00:00 How much was the presence of Aamir Khan, how much did that contribute to the success etc?
00:10 Tremendously, just like he disturbed Mela, he helped create Raja Hai Doost Dhani, so
00:17 I will be honest here, just like your sari black and white, no greys or bold, the beautiful
00:23 one you are wearing. Aamir was my childhood friend again, we both live in Pali Hill, members
00:34 of Time Pass gang, another friend of mine Keval, who was a connect, and Aamir was also
00:42 in Bombay Scottish, from where I am, same age, and though I didn't do luthiery with
00:50 him, when I met him and he was as keen as I was to work with him, and I have this huge
00:57 star called Sunny Deol behind me, Aamir was big but had not reached heartland of India
01:03 by then, in spite of 10 years, much respect to him, which he became with time, Shah Rukh
01:11 had come recently, he had become Salman, for some reason Aamir had not gone, he was more
01:15 elitist, select, Mumbai city, Delhi city, Bangalore city, so I told him you are Naseer
01:23 Hussain's son, grandson, and your father made nephew, sorry, and your father made Karwa,
01:33 so you have no business ignoring, Karwa ran from China to Chandigarh to, you know what
01:39 I am saying, I reminded him, Yadav ki bara, churali and all, so Aamir come on man, I am
01:46 also wanting to do that, but I asked him one thing, and I give him credit that he answered
01:52 me for that, you know I can be very soft but very forthright, when I met him for the film,
01:58 Murani said let's both of you make a film, and Bunty Surma who passed away, I must take
02:03 his name, he was also, Karim Ali and Bunty Surma, he passed away very sadly, I am still
02:10 very good friends with his wife Neelam, beautiful Julia Roberts, and when they fixed a meeting,
02:20 I said meeting producer fix karenge, chahe I am dos ki now, so I told him Aamir, how
02:27 many directors will be there in this film, he looked at me like that, I said because
02:32 I believe people say, but I am concerned, it may not, people don't necessarily the
02:36 right thing, everyone has their own experience, so he said, Davas of course, Dharmesh, there
02:42 will be one director, I have learnt that a film is made by a director's instinct, he
02:50 said that, he said that, he said that, he taught me that further, he defined what I
02:54 had not been able to elucidate, and he also said, but will you allow me to participate,
03:02 but of course I said that's why I am working with Aamir Khan, interfere you will not, I
03:08 will take the heroine I want to take, I will take the song I want to take, I will take
03:13 the Archana Puran Singh Navneet Nishan I want to take, I will shoot the kissing scene I
03:19 want to shoot.
03:20 Was that already in the script?
03:23 It was narrated with short division to Karishma Kapoor and Aamir Khan, with short division,
03:30 because it was a long, it's a ten minute sequence, it's not a kiss, it's a kissing sequence,
03:35 first they come running under the tree, very passage to India E.M.
03:39 Foster, they go to Malabar caves, now someone will say where E.M.
03:44 Foster and where Raja Hindustani, but that's the brilliance of Hindi cinema if you have
03:48 done homework, E.M.
03:50 Foster's book and David Lean's version of Passage to India, and it was very inspiring
04:00 for me to fit that into a popular film, so I changed Malabar caves into Ooty's tree,
04:06 it was a location called School Mantra, okay, it's a eight minute sequence, nine minute,
04:12 ten minute sequence, "Kitna Pyara Tujhe", finishes the sermon, "Tu hai pagal, tu hai
04:19 jogar, tu hai dil barjani", she says, "Sabse pyara mera yaara, Raja Hindustani", and they
04:27 go, suddenly there's a storm, you know when nature will something, what is human, they
04:33 go running up the hill to this tree to take shade, this whole sequence, suddenly a storm
04:40 comes, they have no awareness of their sexuality, they are both of a certain image, they are
04:47 virtually very innocent, and suddenly she becomes aware, of him as a male, he was always
04:59 fascinated with her, so it's a very tricky sequence in Hindi cinema in a family film
05:04 where a girl is discovering her sexuality, please understand, and it's not in your face,
05:11 then she calls him, she can't resist him, and it breaks into a kiss, and then she wakes
05:18 up suddenly, and then she wants to run away from her lack of inhibition, she's so comfortable
05:26 being in an inhibition, and then she runs down, and there's hordes of sheep, and the
05:34 trees are moving, that's the sequence, so that's why it took time, you know, with the
05:40 storms, it was freezingly cold, minus 2 degrees, in 3 days we shot, in Ooty, and the actors
05:48 were so cooperative, and these are quality actors, are you getting what I'm saying, Amir
05:54 Khan, Karisma Kapoor, W V Rao the cameraman, you know, and the challenge with me was to
06:01 keep them warm, because they can't get typhoid in one day, you know, because they are human
06:06 and they are soaked, so between shots, because it's got some 100 cuts the sequence, you know,
06:11 so I used to serve them brandy, which warms you up, now they were having so much brandy
06:17 that they had no control, and I can't have, I'm also getting wet with them, standing right
06:22 with them, so they don't feel, but I can't have the brandy, so I can be ill that day,
06:28 and whether Slobo's shot separate or Amir's shot separate, so I, and what I was so proud
06:33 of Bharti was we kept the kissing sequence so long for the censors, and they gave us
06:40 voluntary, they passed the whole thing, we had to submit voluntary cuts.
