Back when Farhan Akhtar was a kid, a common visitor to his home used to be family friend, ace photographer, late Gautam Rajadhyaksha. Gautam was once assigned a photo-shoot for a pressure cooker ad, in which a child is supposed to look excitedly at the contents of a cooker — “Like, this is the best matar pulav I have eaten in my life; that expression!”

Gautam asked Farhan’s mother, Honey Irani (a child actor once herself), if her little boy could pose for the ad. She agreed, and he did. For the longest, Farhan’s face had remained associated with the pressure cooker. “I’m talking about the ’80s,” he recalls. This is, in fact, the first story he also recalled to his childhood friend and later his producer-partner, Ritesh Sidhwani, when he first learnt about Ritesh’s family business.

“You mean you shot an ad for Marlex?” Ritesh asked, naming the kitchen appliance company his father owned, and the son worked in as well. “Oh, no,” said Farhan: “It was for your biggest rival, Hawkins. We were rivals when we were kids. Now, the two opposing giants of the kitchen corporate-world are collaborating together!”

Gautam hired the “naughty boy [Farhan], for his mischievous streak.” Which Farhan offers another evidence of, when I ask him how he got a scar under his right eye — the permanent identification mark on his passport; also something you’ll notice, especially, when he plays rugged parts in films like Lucknow Central (2017) or Toofaan (2021).

Is there an interesting story to that injury? Not really, he basically tripped and fell on the side of a table, when he was two. In school though, when kids would ask him about it, he’d look them in the eye and go, “Vietnam [accent on nam]!” Imagining a story in his head similar to how Sylvester Stallone’s character has his face slashed across, in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), his favourite film then!

Ritesh and Farhan went to Juhu’s Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School together. Which is also where, he reveals, the name of the production house they jointly founded, Excel, gets its name from: “There was a tossup between two names. The other day we were trying our hardest but couldn’t remember what that other [possible] name was. Besides its obvious meaning, Excel comes from our school motto: There is no excellence without labour.”

The two Maneckji boys — who later went to Jai Hind College, while Farhan dropped out — came together only to make the film Dil Chahta Hai (DCH, 2001), where Farhan was explicitly the writer-director, and Ritesh the producer. It’s during the film that Ritesh sat Farhan down and reasoned, “This is something you want to keep doing — then it really is important that you keep ownership of your work.”

“Maybe it is a business lesson that he had learnt from what he was doing earlier in life. Things have to belong to you — when you work so hard to create them,” Farhan agreed. By then, he had already spent few years learning production in Adi Pocha’s ad film company Script Shop. He obviously came from a film family — both his parents, Honey and Javed Akhtar, having been accomplished screenwriters.

“The closest Ritesh came to film was putting a VHS tape into his VCR player,” Farhan laughs, of the time his business partner quit his family firm, placed both his trust and money into a movie and an industry he had such little idea about.

And yet, he says, it is actually Ritesh’s continuous commitment to produce more and more movies that inspires him: “In our industry, Ritesh is known as a hard negotiator. That is what I hear about him. And in business, being a hard negotiator is a good thing. That’s what you are supposed to be. People also respect him, because he is always there for them. Six years down the line [after DCH], Lakshya, Don and Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd — by 2006 in fact, producers would call him to find out how is it that we were doing certain things differently. Of course we were only doing [or putting systems in place] that is commonplace in, say, LA.”

Which is where Farhan, 47, is speaking to us over the screen from. It’s 8 am for him (8 pm for us). A morning person “for 15-16 years”, he’s usually up by 6 am, to hit the gym. The regimen works best for his health, “which is something you owe yourself, and your loved ones.”

Of course he wasn’t always this way: “I was also a teenager once — not wanting to wake up before 11-12.” Which is the phase from Farhan’s life that his father Javed, he says, had probably modeled Hrithik Roshan’s character Karan Shergill on, in Lakshya (2004), that Farhan directed.

After DCH, of course — a Hrithik-mania type directorial debut, no less, when viewed in hindsight. Each year, social media explodes on August 10 to celebrate DCH Day, replete with heartfelt tributes and personal anecdotes.

Which is quite common for a lot of movies — even random ones, whose non-landmark anniversaries get celebrated every other day. Including messages like, “I wish this movie many years, a long life, 50 years, golden anniversary…” As if films were humans who could otherwise pass on with a heart attack.

The year 2021, nonetheless, was special for DCH, since it completed 20 years of relentlessly growing in public imagination. Ever since, Farhan himself has expanded his CV to become among the most hyphenated contemporary entertainers around — music composer, rock-star, movie star, screenwriter, director, lyricist, talk-show host… His introduction has become a cliché.

The job description that doesn’t get enough attention still is of him as a consistent/prolific producer, for the longest — having established arguably the most successful creative-commercial collaborations in Bollywood, with Ritesh.

Together they’ve produced 36 films and series, according to IMDb — generating what should be a healthy balance sheet, given smart calls like an early foray into OTT, with franchise shows like Inside Edge, Mirzapur, Made in Heaven. Even DCH, you realise, for all its creative acclaim, was one of the early Hindi films to be insured, for instance — opening titles credit United India Assurance Co (Ajit Gupta).

“It just wasn’t possible or a film to qualify for insurance against calamities in India, until then — because of the way the film industry worked I guess,” Farhan says. DCH was a commercial success of course, but slightly eclipsed in the box office that year, because “on June 15, came Lagaan and Gadar. Gadar at that point had become the biggest hit that India had ever seen. Lagaan captured the nation’s imagination in a way that money can’t quantify.”

