Katrina Kaif, Sidharth Malhotra and their Baar Baar Dekho director Nitya Mehra walk in and the first thing they spot is the spread on the table — pinwheel sandwiches from The Lalit Great Eastern and red velvet cupcakes from Paris Cafe.
Sidharth Malhotra: Wow, these look so nice! (Points to the cupcakes)
Katrina Kaif: Yeah, they are soooo pretty! Do they taste good?
Team t2: Yes!
Katrina: Then let me eat one (with a guilty smile). Hmmmm… these are really good… this is yummy (finishes off a cupcake in three mouthfuls). Oh, this looks nice (points to a Kala chashma story in an earlier edition of t2 on the table).
Nitya Mehra: Is the song doing well at the nightclubs?
Pramita Ghosh (Team t2): It’s the number one track at the nightclubs now. And everyone’s got the steps bang on.
Nitya: Excellent! Well, they (Katrina and Sidharth) tried to make me do the steps today and I didn’t know the ‘S’ of it! (Everyone laughs)
Sidharth: Well, we’ve been doing it in trams… at Metro stations… everywhere!
Priyanka Roy (Team t2): Baar Baar Dekho has a lot of audience hooks — the songs are awesome, the chemistry between you guys is fresh and fun and the film has an intriguing premise of shuffling between the present and future. What is it about the film that made you two want to sign up?
Sidharth: All of these, actually. The first time I heard the narration was in a conference room exactly like this. I remember I was eating and trying to look like this (points to a bulked-up Sidharth in a t2 interview for his 2015 film Brothers). I think she (Katrina) was distracted by how much I was eating!
Nitya: He ate six times during the narration! (Everyone laughs) And I was like, ‘What happened to my character?!’
Sidharth: It was very thrilling to hear the narration from zero. You don’t know what’s going to happen next… you don’t know where the love story is heading. I loved the whole process of how she narrated the love story… it has a new concept which asks you what you would do if you could see the future of your love story. It’s a story relevant to the youth of today where we are all concentrating on our professional lives… making financial and personal goals. And it talks about commitment-phobic guys and how they get cold feet…. (Suddenly spots Katrina poring over a t2 splash on Bollywood’s male hotbods) And Katrina is now staring at men! (Everyone laughs and Katrina looks up from the paper with a guilty smile) Anyway, the title was different at that time…
Priyanka: What was it called?
Nitya: ‘Kal Jisne Dekha’. I thought it had a serious connotation, though I am not saying this isn’t a serious film. But then Baar Baar Dekho seemed perfect… it just had the correct twang.
Priyanka: Katrina, what about you?
Nitya: She’s currently staring at abs! (Everyone goes LOL)
Katrina: By the way, my favourite look among all of these (points to the splash that ‘uncovers’ Shah Rukh Khan to Hrithik Roshan, Ranveer Singh to Varun Dhawan) is Sid’s from Brothers (Sidharth sported a full beard and bulked up close to 95kg for the film co-starring Akshay Kumar). The first schedule for Baar Baar Dekho was in Scotland and it just casually slipped out, ‘Why don’t you maintain that Brothers look? Why don’t you look like that all the time?’ He was like: ‘Huh?!’
Sidharth: And I am playing a professor (Jai) here!
Nitya: I heard her talking to him about this and I was like, ‘What about my character?’ Geez!
Katrina: I think he really looks good like that! In fact, even on the plane last night I was telling him to go back to that look.
Sidharth: I think it’s an intimidating and aggressive look.
Katrina: I love it… I think it’s a great look. So coming back to your question (smiles), I had heard down the grapevine that Nitya Mehra is making this film… it didn’t come to me and was in the air somewhere. I did know it was something about going back or ahead in time. So I went in for the narration thinking it would be a period film… the typical thing of going back in time and reincarnation and stuff…. And I kept waiting and thinking when will they go into the past because it sounded so much like a today’s film. And then when the journey ended, it really took me by surprise because I didn’t really expect such a clever use of time in a love story. I was really engrossed in the narration to a point where it started to connect with me as a woman. At the end of it, just like he (points to Sidharth) was eating, I was crying! You know the typical thing… men eating, women crying (she rolls her eyes and everyone laughs). When she finished reading, I had full tears (running) down my face. Then I went out to the terrace — we were at (the film’s producer) Karan Johar’s house and I was still crying! Nitya was like, ‘What’s wrong?!’
Nitya: No, I love it when people cry! (Everyone laughs) That’s because my job is done.
Katrina: It’s really hard to make someone cry by reading out of a paper… you aren’t watching a movie. The journey my character Diya goes through… I could relate to it so much. I believe most women will relate to some part of Diya’s journey. There was no question about it… I had to do the film.
Priyanka: The chemistry between you and Sidharth is a huge talking point. What did it take to conjure that up?
