The first Bollywood release of 2016 is the much-anticipated Wazir on Friday where Farhan Akhtar shares screen space with Amitabh Bachchan. The 41-year-old plays an ATS officer in the film directed by Shaitan man Bejoy Nambiar. t2 met the multi-hyphenate Farhan in his office in Santacruz, Mumbai. Constantly fidgeting with his beard, Farhan spoke about his earliest memories of Amitabh Bachchan, why the failure of Lakshya hurt and his plan for 2016.  

If the film’s promos are anything to go by, Wazir looks like it is more than just a thriller... 

It is. I think what Abhijat (Joshi, writer) and Vinod (Vidhu Vinod Chopra, producer) have done very successfully as writers for this film is marrying the thriller aspect with the emotional content. If this is not done well, what it can do is pull the film in two different directions. With a thriller, you want to maintain a certain kind of pace because you don’t want the audience to have the time to second-guess what is going on. When there is too much focus on that, a film can emotionally become shallow. 

This film has the drama that happens between Aditi (Rao Hydari) and myself as husband and wife and the drama between Mr Bachchan and me as friends. The film’s emotional content is quite high. The balance that they have managed to strike really impressed me a lot. 

Your father Javed Akhtar worked very closely with Mr Bachchan when you were growing up. Your families are friends. What is your earliest memory of him?

I think my most recalled memory of him is actually from the first film I saw in a theatre. It was Bombay To Goa (1972). That was the first time I saw him. Then Dad and Mom (Honey Irani) were very close to him and his family. So, a lot of time was spent in each others’ homes. Obviously, the adults were always doing their own thing, but it was always very exciting to see him because you’d see him in the movies. 

I have memories of the Holi parties and the kids’ birthday parties where he would be DJing. A lot of poets would come to our house and the setting would be very different from regular parties. There would be floor-seating and it would go on late into the night. Zoya (sister) and I would be told to sleep but we would peek from the stairwell. At times, when we would come down in the morning, they would all still be there! (Laughs) I guess they partied then how we party now. Just because they are our parents, we never imagined that they would have crazy parties! 

You directed Mr Bachchan in your second film Lakshya. Was the experience of working with him different this time around?

Yes, to a certain extent. It is a different kind of collaboration, so it is different. When you are directing, you are focused on many other things apart from the actor you are working with. I think working on Wazir will have a higher emotional recall for me. We have a lot of scenes together and they are all kinds of scenes... happy, sad, intense. Working with him, you feel like a film student. You just watch and discuss things. He loves rehearsing, which is cool because I don’t mind it either. Rehearsing with him gave me the opportunity to understand how he arrives at what he wants to do with the scene. It’s amazing to watch that process. 

Wazir is a rare film in your filmography where you have a lot of action to do. Did you enjoy it?

I had a great time. I have always loved action movies. I thought this was a long time coming because I have directed quite a few action scenes. There was a time when no matter what kind of film, there would be one action scene at the end where the police would arrive late! (Laughs) I grew up on such films. The films I had done before this... there were very small action bits and I was always at the receiving end of the action. In Rock On!! Arjun (Rampal) gives me a slap, in ZNMD (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) Hrithik (Roshan) slapped me, and in Karthik Calling Karthik, Ram Kapoor assaults me. There has been pent-up khunnas and bharaas inside me! (Laughs) I loved doing the action sequences. I didn’t feel out of my depth doing them. It is pretty involving… you have to remember the choreography and be aware of your surroundings because things can go wrong if you are not focused enough. 

You’d want to do a full-fledged action film?

Absolutely! I really enjoy the genre when it’s done well. 

Last year was good for you professionally with Dil Dhadakne Do garnering acclaim and shooting both Wazir and Rock On!! 2...

DDD is definitely a special film. I feel what Zoya and Reema (Kagti, writer) did was special. I like what Zoya does in her films. It was enjoyable to shoot both the films. 

Rock On!! 2 took you to Shillong where not too many film crews reach. Was it fun shooting there?

Shillong was amazing! This was my first time. It’s very rare when a crew has travelled to an outdoor location and every single person is sad to leave. It is a magical place. Usually, everyone is dying to get home but everyone wanted to stay back. We went to watch Papon at NH7 Weekender and he called me to join him on stage. We did a song together.

You started shooting Dil Chahta Hai in 2000 which means you’ve completed 15 years in the business… 

Weirdly enough, while it feels like a lot has happened but genuinely, it feels like it was only yesterday that I was making DCH. You normally don’t stop to think about the past unless someone asks you about it. When I do think back, I feel exceedingly thankful to have met the right people at the right time. And grateful to people who chose to trust me to work with them. 

What would you pick as your successes and failures?

Every film you make is a success in its own way because you started off to make something good. And regardless of what people might say, you’ve done all that you could. Of course, there is a whole other sweetness to the experience when the film is accepted. There is a lot of learning when a film doesn’t do well. So eventually everything does help you in some way or the other. 

Possibly the lowest point of my career would be when Lakshya didn’t do well at the box office. I felt low because it was such a hard film to make. After working that hard for that long, when it didn’t work, it upset me. The world that it was set in was completely out of my comfort zone. It was a difficult shoot. We spent five months in Ladakh. When you work that hard you feel it just has to work. In retrospect, it seemed like the film worked because I meet so many people who tell me that they love the film. Lakshya taught me the importance of moving on from a film. There is no single artiste who has only been successful. The acceptance of failure is just as important as the striving for success. 

One hears you are planning a three-month break after the release of Wazir...

Yeah! I need a break to re-focus on a couple of things. I’d want to do some writing. Also, there is a lot of music that I have written… or composed or I have an idea for. I just want to go into a studio and record them. I really don’t know how that music will release, but right now I need to get it out of my system and my head and not let it lie in my iPhone. 

Farhan Akhtar is Bollywood’s multi-hyphenate No. 1 because.... Tell t2@abp.in