Did you have doubts about Rang De Basanti?

When I wrote the film, Rakeysh asked who?d watch it. I used to define this film in jest as a Yash Chopra film gone wrong. I respect Yashji but this film was so different from the designer films being made. Beyond good music and some weepy scenes, they have nothing more to offer.

I grew up on a different kind of cinema ? 50s, 60s, 70s ? which, besides being entertaining, was aware of what was going on around us. Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, V. Shantaram, Bimal Roy.... Film is like literature. The kind of writing you grow up on, that comes out of you when you start writing. hose films have gone into my DNA. I cannot write a song-and-dance movie.

When you want to entertain, you write a Chaalbaaz...

That happened because Sridevi, Anupam, Rohini, Pankuj (Parashar) and I had such fun on the sets. That got reflected in the film. I worked on the story, screenplay and dialogues. Pankuj helped with the screenplay. He has a wacky sense of humour, like me. We had done Jalwa together, which is quite irreverent in many places.

You did many Bollywood movies in between...

I did some very bad films, a lot of south Indian remakes. The reason was a) money and b) after I did Tezaab, I became part of the Boney Kapoor camp. Whichever film Boney wanted to remake, I had to be there. They were done in that spirit. Like I was writing Dil, when Javedsaab could not complete Beta. I had to step in. There was a period when all the Anil-Madhuri films were done by me. The audience then was not so divided as it is now.

When did you start out?

I started with Ankahi for Amol Palekar. That was, I think, 1986. I have not done more than 35 films. Others like Kader Khan are doing 35 a year. They have a manufacturing facility which I do not have, 30 assistants who are writing X-Y-Z films. I don?t have assistants. I love writing movies. Would you ask your assistant to make love to your girlfriend? Never.

How did you get into TV?

I was with Rediffusion. My friend Ashok Kurien was on the board of Zee TV. He made me join as the first head of programming in the country. Luckily I knew nothing of TV, so we could break all rules.. Antakshari, Horror Show, Campus, Banegi Apni Baat, Tara, game shows... There were three lakh letters from viewers every week. But after four years I got tired. I began to miss my writing.

Was returning to films difficult?

I knew Rakeysh for a long time. He knew Amitabh Bachchan as they were doing BPL ads. We got talking. That?s how my first script Samjhauta Express was born. It was meant to launch Abhishek. But Rakeysh was new and J.P. Dutta was a big director. Border was a hit. So Abhishek signed Refugee.

Samjhauta too had a Indo-Pak subject but a different story. I still feel Samjhauta would have been a better launchpad for Abhishek. Amitji asked if I had anything else. I had Rang De, which was called Aahuti then. I narrated the idea to Jayaji. She said Abhishek is just beginning, maybe it?s not right. Perceptually the film is so ground-breaking maybe she felt a little insecure. Nothing had been done in Indian cinema with that kind of a backward-forward structure.

Were you part of Aks as well?

Yeah. I wrote the screenplay and the dialogue in the hope that my Samjhauta would get made. I didn?t have full faith in the story of Aks. It was an interesting idea but what it lacked was humour, relief. The relationship between husband-wife was not working. But Manoj and Amitji were remarkable? Perhaps today it would have been more successful.

What came next?

Then I wrote Aahuti, and changed the name to Young Guns. Then I changed it to Rang De Basanti to remind me of the spirit of the film, of Bhagat Singh ? that was his line ? his spirit coming back to haunt the youth of 2001. We took it to producers. They all rejected it. When Aamir heard it, he loved it and said he wanted to do it. And then Rahman came on board. Things became easier after that.

Did you dump TV?

I was so cynical after Aks. In the next four years, I wrote Dilli 6, which Rakeysh is doing now, Awaaz, Bhairavi without knowing whether these films would ever get made. I was on the verge of returning to advertising. But once Aamir came, I decided to wait. I knew either Rang De will drop dead, or it will be huge. On January 28, I went to a college convocation in Bandra. The film had been released two days ago. My picture was there in an afternoon daily. One of the volunteers recognised me and word spread. I was mobbed by 300 students. I am no Shah Rukh or Salman. This must have been a first in India that a poor writer was getting mobbed.

What is Dilli 6 about?

It?s a comedy about old Delhi?the Jama Masjid area. One night we were walking in the area for research. One boy, who was fighting with others, shouted: ?Haath na lagana, Dilli chhay ka launda hoon?? I said ?Rakeysh, that?s the title.? It?s not a comedy like Golmaal or Garam Masala. It?s on attitudes and idiosyncracies of old Delhi. Abhishek is in the lead. We have Waheeda Rehman, Kirrron Kher, Om Puri? After that, we are doing Bhairavi, which has all three Bachchans in it.

What is your Balaji connection?

While waiting for Rang De to release, I ideated for Kahanii Ghar Ghar Ki and Kavyanjali. Daily soaps are a monster. They need help to take a story forward. What Ektaa has done is she has added glamour. Now I have given them a concept for Thodi si Zameen, Thoda sa Aasman starring Smriti Irani. It is as realistic as it gets and is very unlike Balaji. If it works, it will open doors for many such shows. The remote is with the women.