Sidharth: Some chemicals… we had to be inebriated, you know! (Laughs out loud even as Katrina pokes his shoulder) I think Nitya would be more apt to answer that….
Just then, a chocolate cake — with replicas of Sidharth and Katrina in the trademark Kala chashma pose, courtesy Paris Cafe — is brought in.
Katrina: Wow… that’s so cute!
Sidharth: Arre, that’s you and me doing Kala chashma!
Katrina: This looks so delicious! All you girls don’t want me to have my abs, na? (Everyone laughs) This is sooo cute… this is sooo good.
Sidharth: Okay, I am clicking a picture of this.
Katrina: Wait, let me hold it (Katrina and Nitya pose with the cake as Sidharth goes click-click on his iPhone)
Another round of ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ follows as some Kala chashma-themed cupcakes are brought in.
Sidharth: Now let’s eat, yaar. Stop, stop, stop feeling her up! (Removes Katrina’s hand from her cake replica)
Nitya: She’s cute!
Sidharth: Katrina, just cut it.
Sidharth and Katrina cut the cake as Katrina sings ‘Happy birthday to Kala chashma… Happy birthday to The Telegraph, if it’s your birthday!’)
Sidharth: This cake looks really yummy, guys.
Katrina: (gives a bite of the cake to Nitya) Nitya, first! Sid, big bite. Eat it all! You guys have really been feeding us good stuff… but I haven’t forgotten your question. You were asking us about the chemistry. I can describe our journey and the process in a very condensed way. I think on some days we (Sidharth and she) love each other and on some days we hate each other. On some days, we’re best friends, on some days we are not friends at all. On some days we want to sit and talk for hours and on some days we sit like this (turns her back on Sidharth and crosses her arms in mock anger). And I think that’s been our journey of the film… which is also what’s there in the movie.
t2 mug autographed by him
Nitya: Which is exactly how relationships are. So it is actually amazing because they are actually living that relationship.
Katrina: Ya.. and some days he would be pulling my hair and I would be (mimes elbowing him)…
Sidharth: There were bruises, yeah.
Katrina: Well, that’s the fun explanation of it…
Sidharth: I’ve been scarred!
Katrina: But Sid has made it very easy to work together in the film. I think there was a certain trust that you need to have as two actors. Because it is a personal profession, I guess. Acting is a profession, but it is still very intimate. When you are doing a love story, you need that kind of trust that the person in front of you has got your back… That their intentions are right and it is about the film. I think Nitya gave us the scope to do that in the workshops.
Sidharth: Also in this love story the boy and girl do not… (Gets distracted by the sandesh and Mishti Doi that’s brought in). Arre, more meetha? When do we talk? We are only eating!
Katrina: You guys need to stop!
Nitya: Oh, mishti doi! I want that, but then I am having coffee! Okay, later. I’m going to take it with me.
Pramita: Calcutta is all about food...
Nitya: I love Cal. I was here years ago for The Namesake. That’s all we did... eat!
Chandreyee Chatterjee (Team t2): Is knowing the future of your relationship a boon or a curse?
Nitya: I think it is a boon, but then it’s never going happen to you.
Sidharth: If you are scared, and that’s how Jai, the character I play, is — highly commitment-phobic and he thinks that he will get bogged down and not get to do the things that he wants to do if he commits — then it is an interesting experience to have… to know (the future). But even after knowing, you might have different reactions. Maybe you wanted more, maybe you wanted to change things, to improve things, to learn things out of it. I think that’s the interesting thing, how you react to it. I personally would not want to know, I think. There is so much excitement in living each day.
Nitya: I think I’d love to know. I think there are experiences and you can have these experiences any which way. Like deja vu is an experience.
Sidharth: This is an experience! (Gesturing to all the food on the table)
Nitya: And if I could have any of those experiences I would love it. You know the film is like that. It is not a time travel thing, at all. It is an experience.
Sidharth: Can we eat the figurines? Everything is edible? It is not nice you know… Katrina Kaif on a plate! (Everyone laughs)
Katrina: Can you please stop talking about eating?! I was gonna add another word there but that won’t sound right.Well, without over-complicating it too much and simplifying the answer, no I wouldn’t want to know. Because sometimes the outcome may not be, at the time, what you feel could be termed as positive or as the best thing but the experiences and the moments that you take away from a relationship… those moments are going to stay with you forever. The nice thing is to see them as positive and as special memories.
And that’s also what the film talks about… that we are all in such a rush in today’s world to reach a destination — whether it is a destination of our relationship, whether it is marriage, whether it is work, where you want to go…. I feel so many of us are forgetting the journey and forgetting the process. Every day, are we happy? The small moments every day. If you are married, do you even give your partner any love and attention. Do you make those everyday small, small moments special? I think a lot of people don’t and I think that really moved me in the story of the film. We see love stories which are very dramatic.... Actually there is so much pain which goes on in everyday relationships, without much drama. This film talks about that.
