In India, to achieve 80 per cent of excellence, you have to put in 100 per cent effort. To achieve the other 20 per cent of excellence, you have to put in another 100 per cent effort.” 

No, this isn’t the story for the sequel of Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots. It was Rahul Bose  — in conversation with author Jash Sen —  speaking to a group of young minds on a sunny Monday afternoon at Victoria Memorial, as part of Tata Steel Kalam Children’s Literary Meet, in association with The Telegraph. 

Set to return to direction 16 years after his first film Everybody Says I’m Fine, Rahul, 49, tells the remarkable real-life story of Poorna, a Telangana tribal who climbed Mount Everest at age 13 in the eponymously titled film releasing on March 31. 

BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE

Right from when I was a child, I knew I wanted to do something that was close to who I was. I knew I could write well and I liked the English language. I loved acting and I read copiously. That’s when I thought of advertising and working as a copywriter. I enjoyed advertising and though there is some sort of applied creativity, there is no pure storytelling in it. Acting happened and that’s where I found myself. And then directing happened.

I didn’t want to direct a film… I wanted to write a story and when I wrote it… I felt it could become a film. I directed my first film Everybody Says I’m Fine 16 years ago and now I have directed Poorna… that’s hardly a filmography as a director. I did it only because I wanted to do it again. 

I have never worried about having a career… I have only thought about doing what I want to do, to the best of my ability, and retain a kind of fearlessness about what tomorrow holds. That’s easy if you are relatively well off but it’s tough if you have to feed yourself every day. But I am probably the only one who lives like this among all my well-off friends… they are scared of everything. 

In a world that teaches you to be fearful of everything — I am especially talking about women — you can hardly afford to be fearful within. 

Like when I played rugby, I should have died when I saw the Kazakhstan players on the field — they are all 6ft-plus… they could devour me for breakfast! But I didn’t let that fear get to me. 

You have to kill yourself working!

When I got the script of Poorna, I was bowled over. At 13, she’s the youngest girl in the world to climb Mount Everest. Look at the hurdles she had to cross — being a girl in this country, being poor in this country, being uneducated in this country, being tribal in this country. These are four big weights around anyone’s ankles… how can you take even one step with them, leave alone climb Everest?! She’s just spun gold out of thin air! 

You just have to figure out what drives you in life — for me, stories like these do… I have been working 15-hour days for the last 19 months. Malcolm Gladwell (author and public speaker) spoke about 10,000 hours of work before you get to some level of excellence… it’s absolutely true. You have to work every day… you have to kill yourself working!
And I almost killed myself working on Poorna! It’s a film that required a lot physically from the cast and crew. I had to plan this film like a military expedition. We used the best technology available and yet it was a nightmare to shoot… so hard, so slow. Sikkim at 15,000 ft, thigh-deep in snow… 

Every day we would wake up at 3 and get to the location at 5.30am and start climbing up. The only thing that keeps you going with things like these is that first, the story is worth telling and second, you know it’s going to look amazing on screen. 

Our rugby coach from New Zealand used to tell us ‘Leave your body on the field’. That means give it all you have… then whether you have won or lost, you can walk away with satisfaction. And I’ve realised it’s the best way to live. And that’s what working on Poorna has also taught me. 

I NEVER TREAT KIDS LIKE KIDS

Since there are so many young minds here today, I want to say that I talk to kids like human beings… as long as you use words they understand. I never talk down to my niece, Alia. I believe that children of today need to watch a lot more films. Poorna is not a children’s film… it deals with some serious issues. Yet, it’s such an inspirational film for kids. 

The real Poorna is an extraordinary girl… she’s 16 now and wants to be an IAS officer. She climbed Everest at 13… when I was 13, I was playing cricket and complaining about chemistry... she said she did it because she wanted to simply show that girls can do it! 

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Look at the hurdles Poorna had to cross — being a girl in this country, being poor in this country, being uneducated in this country, being tribal in this country. These are four big weights around anyone’s ankles… how can you take even one step with them, leave alone climb Everest?!

AUDIENCE ASKS

How much has sport helped you pursue your creative ambitions?

Sport teaches you to lose… get up the next day, dust yourself, swallow your failure and begin all over again. Sport taught me how to be focused… how to cut off the noise.

Rugby, acting, or direction — what do you enjoy most? 

Drinking beer! But honestly, it’s a tough choice. When I crossed that white line for the first time playing for India in 1998 in Singapore, I can’t think of a moment that’s given me more happiness. Direction gives me much more happiness than acting, but it’s such hard work. And acting lets me be so many people I haven’t been. You are asking me to choose between chocolate brownie, gooey chocolate cake and moist cake with chocolate mousse. I’ll take it all… and, of course, beer!