Everything about DCH, though, has become part of popular folklore since. Starting with the back shot of the three lead actors — Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna — on Chapora Fort in Goa, that is now called the Dil Chahta Hai Fort! Farhan had obviously been to the fort on his trips to Goa, “Just never had the kind of deep thought Akshaye’s character has, when they are staring out!”

Likewise the line, “Hum cake khane ke liye kahin bhi jaa sakte hain” — that’s morphed into a line with multiplex context. “The story behind it is my absolute love for cake,” Farhan says. “I was a member of this club at Hotel Sea Rock that no longer exists, and which used to have the amazing Black Forest and Chocolate Truffle I could not afford. If somebody ever said, let’s go somewhere, it is my treat, it was the happiest day of my life! Later in college, the cake could become a free meal, free drink… So I just threw in that line for Sameer [Saif’s character].”

The first actors Farhan approached for DCH were in fact Preity Zinta and Akshaye Khanna — both of whom had come to his home to audition for Kya Kehna (2000), written by his mom Honey, and directed by Kundan Shah.

“Akshaye was already there in the film. They were looking to cast a new girl, which is how Preity came in. She still hadn’t had her release of Dil Se, and all the other films that followed. I told her about what I was writing. She asked me to meet her when I was done. She became a massive star after, but kept her word.” Farhan had bonded with Akshaye on the sets of the latter’s acting debut, Pankuj Parasher’s Himalay Putra (1997), where Farhan worked as an assistant director.

The script Farhan would’ve probably shown Preity and Akshaye was then titled Hum Teen: “It sounded like an anti-allergy tablet to people!” He later called it Dil Chahta Hai, which in English would make sense as, “What your heart desires!” Except in Hindi, it sounds incomplete, or so his father Javed asked: “Dil kya chahta hai?” Farhan was stuck, and asked lyricist dad to bail him out. To explain, Javed came up with the song words, “Dil chahta hai… Kabhi na beetein chamkeele din… Hum na rahein kabhi yaaron ke bin…”

While DCH arguably altered/reinvented the grammar of popular, metropolitan Hindi cinema altogether, in the beginning of the naughties — it is in fact Farhan who wholly reinvented himself by the turn of the decade. Branching out into full-time acting instead — scripting a completely different direction for his career, away from film direction itself.

Was there a moment of epiphany? “I guess you see me as a full-time actor — because that is my only visible work out there. But I was very involved in producing a lot, writing dialogues for Game, Karthik Calling Karthik, Talaash, Dil Dhadakne Do, working with different directors, doing Rock On 2. There was a desire to creatively extend myself in different ways. I actually took a year and half away from acting itself—to write and record my album as [an independent] musician.” The album, Echoes, dropped in 2019.

Few artistes in Mumbai have freely allowed themselves as many avenues to max out their varied creative potential — whatever the eventual outcome, that effort itself could be a measure of personal success. Music, of course, happened naturally with Farhan’s acting debut on screen, Rock On (2008) — about a retired musician who goes back to stage. Farhan sang his songs, instead of simply lip-syncing.

The soundtrack was a smashing hit that’s stood the test of time: “I had always wanted to play the guitar, and been teaching myself from chord books and the Internet, age 16-17 onwards. But it was a private passion. In 2012, I tinkered with the idea of putting together a bunch of like-minded musicians to form a band [Farhan Live]. We’ve performed in over 100 cities since — colleges, festivals — twice to the US, Australia, Middle East...”

Farhan’s last release as a director was Don 2 (2011). Whatever your opinion on the film — there is surely a social media clamour for Part 3 — what’s undeniable is how it spawned a series of sequels in Bollywood. Just as his Don (2006) remake, before that, made old Bollywood remakes a thing to roll out every few months.

His most challenging move as an actor, until 2013, was to play the Olympian athlete in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag — a role he was even more determined to pull off convincingly, once he heard a journalist in Chandigarh ask him why a Punjabi wasn’t picked for the ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh’s part. After the film released Farhan went back to Chandigarh, especially reached out to the journalist — besides to gauge her response, to thank her for inadvertently “serving as great motivation”.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag similarly unleashed a series of sports biopics — a gift that Bollywood can’t stop giving, as we speak. What does he make of the formula? “Well, I guess if a car sells with a certain kind of artificial intelligence system now, then all cars will go get artificial intelligence. Because that is what people like. If there is a new flavour in the chips packet, suddenly everybody will have that same flavour. That is how life is, and how the world functions I guess.”

That commercial benchmark for films, of course, is the number of views/hits online; or box-office figures in case of theatrical releases. But creative failure can also be defined as mismatch between intentions, and outcomes. Have there been such instances he could talk about, with regard to his own works, as an actor, or filmmaker.

“Of course that’s happened. A lot of things, at times, do not translate from script to screen as effectively as you want. I don’t want to take names of those movies though. Because there are other people, who have their effort, talent and reputation attached. And it is not fair for me to speak about a work, as if it only belongs to me, or my learning from it.”