Team t2: True…
Sidharth: Everybody said ‘true’. All of you’ve had the worst experience, kya? None of you girls are happy in your relationships? That ‘true’ was very heartfelt (everyone laughs).
Nitya: A lot of love stories talk about how people meet and fall in love. But no one really talks about what is happily ever after.
Saionee Chakraborty (Team t2): Is there a happily ever after?
Nitya: Well, you have to watch it on September 9 to find out!
Katrina: You mean in life?
Saionee: Yes, in general.
Sidharth: In life? Ah… not according to you guys! (Points to Team t2)
Katrina: You know, my grandparents, if I can just give an example, have been married for about 70-plus years. They are over 90… touchwood. Can you imagine being married for over 70 years? And today, you see them at a table, and I am not joking with you, he’s still cracking the same jokes and she is still going, ‘Oh, stop it!’ (Acts being coy and everyone laughs) It’s been so many years and you do see that kind of love does exist.
Nitya: Best of luck to everyone!
Katrina: Best of luck to us all!
Chandreyee: Nitya, you’ve been an assistant director on a number of big films. What was it like to be the one calling all the shots for the first time?
Nitya: It was too much fun! I wouldn’t exchange it for anything in the world. I’ve been waiting to do this. I’ve been working for 10 years as an assistant director. I also enjoy writing a lot, so just to see that script come to life… it’s such a beautiful, beautiful process and I think I loved every second of it. I have this amazingly passionate crew and actors and it was like a room filled with people who just wanted to put their best foot forward.
Pramita: Kala chashma is a huge party track. So if you are the ‘DJ waley babu’ at a party, which three songs would you play?
Sidharth: I think I will start with Kho gaye hum kahaan, introduce people, easy breezy. Uplift them with Sau aasmaan and kill it with Kala chashma… that’s the only song you need.
Katrina: I will play Hymn For The Weekend, from the Coldplay album, then I would play… (asks Sidharth) what was that song Badshah kept opening with and you guys came and danced on it (at the recent Dream Team Tour in the US that Sidharth and Katrina were a part of)?
Sidharth: Saat samundar?
Katrina: No, it’s not from a movie! It’s Badshah’s rap song…
Sidharth: DJ waley babu?
Katrina: No, no, the new one… the darker one…
Sidharth: Wakhra swag!
Katrina: Yes, yes! He would sing before my act at the Dream Team Tour and I would stand backstage by that time and it is really a good song! So I would play that song second and then I guess I would have to play Kala chashma!
Saionee: Katrina, you are looking fabulous in the promos....
Katrina: We have a really, really good cinematographer… Ravi K. Chandran! (Giggles) But jokes apart, he really has added so much in the film, he is amazing and such an important part of our team. In terms of styling in the film, it is because of Nitya. She is very, very clear and she knows how to push me in such a nice and gentle way that I don’t feel pushed because if you push me aggressively, then I push back.
Nitya: I was genuinely excited about Katrina’s look. She has done many, many films and one has seen her a certain way, so I wanted to see her pretty much real. Even in Thailand, the way she has been styled, we made sure that she looks very relatable and cool.
Priyanka: Since you mentioned Thailand, Katrina’s abs in Sau aasmaan give us some serious hotbod envy…
Nitya: I have nothing to do with the abs! (Laughs) But with both Sid and Kat, because the film is in such a modern time, I wanted to make sure that they look authentic and relatable in every look. So it was very important for us to have them at the correct weight, styling... for us as we move forward. You cannot have these two beautiful young people through the film looking gorgeous all the time! So I think it was a conscious decision to have different phases. I mean, that’s the way life is and I am sure in 10 years we all are going to look quite different.
Katrina: I can tell you how definitely not to have abs… and that’s right here! (Points at the yummy goodies on the table and laughs) This is a staple of what not to eat…ever at all!
Saionee: Katrina, has your workout regimen changed over the years?
Katrina: It’s really about what look you are trying to achieve. Like me and Sid, we actually used to chat a lot about when he was training for Brothers since we used to meet at common parties and stuff like that. And in Brothers, he was trying to bulk up so we chatted about that, the way that’s done because I have a big interest in fitness. So if you are achieving a look like that, there is a way you train, there is a diet you follow, a type of weight-training you do in the gym, but for this part in Thailand which you are talking about, Nitya wanted the look to be very small (gestures with her hands) because you see that difference on the screen with the age in the next phase of their lives…. For me, it was more about trying to keep everything very toned. It takes a lot of hard work, honestly.
Nitya: What she did was really commendable because I don’t think Hindi film actresses really experiment, in that sense.