06:46 You cut it yourself?
06:47 Yeah, that we cut it, we don't want it so long, we thought that we cut it.
06:50 Because you thought they are going to cut it, the censors will cut it.
06:53 Therefore you shot more than you required.
06:54 I shot more, I kept more than you required.
06:58 And then ultimately you kept more.
06:59 I kept more also, that they will pass, they will cut something, you know.
07:05 Imagine a U certificate film, without any strings.
07:08 But isn't this true that for the censor board screening, Amir was also present?
07:14 Definitely.
07:15 And that he was also, you know, partaking, convincing.
07:16 He believed in the film, convincing.
07:17 To convince the board.
07:18 No, he didn't convince, he took the compliment, they didn't need any convincing.
07:23 They called us after the screening to compliment us.
07:29 So there are times where I believe Raj Kapoor used to convince and you get convinced with
07:33 his belief in itself.
07:34 They didn't need convincing.
07:37 Instead they complimented, this is very beautifully done, I give them the credit.
07:42 How ahead were they?
07:44 And it's nice and it's traditional and it's liberated, to which I said Indians are very
07:49 liberated people.
07:50 But you do have this obsession for kissing scenes, no?
07:53 You had it in Lutere also.
07:55 And Mela, with Trinket and Amir, but not in Dhadkan, not in Begapa.
08:03 Exception.
08:04 Very quiet.
08:05 See, I am Bharati, I have no problem with people snogging, smooching, kissing, lip kissing.
08:13 I don't believe in moral policing in that matter.
08:16 It's much better than negativity.
08:19 It's better than violence, roads, rash driving, India has the highest rate.
08:23 What's there in a kiss man?
08:25 And she had no problem, she had never done a kissing scene before.
08:29 Never.
08:30 She was totally, I told her these cuts, this kiss, this, and when you go back into the
08:34 house the kiss is rougher.
08:36 When you look back you over dramatize things.
08:38 She said every cut the way you say.
08:40 I say I am making her a complete white churidar kurta with a sarwar kameez, there's not this
08:45 much skin show, the background is not like sexy.
08:48 That's music, you know.
08:50 I said it's a beautiful sequence.
08:53 She said you don't have to tell me so much.
08:55 Instead she said this.
08:56 Then I called Babita ji inside and narrated that sequence because she was a very young
09:01 girl.
09:02 So the mother can influence, you know what I mean to say.
09:05 And she had a good image also.
09:08 Lolo was not a very noisy girl.
09:10 She could come across loud or you know, but she was by nature, she by nature is a soft
09:16 girl, vulnerable.
09:17 A good daughter, a good mother.
09:20 Nice girl.
09:21 So you mentioned it to Babita ji and got an okay from her.
09:28 Completely.
09:29 Babita ji sat through the three days of the shoot.
09:32 And I didn't simply send your mother from here and all.
09:36 That's rare.
09:38 I said let her sit.
09:39 Oh, you're not doing anything wrong.
09:42 And then sitting you, and the entire thing, and actually producers have to recover the
09:46 thing.
09:47 They wanted to make a poster of the smooch.
09:49 I didn't allow it.
09:50 I said no, she'll salute like that and Aamir will do that dance movement.
09:54 Today that thing is there in WhatsApp, you know, that movement, if you see, of a dance
09:59 movement, what do you call that symbol, you know.
10:03 And that is the poster of Raja Hindustani.
10:05 He's just doing that, you know.
10:07 So a combination.
10:08 So it's not like you made it crassly commercial by cashing in on it.
10:13 No, no, it's a turning point.
10:15 And in the film, in the theater, I was aghast.
10:17 I thought the film has failed because there's total silence and I watched it all over the
10:21 country.
10:22 It's not just Bombay, not a city.
10:23 It's the city came at Pardesi Jaana Nahi, which comes after that when Pratibha entered
10:29 with her, you know, kamar and all that.
10:31 I use Pratibha differently again, as a dancer, gypsy, you know, superb actress.
10:39 I like the way you're singing.
10:40 Please sing.
10:41 I remember that.
10:48 Thank you.
10:53 (upbeat music)
Comments