Was Delhi-6 written post the success of Rang De Basanti?

Delhi-6 as a script was ready before Rang De Basanti. Just that Rang De happened before. It’s been there, under my pillow for a very long time.

But did the success of Rang De change anything about the Delhi-6 script?

Not really, but whatever mistakes I had made in Rang De I learnt from them and that I would have applied in my next piece of work. Whatever I learnt from Delhi-6, I will take it forward.

Were there mistakes in Rang De?

When I made Aks, I realised that I need to concentrate on screenplay. So I worked hard and tried to learn the science and art of writing the screenplay. I applied that both in Rang De and Delhi-6. Yes Rang De has been highly acclaimed critically and at the box office but I always felt that the characters can be deeper and you can tell a movie in less time. That’s what I have tried to bring in Delhi-6.

You did a Syd Field scriptwriting course. How much of Syd’s theories of plot points and hook points do you actually follow?

That’s the analysis of the script, not the writing. The pointers he mentions definitely help you a lot. But those are just guidelines. You go with the storyline and you go with your instincts. Post-scripting you can use Syd’s tools to see whether all those things that he mentions are there or not. Like Syd’s, there are many other theories. But each story is unique. You take Memento for instance, it goes backwards and that’s a completely new way of telling a story. And in Indian cinema our screenplays are also unique. We have different kinds of characterisations, different narration styles, we have songs, we have lyrics which take the story forward.

Is the story of Delhi-6 sourced from events of your life or are your childhood memories just anecdotes punctuating the story?

It’s just a backdrop. I am digging into my childhood memories and drawing out of my personal experiences to depict the colour, culture and tradition. The story is very different. It’s about Roshan played by Abhishek Bachchan who is a second-generation Indian in the US and he comes back with his ailing grandmother, played by Waheeda Rehman. In her old age, the fish wants to come back to the water she was born in. He comes here to settle her and in the process he gets absorbed by the people and the place. And in the middle of all that there’s somewhere the idea of India. What makes us tick… Also, the flipside of the coin is how we in India live in a very neighbourhood kind of a society. I am not talking about the new Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Delhi. I am talking about the heart of the country, like you will have in Calcutta or Hyderabad or Raipur or Bareilly or Jabalpur or Nagpur or Nasik or Coimbatore. Trying to understand that through the journey and how we are all living in difficult times and we are getting more and more divided and sub-divided. We need to learn to love each other much more than what we are doing today.

Rang De was a lot about a way of life and not really plot-driven. Is Delhi-6 similar in terms of treatment?

Delhi-6 also is not a plot-oriented film. It’s not like travelling from point A to point Z, crossing B, C, D and taking a right turn at E and then climbing a mountain at F and going down a slope at G. It’s not such a linear story. It’s more like a fabric. And like any fabric, this fabric is woven with various threads. It could be soft as silk, could be coarse as cotton, could be black, could be white, colourful… It’s basically about people as seen through the eyes of Roshan. That’s the genre… it’s family, romance, drama.

Did you really have casting problems with Delhi-6 as was constantly reported in the media?

I gave the script to Abhishek six years ago and I shot the film with him. Mumbai is a crazy place. There are too many tabloids and they need to fill up pages everyday. There are too many channels and they need to run 24/7. We virtually have scored our option one on everyone. Waheeda Rehman was first choice, Om Puri was first choice, Atul Kulkarni was first choice, Divya Dutta was first choice, Vijay Raaz first choice, Raghuvir Yadav first choice. Sonam was a fresh face. We needed a newcomer and didn’t know whom to cast. We went hunting and finally when we got Sonam, we were very happy. I was very lucky to get the wishlist which is a director’s dream. Rishi Kapoor, Prem Chopra, Om Puri… they come from different schools of acting. There was a very telling moment for me. We were doing rehearsals, a kind of a look test. On one chair there was Sonam and on the chair next to her was Waheeda Rehman. I entered the room and I saw them and I was like, oh my god, what was I getting into! Both of them and three generations in between. It was almost like a melting point.

A telling force for Rang De was Aamir Khan. Do you think Abhishek has also been able to lead from the front in Delhi-6?

Apples and oranges… both are good. Both have different tastes… they give different kind of satisfaction. One would give you iron and the other will give you Vitamin C. It’s difficult to compare human beings and different stories. Abhishek’s interpretation of the role has been very deep and very thoughtful. My brief to him was this is the football field out here, this is the boundary, there is the goal post. How you score a goal is up to you… the technique is yours, the art is yours, the craft is yours… the moment you commit a foul, I will blow the whistle. I am the coach and the referee out here. I am not playing the game. If you go out of character, I will blow the whistle… If you go out of the story, I will blow the whistle. Within that if I am not looking you can do a ‘Hand of God’ goal also.

Is that the same way you work with your crew? Because everyone from A.R. Rahman to Prasoon Joshi to Binod Pradhan give their best in your films…

They are the think-tank of the film. Rahman and Prasoon, of course. There’s Binod, (P.S.) Bharti (his wife, the editor of his films) Nakul (Kamte, sound designer)… we all discuss, meet, go on site long before we are making the film. And things just happen. I let them be organic and each one knows their craft zillion times better than I do. So the sense of space given to each other… the space to express… because it’s not only our work, it’s our life. I guess that kind of freedom we all enjoy. That shows in the final work. Of course, it all has to be directed but each one of them have their own style and flavour.

Is there a spiritual connect as well? The music certainly has…

The movie is a very Renaissance kind of Sufi film, in its own way. The moment you say that you can get misinterpreted, but it is entirely subconscious. I have given the tagline to the film — the journey within. That says it all but these are all fine print to the film. How the film is interpreted depends on the audience. It doesn’t remain my film after the release. Piece by piece, 50 rupees by 50 rupees, it is taken away from me. It is a beautiful art, a modern art and it is also huge on commercial responsibilities. Because filmmaking has become expensive.

Are you under pressure because it’s your next film after Rang De or because of the recession period we are going through?

Rang De is a tough act to follow. You can’t close your eyes to that. Your previous success becomes your biggest enemy. It’s like a double-edged sword. Commercially there is always pressure because you do not want to compromise and you want to do things your way. We had to spend Rs 1 crore to shoot in Chandni Chowk… to recreate that. I can’t do a filthy version of Chandni Chowk. If I am shooting in Esplanade, it has to be Esplanade.

People came out angry after Rang De and started a movement. How do you want people to react to Delhi-6?

I hope they have a good time. I hope that they think that the time they have given me, the two-and-a-half hours, was well spent and worth it. And I hope I can touch a corner of their hearts. There is this sea of love that we have within us and it just needs to be pricked to ooze out and flow. I hope one can get to that side of it. We have brought war to our cities, our homes… 9/11, 26/11… we have to figure out what’s happening. At best it’s a mirror to that.

What are your expectations from Delhi-6? Tell t2@abpmail.com