Katrina: So putting on weight takes about a week (rolls her eyes) and it’s not that hard at all because that’s my natural tendency. If you want to shed it, then it’s a lot of hard work and a lot of discipline and you really can’t eat this (points at the food)… you really can’t!
Debroop Basu (3rd yr English Honours, St. Xavier’s College): Keeping the film’s theme in mind, if you had the option of going ahead or back in time, which would you choose?
Sidharth: I would go back in time… change certain things. I will go back and change my Class IX math exam. My mum would be happier and I would have a better and peaceful childhood (laughs)… because it was middle-class upbringing...
Katrina: You could go back and tell her, ‘Mom, don’t worry because I am going to play a math professor!’ (Everyone laughs)
Sidharth: It’s a thing with Punjabis, ya. They like to boast about these matters (shrugs those sexy shoulders and smiles).
Chandreyee: So was math scary when you were younger?
Nitya: Not younger... even while he was doing the film!
Sidharth: As I said, I want to go back and change that. Mathematics is an acquired subject. You need to have a keen interest in crunching numbers.…
Katrina: Can I go back in time and tell myself something for the future?
Team t2: Yes!
Katrina: I think I am going to tell myself that don’t stress and worry so much because nothing is going to come of it and you are going to waste a lot of energy and time and lose a lot of amazing moments of your life.
Rupsha Bhadra (3rd yr, International Relations, Jadavpur University): Baar Baar Dekho is all about living life in the moment. Do you follow a similar mantra in life?
Sidharth: Yes, that’s the ideal situation. If you go back to books and philosophy, all of them talk about how that’s the most difficult thing to achieve… be in the present and not think about anything else. And yeah, I try to follow it as much as I can, but the profession is such that we need to plan things, we need to prepare things and we need to function on a schedule… so it’s kind of difficult. I don’t know what film I am going to do next, what project I will do next year, two years later… so things are pretty exciting and yes, we do take up things as they come. So, what do you think? (Looks at Katrina)
Katrina: Umm, huh?
Sidharth: Katrina is not in the present right now, guys. She has travelled somewhere!
Katrina: No, no, I was reading what you were saying about…. (points to the t2 Brothers interview she has been reading)
Nitya: See, she is sitting with Sid but reading about what Sid has said!
Katrina: Yes I believe that’s the way to live, but I have a very difficult time doing it. Because your brain has already jumped to all the fears about tomorrow… the pressure, the guilt or criticising yourself for the past… I think most of us are very hard on our self. Like we went dancing in the tram now and I am thinking this happened and that happened… and about tomorrow I am already stressing about something else!
Sidharth: We are living in the moment and at the moment I am thinking about Baar Baar Dekho… so September 9!
Katrina: Sid has achieved sainthood!
Nitya: I fully believe in it and that’s why I am making a film about it and I follow it to the ‘T’. I am here right now living this moment and looking very happily at these cupcakes! (Laughs)
Shatadipa Bhattacharya (t2 reader and a Sidharth fan): What is your ‘baar baar dekho’ moment in life?
Sidharth: The last eight or nine years I have been in Mumbai, one moment would be when I signed Student Of The Year, my first movie with Karan Johar. I had been working really hard and to get a film like that to start with was a big moment.
Katrina: I would love to dance again and again. I love dancing and it’s a big passion and any opportunity, any place, any space I can dance and especially learn something in dance like something creative, a song or a movie that has a lot of dancing….
Pramita: Sidharth, you are quite active on social media. Recently you posted a picture with Alia Bhatt and wrote that you learned the art of pouting from her. What have you learnt from Katrina?
Sidharth: Not to take your film and position for granted and keep working harder… as if it is your first film...
Pramita: From Parineeti Chopra?
Sidharth: Punjabi!
Pramita: Jacqueline Fernandez?
Katrina: Snapchat! (Looks at Sidharth and they both smile)
I WOULD BAAR BAAR DEKHO
Man or woman…
Sidharth: Katrina Kaif!
Katrina: I have been seeing a lot of Sid of late… so yeah, it’s him
Film…
Sidharth: Hopefully, it will be Baar Baar Dekho. Otherwise, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Chupke Chupke. Also, Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan’s Hum. DDLJ, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai…
Katrina: Devdas
Scene from your own film…
Sidharth: Baar Baar Dekho… there’s a scene...
Katrina: I think a very nicely written and directed scene was the one in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara where the girl
(Katrina’s Laila) goes off on a bike to kiss the man she likes (Hrithik Roshan’s Arjun)
Man or woman in a kala chashma…
Sidharth: Rajinikanth! He made it iconic, ya.
Katrina: Salman in Dabangg
The one person I would baar baar dekho is.... Tell t2@abp.in
Pictures: Pabitra Das and Rashbehari Das
