Aftab with Aamna Sharif in Aao Wish Karein

Actors turn producers under two circumstances. One, when they want to have the lion’s share of the profits their star status generates. Two, when they have stopped generating profits for a while and so no producer will cast them. We wonder which bracket Aftab Shivdasani falls into! The actor-turned-producer, of course, has other — more honourable — reasons to cite. Here’s hearing out the actor-producer-scriptwriter of Aao Wish Karein, releasing this Friday...

Why did you turn producer all of a sudden? How long have you been planning Aao Wish Karein?

This has been brewing for two-and-a-half years. The initial idea was to make a film the way I wanted to make it. I got very excited about this script... in fact, I co-wrote it (with Ravindra Manga). The excitement levels were so high that I went ahead and produced it myself because I wanted to take full control of the project.

Was it turning out to be difficult to find a producer for the film?

Not really. See, when someone else produces a film, the remote control lies with him and he calls all the shots. I wanted to call the shots for this film. I wanted to look after every single detail associated with the film. More than anything else I produced Aao Wish Karein because my passion is at the optimum with this film.

From where did you get the idea of Aao Wish Karein?

I had the idea with me for about five years about a boy ‘becoming big’. But I never really put pen to paper. We had made a rough draft but it wasn’t really concrete. In December 2007, I came across a song called Sabse peechhe hum khade in Let’s Enjoy which was very inspirational for me. That’s when I got excited and I pulled out that rough draft. I decided to rewrite it and make the movie myself.

Did you always have yourself in mind when you wrote the script?

If I co-wrote it and wanted to produce it, I wanted to act in it myself. I didn’t want to do it for someone else.

The concept of Aao Wish Karein of a boy ‘becoming big’ to woo a girl sounds straight out of Tom Hanks starrer Big. It is also similar to 13 Going On 30...

In terms of its concept, it’s a very simple concept, which you can’t call Western or Indian. Aao Wish Karein is not inspired from anything but the germ of the idea may be similar to the films that you mentioned. But that’s all. It must be a coincidence because I have written the script totally... totally imaginatively!

You had done a film like Mr Ya Miss where a man goes inside the body of a woman and here you play a boy inside the body of a man. Was it difficult?

It was a challenge because you are literally at the borderline of a boy-man situation. I had to look convincing as a man who is a 12-year-old in his head. It wasn’t easy but I think I managed to pull it off. At the end of it all, it was about adapting to the body language of a 12-year-old.

Amitabh Bachchan is playing a 13-year-old in the body of a 65-year-old in Paa. Wrong time for Aao Wish Karein to release?

I think Paa deals with a scientific(!) problem. I don’t know what it’s called. [The, er, medical condition is called progeria.] So, it’s in a different space altogether. My film has nothing to do with medical science. It’s a fantasy film where a boy makes a wish of turning ‘big’. The two subjects are like chalk and cheese.

Why did you cast Aamna Sharif?

We were shooting for Aloo Chat when we cast her. I needed a fresh face and I also needed someone who is conventionally good-looking. The character she plays is almost like a fairy on earth. Someone about whom the entire neighbourhood is crazy. She is almost intangible. Aamna fit the bill perfectly.

Aao Wish Karein is a very small film compared to the biggies releasing with and around you. Does that worry you?

Not at all. Films in terms of scale have never concerned me. That has only concerned the trade. The subject of a film should reflect the scale and we have given the subject the scale it deserves.

Was this a one-off thing or will you produce more films?

It will depend on good scripts. I am not shutting doors, nor am I opening doors. I just don’t know where it will take me but I just enjoyed the process of production.