whose No Man's Land bagged the Oscar for Best Film in the Foreign Language category in the same year that Lagaan was nominated, will visit India in July to work on certain portions of the film. "We are hoping to premiere it at the Venice Film Festival in November," he informs.

The past few months have been particularly traumatic for Emraan after his four-year-old son Ayaan was detected with a tumour in January. The actor flew him down to Toronto for treatment. The child is on the road to recovery and Emraan admits that getting back to work while his son was battling a serious illness was the most difficult thing in the world. "You need to switch gears and focus. I shot both Raja Natwarlal and Mr. X for a month in South Africa, while Ayaan was getting treated. Throughout his illness, I managed to hold fast to the belief that everything will be alright. He's healthy and back home now," Emraan smiles, adding, "Obstacles come along but you can't give up. You have to dive in and swim through."

And what about the Karan Johar-Ekta Kapoor's joint production, Badtameez Dil in which he was to star opposite Kareena Kapoor? "Akshay (director Akshay Roy) was still writing it when I had consented to do the film. I don't really know what happened after that. Then, everybody just upped and walked away from the project. Now I hear, it's happening, but with different actors," he shrugs nonchalantly.

This isn't the first film which hasn't panned out for him. "It happens all the time," he admits. "The Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahi remake too was announced. but I haven't heard a word since."

Unlike other stars, Emraan isn't seen endorsing a brand or even spotted at award shows. "I used to dance at shows earlier but then I evolved," he laughs, and adds, "Let's just say I don't look at award ceremonies to validate myself as an actor." Then what does he look at? "The box-office," he quips.

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 26, 2014)