Actor-presenter, radio jockey and theatre artiste Roshan Abbas turns director with a teenage romantic film, ‘Always Kabhi Kabhi’. The film, which stars Zoa Morani, Giselli Monteiro, Ali Fazal and Satyajeet Dubey in the lead roles, is produced by none other than the badshah of Bollywood — Shah Rukh Khan. The first time director says he has tasted blood with this film and hopes to direct many more films in the years to come.
Excerpts from the interview
■ You’ve turned director with Always Kabhi Kabhi, how has been the experience so far?
My young cast calls me ABBA (as in dad). I’m like the Big Daddy on the sets. We are a fun democratic team, my youngest assistant director is 19. The experience has been fabulous. I’ve learnt and experimented. We have tried a lot of things. And somewhere I had a great teacher to help me.
■ You recently said in an interview that being real is the in thing today. So how close is ‘Always Kabhi Kabhi’ to reality?
I sincerely feel that in the past few years we are increasingly heading to themes and settings that are real. ‘Ishqiya’, ‘Band Baaja Baarat’, ‘Udaan’, ‘Tere Bin Laden’ and ‘Phans Gaye Re Obama’ are all fun to watch and yet quite believable. Our film is a mirror to teens today. We have tried to keep the gloss but still keep the content true to what a teenager goes through today without being preachy. The only hint I can give you is a line from the film, “Kabhi Kabhi jo dil kahe, always wohi karein.” (Do what your heart tells you to do always).
■ What kind of research did you have to do for this film ?
I did workshops in Delhi, Pune, Lucknow and Mumbai on the issues that teens face, words they use, what is cool according to them and what is not. And the similarities across the board were striking.
■ Was it difficult to convince SRK for this film and why did you choose only him to produce your debut venture?
No it wasn’t difficult. He had heard of Graffiti and while hosting a show in Dubai when I mentioned that I was looking to do it as a film with teens, he was intrigued. We discussed it at length when we came back and I had some sketches and a bullet-point screenplay. We got cracking on the script and by August 2009 we were looking for our cast.
■ Isn’t it surprising that ‘Always Kabhi Kabhi’ is a Shah Rukh Khan production but does not star him in it?
A film by teens, about teens, with teens. We thought it was best to keep it focused on them.
■ Have there been any creative differences between you and SRK since he is producing the film?
We agreed up front that we would be honest and open with each other. When you have a man as sharp as SRK you make the best use of it. He would offer suggestions and we would discuss them. Amongst many small things the three things that he said, which I totally loved and incorporated were: Use of teen lingo, we got a young dialogue writer called Ishita Moitra for this. Setting the film in 2009 as opposed to 1999 so it is more relatable and contemporary. Choosing music composer Pritam as his sense of what works in music is incredible. SRK had once said: “Meri 71st film hai (as an actor or producer) teri first and I want it to be a success.” I was very touched by that!
■ Did he even help you in selecting the star cast of the film?
Yes. Giselli specifically because finding the girl who signifies your first love was tough. We needed an innocence in the prettiness. And Giselli has that in heaps.
■ ‘Always Kabhi Kabhi’ is an adaptation of the play Graffiti. How different or difficult it is when you adapt a play into a movie or vice versa?
A play is almost like dropping the fourth wall of a house and peeking in. But the viewer’s eye is fixed. The cinematic eye travels and so can open up new dimensions where one can take the viewers on a visual journey. Also cinema allows you to create a lot more atmosphere. By nature therefore plays become a lot more verbose. I feel cinema allows for many more layers. Realising and delivering this was a fun process. Since my cast was young we would hold workshops on my terrace. Characters from the play were deleted, some new ones were added and many themes that we could only hint at in the play became full-fledged threads here. And so Graffiti can only be looked on as an inspiration.
■ Is it true that you screened the film for 50 college students to see what they have to say about it?
Yes we did. At 40, I can only guess what teens want and we wanted to be sure. So we screened the rough cut of the film for two sets of teens trying different edits. And we did interval and post film surveys. They all said, Sam is just like me, I knew a Nandini in school, Tariq was my best friend, we had a crush on a girl like Ash. They identified with the language and the fun and games. They even suggested some changes, which we found valid and incorporated them.
■ So what’s next?
I’ve tasted first blood, now the vision can only get bigger. So many more films in the years to come.