For a more particular example, I bring up Rock On 2 (2016) — did that turn out the way he would’ve liked? “Well, the first Rock On obviously had a lot more people loving it, than not liking it. With Rock On 2, it was a bit more mixed, for sure. But we also got absolutely slapped in the face with demonetization happening two days before the film released. The carpet got pulled from under our feet. People didn’t have enough money to buy food; they were queuing up outside ATMs. There were news stories on TV about how demonetization had affected the film industry. It was sad for me to see posters of Rock On 2 on walls in these clips — not a crow in theatres. It was completely empty. Which is understandable.”

The great part of the original Rock On’s success, though, was it delivered for Farhan’s sister Zoya a saleable star right at home. Given that she’d been struggling to take off as a director for years, taking rounds of hero’s homes, unable to cast for the lead of Luck By Chance (2009) — a Bollywood movie, on Bollywood itself; a subject supposedly too close for superstars to sign up for.

Farhan suitably stepped in. Together as director-actor, they’ve collaborated on Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD, 2011) and Dil Dhadakne Do (DDD, 2015) since. Both those films co-produced by Farhan, where he has also written the dialogues. Giving one a sense that between the two, perhaps Farhan has the edge in dialogue writing. With Gully Boy behind her, Zoya can easily stake a claim for the most interesting voice in current Hindi mainstream.

Age wise, the siblings are a year apart. Zoya was also the casting director on DCH. How are they different as directors, I ask Farhan, who takes a second to think this through, and eventually boils it down to how they are different as personality types as well.

“She is more open about her feelings — more of a people’s person than I am — better at communicating her thoughts. Because she speaks with a lot of clarity. I tend to keep things more inside, which can be unnerving sometimes — an actor or technician could feel anxious, about why am I not saying what I feel? So, there is that.”

This seems like an accurate assessment, even when you compare Zoya to Farhan from an edition of this series Sit with Hitlist on YouTube. While Farhan does hold a more public job — facing the camera, surrounded by selfie-hunters, massive audiences before a concert stage — it is Zoya who comes across as more naturally the extrovert!

She develops screenplays with her long-time writing partner, Reema Kagti. But for the dialogue draft of DDD, that required a lot of back-and-forth with Zoya for the number of voices/characters involved, Farhan says, he’s worked on all scripts alone, by himself. Which would be true for song writing, an equally solitary job, as well.

Farhan was last seen on screen with a dramatic physical transformation, playing a boxer in the film Toofaan (2021). He enters the ring as director next — first time, behind the camera since a decade.

With Jee Le Zara, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif, slated to open in 2022. Which is also the first time he’ll be co-writing a screenplay, with Reema and Zoya: “For me this is actually going to be a new experience. Working on screenplay, maybe not dialogue so much, but at least on screenplay, with two other writers, who are so hands-on.”

Where the siblings are likely to meet on the same page, I’m guessing, are inevitably some inside jokes. As they did with the popular refrain, “Bwoy”, in ZNMD. That caricature of a school teacher in the decade’s breeziest Bollywood film was based on their common PT instructor at Maneckji Cooper — one, Mr Dubey, who is no more.

Mr Dubey’s daughter, who saw the film, instantly got the reference and called up Farhan to convey how glad she felt that he and Zoya remembered her father fondly still: “All these things from those years leave such great impressions on our minds, isn’t it?”

Akhtar siblings grew up in the sea-facing Bandstand in Bandra, which is where I’m hosting this conversation from, I tell Farhan. It’s a few blocks away from his family home, that Farhan intends to shift back into, once he returns from LA. On the other end of the same street is Galaxy apartments, where Salman Khan grew up, and still lives. Both Salman and Farhan, respectively, being sons of Salim-Javed, the hyphenated, greatest blockbuster writers of ’70s Bollywood.

Javed had come to Bombay to become a film director. Salim Khan had acted in many films — realised he wasn’t getting too far, and so stepped back to pursue screenwriting instead. Both came full circle with their kids — Farhan turning director, and Salman a superstar.

“I think we are making it too melodramatic [with the observation],” Farhan cautions: “In the ’90s, my father was so busy writing songs, working with everyone — I think in every second film or third film, the songs were written by him. I thought this is what he always wanted to do. It was when we were doing Lakshya, and he was writing it, that at one point he spoke about having wanted to direct. And that this is going to be a very challenging film, etc. I was like, okay — I didn’t know you wanted to direct! That is when I found out — at 29!’

Salim-Javed’s sons could not have turned out more differently still. If anything Salman stands for larger than life, ganjee-boots mardaangi/masculinity—about never going back on a commitment. Let alone choice in dialogue, script or films, even in life outside cinema, Farhan actively runs an NGO tackling toxic masculinity itself.

What explains two lifelong neighbours, with fathers who went by a common name for years, turning out such polar opposites? Farhan says, “The interesting part of your question, really, is that our creative paths are different, but we do come from the same pool. Which is a pool that Salim uncle and my father kind of created. That is the world we grew up in, and those are the films we grew up on, and knew. But why that happens, or how that happens? I don’t know. I guess you are a product of your environment in some ways. He [Salman] is massively successful. I don’t think we should question his choices at all!” Mic drop.

Bollywood's most loved filmmaker Zoya Akhtar looks back during the lockdown
Mayank Shekhar (MID-DAY; May 15, 2020)

Consider writer-director Reema Kagti (Gold, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd) as an Australian male Ricardo Fernandes, looking for his lost brother in Mumbai, while filmmaker Zoya Akhtar is the local don Mastana's hot moll. That's really how Zoya first met Reema, during the audition for Kaizad Gustad's Bombay Boys (1998).

