Connect Sajid Khan and dramebaazi...
For me, dramebaazi was a profession from the start. I was a poor kid. I needed the money. Our father’s film flopped and our house got sold off. We came down to a single room. There was a time around 1982-83, when I was around 11-12, my friend and I used to do action sequences and dance as Jeetendra-Sridevi on Juhu beach and earn a few bucks to go see films. I am basically a street dramebaaz at heart. We had two diaries in school — a blue one for attendance and a red one for non-attendance. As my red diary got fatter, I took my elder rakhi sisters from the neighbourhood to school posing as my mother. When one day my mother finally met the principal, she was told that two other ladies had met the principal earlier, claiming to be my mother.
Why didn’t you take (sister) Farah instead?
Once I took Farah as my elder brother (tongue in cheek, but voice deadpan).
How did you become a professional dramebaaz?
Farah is five years older to me. I used to sneak into her college programmes. At an inter-college show, there was a sound system problem and someone said: ‘Farah ka bhai mimicry achha karta hai, usko stage pe uthao’. For 15-20 minutes, I mimicked Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Rajinikanth, and the college crowd loved it. I realised there was money in entertainment and started doing mimicry in weddings. At 16, I got a card made — Sajid Khan, host, dost, DJ and mimicry artist — and distributed it at Santa Cruz station. Phone number baajuwale ghar ka tha!
“When I joined college, Sajid was the star attraction at every college show. The posters had his name in bold: ‘Host and dost Sajid Khan’. He came for the fillers in between acts. The fillers were so brilliant and made us laugh so much....” — Vivek Oberoi on fellow India’s Best Dramebaaz Sajid Khan in the Zee TV show
How seriously do the kids take a contest like India’s Best Dramebaaz?
Pressure bahut hota hai bachchon pe. I try to keep them at ease. I tell them this is not a matter of life and death. It depends on the parents. One can make out if a child is doing the show for his own khushi or because his mother is pushy. In one episode of India’s Best Dramebaaz, a mother came and said: ‘I could not become an actress. My daughter will be one’. But why should she?! Ask the kid what she wants to become! Seventy per cent kids come to the contest to have fun, 30 per cent come to win.
What has been your toughest moment as a judge?
One kid would not let go of me as he wanted the keeda. The keeda (a soft toy glove) is the entrance to the next round. But how do you give it to him when he had not been selected for the next round? And how do you tell the kid that ‘Beta, you are not in the next episode!’ For the first time, I was left speechless.
Do you get emotional when eliminating participants?
I never cry on TV. On India’s Got Talent (on Colors), there was one contestant whose legs were missing but he danced. Mere baju mein Sonali (Bendre) aur Kirron Kher — dono chaalu ho gaye — ek Dharma Production, ek Rajshri Pictures! Meri aankhein nam ho gayi par main roya nahin. I cried only when I read the reviews of Humshakals. Crying, I believe, is a personal thing. As personal as going to the toilet.
How was it post-Humshakals?
Earlier, I was making statements for the heck of it — Meri picture Rs 200 crore banayegi. Humshakals ke baad jo Sajid Khan bashing hua, it was unnecessary. But I told myself: ‘Tu ne bees saal TV pe khade hoke industry ko maara hai. Itna unka banta hai. Take it’. Humshakals was not that big a flop. It made Rs 65 crore. There have been bigger flops, but no one talked about it. I realised I used to be rude. Now I have changed.
What’s coming next?
I have my own comedy show coming up on TV. And two pictures — one with Disney UTV and another with Sajid Nadiadwala. We had stopped talking after Humshakals. Par satrah saal ki dosti mein do saal ka jhagra is okay.
ANCHOR SPEAK
Ravi Dubey on Rithvik Dhanjani: Rithvik is my best friend in the industry. Everyone has a liability in life... he is my liability!
Rithvik on Ravi: If he ever gets offended at anything I say, I am going to kick his ass.
Vivek Oberoi on Ravi-Rithvik: I see them backstage. Inki dosti itni kareeb hai, itni kareeb hai, itni kareeb hai ki Ravi ki agar shaadi nahin ho jati toh humko shaq hota!
Sudeshna Banerjee
(India’s Best Dramebaaz 2 airs Saturday-Sunday on Zee TV at 9.30pm)
Pictures: Sudeshna Banerjee
