Fenil and Bollywood: Love Story 2050

Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; February 16, 2014)

Harman Baweja, 33, is simple, emotional, affectionate and a complete family man for whom friends and family mean the world, though, at times, he tends to take his friends for granted. He is most attached to his sister Rowena, with whom he has shared a bunker bed until the age of 15. He was often teased that his best friend Jaiyu was as much of his girlfriend as his real one. He loves his food and is terrible at keeping in touch. He is spiritual and respects his nani for her liberal yet traditional mindset. With his 17 cousin sisters and five cousin brothers, their family’s WhatsApp group itself has over 300 messages everyday. Ahead of his upcoming film Dishkiyaaoon, he talks to Bombay Times about his strong-willed father, his correct mother and why he loves Bipasha Basu. Excerpts:

Let’s talk about your director-producer father Harry Baweja?
I was born in Chandigarh as my father’s entire family is based there and we are mona surds. My father’s original name was Harjaspal Baweja which changed to Harry Baweja. He kept hiding it from his mother that he was doing theatre instead of going to law college. Since he had lost his dad at the age of 16, he would take money from her for paying the law college fee but instead was paying for learning theatre when his photograph came in the papers and he was caught. We were from a very humble background where my dad used to make bricks. My mum was from Agra and in full filmi style, my mum and dad were made to meet each other at the Taj Mahal and their marriage was fixed. My dad’s older brother was a distributor of B Subhash’s films in Punjab. My father always wanted to become an actor or a director and decided to come to Mumbai and started assisting B Subhash. I was four years old at that time. From 1984 to 1991, he assisted him after which he started producing and directing films. My sister and I pretty much grew up on bunker beds, changing our house every 11 months as we were all through living in rented places. I remember in 1994, when he was making Dilwale, we had a Maruti 800. The backseat of his car was broken and he was so short of cash at that time that we had taken a suitcase and put it in the backseat so that the seat did not fall back. He would be driving around Mumbai in that car. He is a very strong-willed person. Dilwale became a big hit. And I don’t know whether the Maruti changed, but we bought our first apartment and I presume gaddi ki seat theek kara li hogi. I was earlier very formal with my dad and if he called, I would get up automatically. My dad is very correct. I must have been 13 when I learnt to make tea for the first time. My mum asked me to make a cup of tea for her. Being this cocky teenager, I told her, ‘You don’t have hands and feet to make your tea?’ and I got a slap from my dad instantly. Of course, I got hit by my mum a lot till just a few years back.

Which habits of yours do you still get scolded for?
I live in an American time zone. I love my space at night when there are no distractions or noises around. My mum has now come to terms with it, but she still complains of my excess coffee intake. Also, I just don’t enjoy going to the gym and love eating. Fortunately, I am blessed with a great natural metabolic rate, so I am fit. But I can finish two large cheese burst pizzas on my own. One of my friends owns a café called Sundance Café where, if you finish this huge burger, they will give you 10,000. I am among the few who have won the money. My dad, when he is sitting on the dining table, is very proper. He will speak correctly and not even put his elbow on the table. His shirt will always be crisp. I, on the other hand, don’t iron my clothes. I put on whatever I have, put a little water and leave it to dry up itself. My mum keeps telling me, ‘Why are you wearing wet clothes?’ I tell her, ‘Don’t stress. Why do I have to iron them? They will dry up in the car by the time I reach.’

How did you come into films?
I have always been obsessed with the hospitality industry. I am a big foodie and there is a joke amongst my friends that don’t ask him if he wants to eat, just serve it. At a restaurant, I will always be thinking the person who came to talk to me should speak like this, the manager should be like that. Hospitality was a fascination. I thought I will start a hotel and so, post finishing my 10th at Jamnabai Narsee School, I decided to go to Switzerland to study hotel management. That was the first time I had travelled out of India. But I wasn’t enjoying staying there. So, when I came for my break after one year here, I told my mom in the car that I didn’t want to go back and was scared to ask her what dad would say. But I was surprised when I told him and he said, ‘Don’t worry, don’t go back. Do what you want to do in life. Go and get your transfer certificate back.’ I, of course, had packed up already from there and got back my TC already. At that age, I found it really hard to stay away from my family and didn’t enjoy studying about 112 types of glasses. I then went to UCLA to do my theatre and came back after two years, just finishing the course as I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to assist my dad on Deewane in which Ajay Devgn had a double role. Had I missed that chance, I would have had to wait for two years for him to do his next film. I then produced a film at 21 after which I decided that I wanted to act. My father produced and directed my first film as an actor, Love Story 2050.

Your first film was a disaster. How did you deal with it emotionally?
When I started, the hype and hoopla just happened without my having to have any role to play in it. Thankfully, I come from a film background where I have seen my dad’s successes and failures. My dad had luckily hedged out in Love Story 2050, so luckily, he didn’t lose money, but he had put in three years of his life in it. It was a family effort and so, there was no upper on the dinner table. Everybody was down. Nobody could cheer anybody. Till a week post the film released, we would not sleep wondering what went so wrong. Once on the dining table I said, ‘At least we made it to the top five disasters of the year’. My mum pretty much holds and binds all of us together, be it us four or our extended family. But your head gets into this dirty negative space. Everything feels wrong and you realise only later that actually it is not about life and death. Anyone and everyone who knew me helped me at that time. My room became my world. I also took a wrong decision to not sign anything until What’s Your Raashee? was complete. But that film too did not work and everything came to a halt. Strangely, I once met Anil Kapoor in an elevator. He said, ‘How are you? You are looking good’ and then said, ‘Yaar Harman, you should do a Hindi film. You have done some science fiction, some cricket film, with 12 girls, do a normal film.’ It was one of those things where the elevator reached and he said, ‘I got to go.’ But I realised he was right. And I decided to do a commercial Hindi film Dishkiyaaoon, coincidentally, with my gym friend Raj Kundra.

Who are you most attached to?
I am most attached to my sister Rowena. She understands me. If I am pissed off with her, she is not going to snap back at me. She will let go of my reaction and will come back in five minutes and scan through me and tell me my problem. She lets go. Our parents have brought us up as one unit, so we are very close. Till the age of 15, we shared our bunker bed that used to be in the kitchen till we lived in a one bedroom hall. We would watch TV through the slit in the door. She pretty much knows everything that is happening in my life.

Are you dating Bipasha Basu?
Yes. We knew of each other, but had never ever interacted until we met for the first time at Mr Bachchan’s 70th birthday bash. It’s natural to find her attractive. There are a lot of attractive people in the industry, but no one as attractive as her.

We just hit it off and ended up talking a little more than we should be and we are still talking. Our starting to see each other was very organic. Barring the fitness factor, we are very similar. She is a simple, straightforward and honest girl who is caring and loving. She has great energy, spiritually and realistically. She, too, is a foodie like me for sure, but her funda is clear: eat what you want, but work it out. My funda is pretty clear too — eat what you want and then we will figure it out. We both are morally very correct. For both of us, family and friends mean the most in the world and are both emotional, caring and simple. But she is too driven about fitness. She doesn’t like that I am not that driven. She is extremely punctual and doesn’t like the fact that I struggle being on time. Hum dono hi bahut weak hain emotionally so andho mein kana raja main hoon. I am emotionally stronger between us.

The media was absolutely unfair to me-Harman Baweja

Yes, I am dating Bipasha Basu-Harman Baweja

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