Reema, as the casting assistant, was standing in for Rahul Bose. Zoya, opposite her, was actually testing for the film's female lead role—mainly to humour Gustad, because he was keen she read for the part, that finally went to Tara Deshpande. Zoya was clear she wanted to AD on the movie.

AD, meaning assistant director—both a proper noun and an active verb on a film set. It's been over two decades since Bombay Boys, where Reema and Zoya were second ADs. Their partnership, as writers over the past decade though, counts amongst its achievements, Gully Boy (2019), the Amazon series Made In Heaven (2019), Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), Talaash (2012), and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011).

Bollywood wise, they could well be—albeit slightly Bonzai—versions of the '70s super-hit, Salim-Javed (Zanjeer, Deewar, Don, Sholay, Mr India)—the most successful writing pair ever, comprising Salim Khan and Zoya's father, Javed Akhtar.

I say this, while Zoya is talking to us from where Salim-Javed used to work out of—the study in her Bandra family home—that she now uses as her bedroom: "I'm just absorbing them," she smiles. She also drops a hint at working on a talkathon/documentary project of sorts to do with Salim-Javed themselves, as part of her newly launched production company.

But it's too early to talk about, she insists. Much is naturally made of Zoya as poet-lyricist Javed's daughter, eighth generation writer from the Akhtar family. Her love for films, as she points out, flows first from her mother's fine collection of world to latest cinema, projected on the screen at home, growing up.

Also the fact is that it's her mom, Honey Irani, who's the Bollywood insider in the family, having literally grown up in showbiz (Javed had moved from Bhopal).

Wikipedia rather exaggeratedly lists her as the child-star of 72 films!

Honey would've done minimum 20-30 movies as the much loved kid-face of the big screen—graduating much later to screenwriting, with popular titles like Yash Chopra's Lamhe (1991), Aaina (19993), Darr (1993), Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (2000), Koi… Mil Gaya (2003), Krissh 3 (2013).

Zoya reminisces, "Now, everybody has a camera to record their children. But people in my generation did not have footage of when their parents were three years old. I was one of the few kids, who had my mother from the time she was two, to when she was 16! I've seen my mother animated [on the screen], with different expressions, speech, seen her change, and grow. It's really interesting even now, to see her like that. She was darn cute, man! She, and my aunt Daisy [Irani]!"

She rues in jest, "Everybody in my family has a National Award— my mother, father, brother [Farhan Akhtar], step-mother [Shabana Azmi], cousin [Farah Khan], everybody. Except me!" Which film did her mom get a National Award as the kid-lead? "I don't know, if it was for Pyaar Ki Pyaas or Taare Zameen Par, one of the two." There was a yesteryear film called Taare Zameen Par? "Zameen Ke Tare! Both my mom, and my aunt."

The mom's acting gene, Zoya contends, went to her younger sibling, Farhan: "He is a bona-fide performer—he always had that. I hate being on stage, or before the camera. My first thing to do with the arts was to write—watching both my parents work at home, discussing scripts… That was one of the first things [in my head]. Directing came later."

Held over video-call for the first time, Zoya is also the first filmmaker to feature on our unscripted conversation series, Sit With Hitlist—so far limited to Hindi cinema's lead actors. Reason for that of course is that she's arguably Bollywood's most loved filmmaker, and therefore a star in her own right.

That apart, little is known about her life up until her rather belated directorial debut at 36-plus, with Luck By Chance (2009), although she'd been working as a film professional for around 18 years before that. Very little worth knowing, Zoya casually reckons, jogging back to age 19, when she started interning for a copy-writer's job at a creative agency—simultaneously reading sociology at Bombay's St. Xavier's College.

"I remember watching Salaam Bombay (1988), being madly in love, and going: I want to direct. And I don't know what I'm going to make. Because Hindi films were not my scene then. Out of the blue, when I was about 21, I got a job with Mira Nair on [the sets of] Kamasutra (1996)." You can find her in a cameo appearance as one of the Kamasutra girls, "an extra part," as she puts it, because ADs are frequently expected to fill-in or add to the human backdrop on shoots.

Of all her past associates, Mira as director appears to have left a strong impression on Zoya: "Mira is just special, you can see that. When she is talking to you, you are the only person in the world. She makes people feel special. She knows everybody on a crew by name. I love that about her. And I love her aesthetics."

Post Kamasutra, Zoya recalls, "I started working mainly on American projects that came to India. Went to NYU [New York University] for a diploma [in filmmaking]. Stayed back in New York. Got a job, thanks to Ismail Merchant, in a small, cool, indie film called Side Streets, directed by Tony Gerber."

She returned to Bombay as a freelance, professional AD, of which there were only four in all of Bollywood, who did a lot of foreign films and Indian work: "Reema [Kagti], [director] Apurva Lakhia, and me. Then Kiran Rao came in." Zoya's credits during this phase include Mahesh Mathai's Bhopal Express (1999) and Dev Benegal's Split Wide Open (1999). She chose to specialise in the casting department, because there, "you get to direct actors, with a script," and that's what she ever wanted to learn/master anyway.

She was the casting director on Farhan's first film Dil Chahta Hai (DCH, 2001), and thereafter Armaan (2003), her mother Honey's directorial debut. Okay did she personally pick/cast that balloon-lover boyfriend in Dil Chahta Hai? "Oh that's actually Hassan, a childhood friend of Farhan. But we handpicked everyone, so to speak. There are very interesting cameos. Kiran Rao is one of the girlfriends in Goa. She'd come to do all the extras' casting for the film's Goa leg!"

