The time slot for the interview was 1pm on Sunday. We reached The Oberoi Grand at 12.45pm and were asked to make our way up to his suite. At 12.50pm, Farhan Akhtar was ready and waiting. But then, that’s Farhan for you — a stickler for time, easygoing and always ready with a quip and a smile. Weary and sleepless, the man was still his usual chatty self when t2 sat down to talk about his latest production Raees, that’s opened big. And yes, expect a film from him soon. ‘Don 3’? He isn’t telling! 

You’ve always said you enjoy performing at college gigs, more than at any other venue. Looking forward to St. Xavier’s tonight?

Absolutely! It’s been a month since the last gig. It’s fun to perform on a college campus… my college performances across the country have, by far, been the most enjoyable. There is so much love that I always feel when I am performing on campus… it’s amazing. 

Raees has opened to good, if not great, numbers. Do you regret coming in with Kaabil?

We knew the reality of the situation… that we were coming in with another big film. But given everything, all of us — the team, the distributors, the exhibitors — are happy with how it’s going. We are about to touch (Rs) 100 crore and more importantly, people are liking the film and that shows us that we will have a slightly longer run. There’s no major release this coming Friday, and that also helps. I am happy that people are liking Shah Rukh’s performance, Nawaz’s (Siddiqui) acting… Rahul’s (Dholakia) direction…. 
And given the nature of the film — it’s a gangster story with violence… it’s cops and robbers — I felt that it would appeal predominantly to a masculine audience. But I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of women who have loved this movie (smiles). At many screenings, women have come up to us and said: ‘Kyon maara Shah Rukh ko?’ (Laughs) I was very impressed by it because I think the film is very macho-macho.

Shah Rukh has a very strong female fan base… 

That he does. But then your fan base will only be loyal to your good films. I am pretty sure they wouldn’t have liked his bad films, even if they are diehard fans (smiles).

There’s been so much talk from the Kaabil camp about the clash being unethical on your part. Couldn’t it have been avoided?

I don’t want to get into commenting on what other people have said. What’s important is that we felt that this period is good for us to release the film. Of course, Raees was first supposed to come in with Sultan (Id 2016), but then we weren’t ready. Then Dangal came along and we couldn’t have released then. The Republic Day weekend seemed perfect for us. We didn’t do it covertly… we went and spoke to the other people concerned and let them know that we are going to release our film. And at the end of the day, there are that many Fridays in a year and films will end up coming together once in a while. I feel a lot of this hoopla is being created by other parties as opposed to the people who are in the middle of it (smiles). All of us want to co-exist and release our films happily without stepping on anyone else’s toes... that’s what I feel.

Any regrets that you passed up on Nawaz’s role since you didn’t want to play a cop so soon after Wazir?

Honestly, it was something that was spoken about at a very preliminary stage. I was the one who actually recommended Nawaz to Rahul (smiles). But yes, playing a cop back-to-back was the reason I said ‘no’. 
I didn’t feel good about going from one similar role to another so soon. But then, who knew that Raees would take two years to be made? (Laughs) But then now when you look at Shah Rukh and Nawaz, you feel like they were born to play these parts, no?

So what is it about Raees that made you want to put your money on it?

Dimple Kapadia, who is a good friend of Rahul’s, called and said that he wanted to meet me with a script. I had seen his film Parzania and liked it very much. I met him and when I heard the script, I was quite thrilled because it immediately took me back to a certain genre of films I had grown up watching….

Like the kind your dad would write…

Absolutely! (Smiles) The typical Amitabh Bachchan films written by Salim-Javed. To top that, Rahul seemed pretty invested in wanting to make it. I told him that we should meet Shah Rukh with this because I felt he would be very good with this part. I put Rahul on to Shah Rukh after that and then director and actor took on from there and started doing their thing and I did my producer duties (smiles). 

Isn’t it incredibly tough for someone like you to just limit yourself to being a producer?

Not just me… any producer will have a certain creative contribution apart from just saying, ‘Okay, I am organising money to build a set for you!’ (Laughs) Whether it’s the producer, actor or the DoP (director of photography), everyone has certain ideas and thoughts when they read the script. We had a lot of discussions on Raees… I have been involved in the casting, the music and various other departments. 

Shah Rukh’s been Don in your reworking of the Amitabh Bachchan classic. Was that a reason to approach him for Raees?

Shah Rukh has this edge when it comes to playing a character with a slightly darker shade, so to speak. He’s always been our ‘anti-hero hero’. That’s how he started off with Baazigar and Darr and I feel he’s good at doing it. That’s also why I approached him for Don. He somehow has the ability to make even the dark appear human. 

And when will we see you direct a film next? It’s about time! 

(Laughs) I love the way you say it… it’s about time! At this moment, I am doing actor duties for Lucknow Central (co-starring Mirzya girl Saiyami Kher) and that ends in March. And then I have no plans after that… so yes, it’s maybe time I went on to making a film now. 

And will that be ‘Don 3’?

I really don’t know… though ‘Don 3’ is something that keeps rearing its head time and again. People don’t let me forget! (Laughs) Once every three or four months, there will be a random Twitter trend saying #WeWantDon3 (laughs). In fact, no matter what I put out on my social feed, the first few replies will always be the same. So if I am congratulating someone for the success of a film, someone will write: ‘We want Don 3’; if I say, my deepest condolences, someone will write ‘We want Don 3’; if I say I am fed up with something, the reply will be ‘We want Don 3’ (laughs out loud). People just don’t care… forget about how you are feeling, what mood you are in… you will be told ‘We want Don 3’.  Honestly, ‘Don 3’ is something in my head… we will come to it, we will come to it…. 

How do you explain the debacle of Rock On!! 2?

Couple of reasons… people couldn’t connect with what was happening in the film. We also got slammed because of demonetisation that happened just three days before release. It’s not cheap to watch a film and when that hit the country, watching a film was the least priority. You would rather buy food for your family. 

This is autobiography season in Bollywood. Any plans of writing one anytime soon?

I’ve actually just been sent Rishi Sir’s (Kapoor) book… Karan (Johar), if you are reading this, please send a copy!

Karan’s mentioned you quite a few times in his book…

He’s used my name and he still hasn’t sent me a copy?! Typical of him! (Laughs) Ya, but I am not too sure about writing mine, you know. It’s not a question of too early or too late… I guess when I am at a stage when I want to share my life, I will.

Farhan on the recent attack on fellow filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the Jaipur sets of Padmavati

It’s necessary now for the industry to come together collectively and raise our voices. Even as we speak, a movement is being initiated to ensure this protest gets a common voice. It’s a concern we all share. Today it’s him… tomorrow it could be any of us and, in fact, so many of us have already faced this.  

For whatever it’s worth, if someone is feeling offended by something they don’t even know about, there are ways to deal with it. All of us, in the past, have had to do the rounds of courts for some film or the other. If anyone has a grievance about a film, they should take recourse to the law… violence is not the way. This has now got into the space of bullying people, and that is something the industry needs to protect itself against. 

Honestly, I feel that everyone has the choice to watch or not watch a film. It’s not compulsory viewing… don’t like it, don’t watch it.… It’s a worrisome incident because things like these reinforce that we constantly have to work within boundaries set by people who have no business or authority setting them in the first place. When you function in a creative world, you need to have a certain amount of freedom to share what you want to… and the audience should have the right to reject it. When that order is disturbed by random elements, then that’s unacceptable.