Between freelance AD-ing, Zoya had been ideating all along for her debut feature. It's mildly ironic that while so cued into casting, she was unable to kick off her first film for want of a lead actor, for almost a decade that she'd been ready to direct. And the one she eventually cast for the lead role, in her directorial debut (Luck By Chance, 2009) was her brother, Farhan, who'd been around all along!

"You cannot cast someone, unless they are ready. And feel that they want to do this. It took Farhan a while to get there—that he wants to act, and that he is a really good actor." While practically the entire Bollywood A-list came down for cameos in Luck By Chance, including both Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan (guessing, for the first time in the same film, although not in the same frame), Farhan was the seventh star to read/consider/hear the script. Hrithik Roshan played the second lead. "Luck By Chance is a book that I am going to write one day, about how that film got made," Zoya sighs.

Can't wait. It'd be quite a telling tinsel-town tale, given that nobody in Bombay does it. And Zoya is perfectly positioned to—not just as the quintessential insider, but as someone who can surprise you with her adorably random zaniness, on occasion. Recently at an interview she called herself the love-child of directors Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap. What does that mean? "That I am halfway between Indie and commercial, you know."

One time I remember getting a smoke with a group, outside a closed-door meeting with director Oliver Stone who was in Bombay then, and Zoya casually mentioned, "You know, there are four kinds of people in the world—John, Paul, George and Ringo." What?

I bring that up again: "That is a line from a Tom Robbins book. Have you read Tom Robbins? I love him. I don't remember what the context of that conversation was. You can look at everyone, and be like—that's a Paul, Ringo, George. I am a John, for sure!"

And while her films primarily deal with real, human, often raw emotions, there is this carefree cattiness that inevitably slips in too. It's only fair that we dig into a couple of stories behind some stellar, surprising choices she's made so far. For example, why/how/when did a ladies' bag, called Bagwati, bag a proper part in the breezy masterpiece Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara?

"That comes from Reema and a close friend of ours, Shai Heredia, who's an academic, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and hysterically funny. She and Reema were on a road trip, and they kept talking to Shai's bag. Think they were just tripping! We just put it into Zindagi."

It was Zoya's second film, with Farhan and Hrithik back on her frame, but in a much wider canvas, although the script started out in her head as a small, cathartic, road movie, about three boys in a car—for all the road trips she's taken in her life. Over time, of course, the script "developed a life of its own".

The film she co-wrote after was Reema's Talaash. It's a supernatural thriller that, by the way, was based on a true story, that happened to her! "You have to stop. I am going to be the crazy lady that goes on interviews and says all this shit. I know it sounds really crazy, and I don't want to be propagating this nonsense. But, I had a strange experience on Haji Ali, while a bunch of us were driving back from a nightclub. We thought we had hit a naked woman in the middle of the road. Everybody was freaking out. This is something I told Reema about, and where Talaash came from. I am not going to repeat this story, ever again!"

Okay how about the dog called Pluto, who's the narrator/POV of Dil Dhadakne Do; where does he come from? "From my super-smart, intelligent beagle Zen, who passed away last year. You can find him on my Insta page, Zen Akhtar. Zen would look at us as though he is watching National Geographic—that we are the animals, and he is like, 'What are they doing?' That's Pluto. Even the way the film is shot [as a result] is observational—there are no close ups, only 'wides'."

After a preview screening for Aamir Khan and his wife, Kiran Rao, both of whom Zoya makes it a point to get a feedback from before her film's final cut, she asked Aamir if he'd like to voice the dog: "He was, like, after these many years, you have offered me the voice of a dog? I said, please do it. He was, like, yeah, totally! And he just came [on-board], like a sweetheart. It was great!"

Is there anything she'd like to change about Dil Dhadakne Do? "I think the title. Would have been nicer [if it had] a little more gravitas." How about the climax (that was rather OTT, compared to the rest of the film's tone)?

"I actually liked the climax (of the mom, dad, sister jumping off the ship, with lifeboats to chase down brother/Ranveer Singh's character). The whole metaphor of the trip is that you can't get rid of anyone. Family is what you are stuck with. You can't just walk out the door. Eventually, when shit hits the fan, they are the only ones who will pull you up too. So when everyone tells me, I don't like the climax; I am like, cool, so what would you do? Till now nobody has given me a better ending. If there is one, I'd be like, damn!"

What did upset Zoya even before the release of Dil Dhadakne Do though was people taking the piss out of the picture for it being centred on lives of the super-privileged—intended also as a barb against movies that Zoya had directed thus far.

"Firstly I don't think it was criticism. There is nothing for me to take home from it. It is like somebody seeing a trailer of Gully Boy and saying, oh, this is about poor people. And I made Made in Heaven, along with Gully Boy. And that is about very rich people!"

"I was being interviewed by this woman wearing diamonds and solitaires, and she was telling me, it [the film] is about rich people. I was, like: Would it bother you, if your husband has an affair? Why? But you have solitaires on, it shouldn't bother you! What does it even mean?"

Before Gully Boy — set in a Mumbai slum and the city's underground rap scene—released, it got roundly compared to the American ghetto, hip-hop biopic, 8 Miles. Did that bother her? "The two people I spoke to [to base the film on their lives] are living here. You can talk to them. So, no, I didn't get into it. It bothered me, when they compared Zindagi to Hangover [producer Ritesh Sidhwani had to respond to Warner Bros]. Now, I think that's what they do."

Inspirations from dogs and spirits apart, what makes Zoya's filmmaking process special—given what we've managed to gauge so far—is she is capable of working backwards. Where she must know end, before she locks her script. Which isn't true for many filmmakers, who often arrive at the conclusion, as they navigate the story or characters' journeys: "I have to set a goal. That goal may change. But I when I set off, I have to know where I am taking the film. Otherwise I meander. I need a direction I am shooting at, you know!"

The other thing is her complete clarity on the point she's trying to make—so much so that she can distill each film into a single line, which is different from a log-line that describes a plot: "Of course Gully Boy is about a Muslim kid from Dharavi, who expresses himself through rap. It is a rags-to-riches, coming-of-age story. You can pin it down in any log line. But at the core of it, the film is about class. Luck By Chance is really about self-esteem. Zindagi is about living, seizing the day. Dil Dhadakne Do is a film about projection—who we actually are, and what we tend to project. It is what lenses the film, creates the base."

This sort of sharpness of thought, cutting through fluff, getting to the point, is also something Zoya shares with her father Javed, as a communicator in general—whether it be his works as lyricist, screenwriter, people's poet, or popular orator. He's possibly India's finest conversationalist—whose quick repartees and general gyan stick with you, if not go viral online.

Is there something Zoya remembers he told her that she's held as talisman? "Little things, you know. That when you are writing a script, whatever your story is, you've got to be able to lift your viewer. By the end of it, just lift your viewer! Don't resort to cheap shit to get a laugh or clap. Say it in the most base-denominator way, if you have to. But find a higher level of communication." It's tough, bohot hard.

Meena Iyer (DNA; February 13, 2019)

Zoya Akhtar has an impressive body of work, including feature films like Luck By Chance (2009), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) as well as anthologies such as Bombay Talkies (2013) and Lust Stories (2018).

The writer-filmmaker is known for her attention to detail and presenting well-etched characters with an emotional graph. She is also the talent behind the Ranveer Singh-Alia Bhatt Valentine Day-release Gully Boy, which is currently the talk of the town. Frankly, her plumes need no further polishing. In a freewheeling chat, the pleasant yet candid award winner talks about her independent banner, teaming up with Ranveer for the second time and more.

Your banner name Tiger Baby is intriguing. Is Gully Boy your first production?
Well, we co-produced one movie with Ritesh (Sidhwani) earlier and also did Made In Heaven with Amazon, which is dropping on March 8. Gully Boy is our third offering.

Why Tiger Baby?
My partner Reema (Kagti) and I liked the name. I love the tiger, it’s extremely Indian. It’s fierce, feminine and most of all, it’s specific to us.

Coming back to Gully Boy, the film is tracking extremely well. Does that make you nervous?
Yes and no. Of course, you are happy, because when you put out content, you want everyone to respond to it. Now we’re just hoping they come in to watch our movie and enjoy it. So obviously, there is nervousness because people are excited about the film. But, we’ve crossed the first hurdle.

The voice of the movie is young, it’s inspirational. It seems like a Slumdog Millionaire kind of a story…
It is an underdog story. It’s also talking about a section of society that doesn’t normally get represented in the mainstream.

It speaks of rap, an art form that came up from the street, like anywhere else in the world. These people use music as a tool, they’re all poets, they speak truth to power, so, it’s exciting. Hopefully, it will resonate with a larger section of the audience than just the youth.

Was Ranveer always your first choice?
Yes, he was my first choice, so was Alia, actually.

You’ve watched Ranveer from his Dil Dhadakne Do days. What would you say about his growth as an actor?
I knew Ranveer even before he did his first film. I always got along with him. I liked his energy and what he brings to any situation that he’s in. When I did Dil Dhadakne Do, we got along so well. I’m extremely comfortable with him. He is a real collaborator. He is a generous actor and a good co-creator of the character. He comes without any ego. At the core of his stardom, he is an actor who wants to do well. He understands the role, the script, and reads between the lines. He knows exactly where I’m coming from and brings stuff to the table. We can say yes or no to each ther’s ideas. I find that really exciting. He lifts the characters up. Usually, people just see the flamboyant and slightly larger-than-life side of him, but he’s got a lot of depth and sensitivity. I like being on a film set with him.

And, Alia...
Alia is special, she operates from an instinct that is so powerful. She follows her gut. She is so centered within herself that it comes through in her performances. In fact, it’s evident in everything. She is in the moment. I think that allows her to make her choices and play the characters she does. She is a dream to work with. I can’t wait to collaborate with her again.

Both, you and your brother Farhan Akhtar have a good body of work. Is it possible for you to say who is better?
No, it’s not. There’s nothing as better. Honestly, we’re not even halfway through our body of work. We still have so many films to make, so many stories to tell.

So, there’s never been any sense of competition with him?
No, never. And there can’t be because my film is his film. He’s either acting in it or he’s producing it or writing it. So, the ownership is always there.

There’s also a common soul in your father, in Javed Akhtar saab, who is also associated with your work.   
Of course, I feel extremely privileged.

And who is the apple of his eye; you or Farhan?
I’d say it’s me (smiles). I’m the first born and a girl... so we have a different equation like my mother (Honey Irani) and my brother have a different dynamic. I feel blessed and lucky with my family, not because of the privilege, of course, I’m grateful for that as well that we never wanted anything. But what is a real privilege is that we (my brother and I) were treated equally. I was treated with equal amount of opportunity, freedom and confidence as him.

We were allowed to make mistakes. I mean that is a real privilege, to be able to go your own way, find your voice, just have a support system that allows you to do all that.

How involved is your partner Reema (Kagti) in this film?
She has co-written it; so yes, she is very much involved; from the research till the script was ready.

What did you think of her film Gold (2018)?
I cried at the end; It was a massive film. It was nicely made. I think there were certain things that went wrong for her, in terms that she wasn’t happy with the effects. There was not enough time and things went off there. But the film really moved me and I cried. I’m happy that it got made.

There was also talk of similarities between Gully Boy and Eminem’s 8 Mile (2002). Do you see it as unfortunate?
It’s not unfortunate, it’s obvious because 8 Mile is the biggest reference for rap. So people will look at it and be like, ‘Okay, this and that...’ Like during Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’s release, everybody was saying it’s The Hangover (2009). But it was not The Hangover and I got upset. However today, I don’t feel that way about this film. I know that when Gully Boy opens in cinemas, they will understand that it’s specific to people from our space. I think what they are talking about is the rap battle, but those things are common everywhere. So, I’m not reacting to that.

Ranveer has done a good job rapping in the film. While you say he was your first choice for the role, was it the same case with his rapping, too?
It’s better na, because rap is spoken word. You can’t have another voice, it’s better that he do it himself. And he does rap, he also writes. So, there’s a certain sense of it. But we needed to know how he would flow with the sound that we were producing. I’m so happy that he’s in this film.

Did you get a chance to watch Simmba?
No, I was in post-production. I missed it but I will watch it once my film releases. Because when you’re in the last lap of post-production, you don’t have the space.

You, Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee have been collaborating on short films.  Will that association continue?  
Yes, definitely.

Who is your favourite filmmaker among them?
They or should I say all of us are unique. There isn’t another Karan. You can’t replace Anurag. They’re my gang, my friends. We have so much fun together. We’re a good bunch when we are together. And that’s what I mean; you can’t compare them, they are incomparable. Who will you replace Dibakar Banerjee with? There isn’t another one. We are four unique voices.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 26, 2018)

Seventeen years ago, Farhan Akhtar’s debut directorial, Dil Chahta Hai, opened in the theatres. We still remember Akash, Siddharth and Sameer with great fondness and agree that Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan were perfectly cast for the roles. So, it would surprise many to know that when Farhan took his script to Aamir, he had the actor in mind to play Sid. He believed that the broodingly intense, somewhat philosophical poet-artist, infatuated with an older woman who doesn’t reciprocate his romantic feelings, would appeal to his idol. Aamir listened to the story of three friends and picked out Akash for himself.

Perhaps it was because the urbane charmer, very much a today’s guy, was the polar opposite of Bhuvan, the farmer-cricketer of of his period drama Lagaan which released in the same year, on June 15, given Aamir’s now-famous 360-degree turnarounds. Or maybe it was because Akash, the rich and arrogant cynic who doesn’t believe in love but in the end crashes his lady love Shalini’s (Preity Zinta) wedding to go down on one knee and profess his feelings just when she has resigned herself to a life with her boorish fiancé, was unlike any hero he had played...Except for the filmi denouement. Farhan justified this, revealing that he had to make it really difficult for the I-won’t-succumb Akash, and what could be more difficult than a very public proposal at a big fat Indian wedding where it’s sacrilege to covet another man’s wife-to-be. He actually knew a guy like Akash whose love story had inspired the film. Meanwhile, his mother, scriptwriter Honey Irani, pointed out that he had landed the rare opportunity of working with the actor of his dreams in his very first film.

Farhan’s sister and his casting director, Zoya, then took the role of Sid to Abhishek Bachchan but got the thumbs down presumably because the actor didn’t want to do a three-hero film. Akshaye, who was rebelling against run-of-the-mill hero roles at the time, and had taken off for a three-month introspective vacation to the US after Taal, however found Farhan’s script refreshingly different. The look was new, the feel young and the story broke every rule in the book. It caught his fancy and he embraced Sid like a long-lost soulmate making many believe after the film’s release that the role was an extension of him. Akshaye however was quick to dispel that notion, saying with his distinctive tongue-in-cheek humour, “I have never gone fishing in my life, tried my hand at painting or even had a crush on an older woman.” Ah well, we always knew Akshaye could ‘act’!

For Sameer, who starts out being in love with the idea of love, before finding true love in Pooja (Sonali Kulkarni), Farhan had decided on Saif Ali Khan but the actor, reeling from some bad career choices, took a long time to give his nod, at one point almost saying ‘no’. Saif later confessed that he had never had so much fun shooting a film and his goofy “Jise Dhoondta Hoon… Woh Ladki Hai Kahan” had everyone rolling in the aisles.

What was particularly hair-raising for the actors, besides their reel life adventures, was that Farhan’s stylist, Avan Contractor, insisted on giving each of them a new look. Akshaye’s hair was almost scraped off while Saif’s was cut short and gelled. Aamir got spikes and a goatee. The tiny triangle of hair on Aamir’s chin was the subject of much speculation, but it took Preity to boldly march up to him, and dimples flashing, ask cheekily if his daadhi was real or fake. Aamir told her that it had taken him three months to grow it just right. His ‘look’ is still talking!

Daisy Irani, star of iconic films like Boot Polish, Jagte Raho, Naya Daur reveals she was raped when she was six years old during an outdoor shoot in Madras; Courageous star confronts pain, goes public sixty years after the trauma
Khalid Mohamed (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 23, 2018)

India’s best-known child star of the 1950s, Daisy Irani, whose moppet curls and saucer-eyed charm captivated generations of film lovers, has revealed that she was raped and abused at the peak of her stardom.

It has taken over 60 years for Irani, these days better known as the maternal aunt of Farhan and Zoya Akhtar and Farah Khan, to speak publicly about her trauma. More than #MeToo, what has prompted her to break her silence is the very large number of children working via films, TV and talent shows. Through her story, she serves a cautionary note to parents, guardians and mentors to keep a protective eye on their wards.

The mega child-star of yore reveals that she was just six years old when she was raped: “The man who did this was supposed to be my guardian. He accompanied me to a film shoot (Hum Panchhi Ek Dal Ke) in Madras. One night in the hotel room he violated me, hit me with a belt and warned me that he would kill me if I ever told anyone about what had happened.”

Daisy Irani, all of six, and all alone with him, believed him.

Coerced into movies by an ambitious mother when she was only four, Irani worked multiple shifts to star in over 50 films including the iconic Naya Daur, Jagte Raho, Boot Polish and Dhool Ka Phool, essaying roles of boys mostly. Such was her popularity that heart-tugging roles were written especially for her and her footage often extended. She shared the limelight with the top stars of that time including Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Vyjayanthimala and Meena Kumari. Her bond with the last named was so close that she convinced herself that “Meena Kumari was my mother. She was so loving towards me.”

But in the darkness behind the klieg lights lay a story of sexual exploitation, which she has spoken about to Mumbai Mirror spontaneously.

Irani’s two siblings, Honey (Farhan and Zoya Akhtar’s mother) and Menaka (Farah and Sajid Khan’s mother), too, stepped into the movies prompting Daisy to be extra protective about them: “Thanks to our mother, Perin, our lives, when we were kids, resembled a never-ending black comedy,” she says with a rueful laugh.

More than six decades later, she can recount her childhood trauma without a trace of self-pity. “That man is dead and gone. His name was Nazar, he was related to the famous singer Zohrabai Ambalewali. Obviously, he had contacts in the film industry. My mother was hell-bent on making me a star. I made my debut in the Marathi movie, Baby. So Uncle Nazar (she rolls her eyes here) had accompanied me to the shoot of Hum Panchhi Ek Dal Ke in Madras. I can recall the incident only in flashes, but I do remember the killing pain, and the visual of him belting me. The next morning, I was back at the studio as if nothing had happened. For years, I couldn’t dare to tell my mother about what he had done.”

Did the incident take a psychological toll on the young Daisy? To that, she replies, “All I can say is as I grew up, I started flirting outrageously, I would tease and taunt men. I did not even understand what I was doing. I became badtameez (without manners). With time, my mother did get to know about the Madras incident but what could be done really?”

“When I was 15 or so”, she recalls,“mother made me wear a sari, padded me up with a new-fangled sponge, and left me alone with producer Mallikchand Kochar, who was planning a film called Mere Huzoor then, at his office located somewhere between Maratha Mandir cinema and the Tardeo circle. It was all quite hilarious… He joined me on the sofa, and started touching me… I knew what was on his mind. I took out the sponge things and handed them to him. He was furious. Now why did I do that? Because, I’ve always seen the funnier side of things.”

When kid sister Honey entered the movies, Daisy tended to be protective about her and kept her away from harm’s way. “Both of us had a common obsession: to get married and leave home as soon as we could. I revered Dad, he was cute, and he loved us to pieces but he would always be busy at work—his family owned the B. Merwan Café at Grant Road. I loved my mother too, but I guess I hated her as well.”

Bemused, she doesn’t hem or haw about her teenage-year romances, either with an upcoming actor or with an eminent producer-director. The actor married another woman. The movie moghul was already married and a father of several children “who were actually my buddies”.

While Honey Irani married scriptwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar when she was 18, the other sister married filmmaker Kamran Khan when she was 19. Daisy herself married scriptwriter and director K K Shukla when she was 21. “KK…poor fellow, he’s no more as you know,” she chuckles. “Before he proposed to me, he used to play Cupid between my boyfriends and me. Our marriage lasted the course somehow although I once told him I knew of his extra-marital affair... He didn’t know where to look!”

Daisy who continued to act in supporting roles, her last being in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Happy New Year, says she has since found solace in Christianity and joined the New Life Fellowship Association. “I was always drawn to the iconography of angels protecting children,” she says.

“Child actors have it tough. In a majority of cases they have been taken advantage of. Maybe a few have had it easy, but most don’t, really,” she says.

Does she have any second thoughts about whether her interview should go into print? “None at all,” she thumps the cushions. “My three children, my sisters…everyone knows what happened. The truth never killed anyone. If I’ve spoken up after years and years and if the result sounds sensational in print, no problem. There could be a flurry of ‘phone calls. I just won’t answer them. Simple.”

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 18, 2017)

Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; June 6, 2015)