The ‘boys’ walk in and immediately start eyeing the trademark Calcutta street food — Jhalmuri to Phuchka, Ghugni to Kathi Rolls and a platter of Sandesh — all sumptuously laid out by chef Sumanta and his team from Jhaal Farezi.

Farhan Akhtar (pointing towards the variety of Sandesh on the platter): What’s that brown one? 
I want to have that… looks good, ya!

(He promptly digs into one and then some more as Anil Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Ritesh Sidhwani help themselves to Kathi Rolls and Jhalmuri.)

Priyanka Roy, t2: Shooting aboard a cruise for two months, spending time with each other on set and off… is this the most fun each of you has had while making a film?

Ranveer Singh: 110 per cent. 

Ritesh Sidhwani: Absolutely, I agree. 

Ranveer: What an experience! It was such a fun and breezy experience. We also happened to make a movie! (Everyone laughs) Ensemble cast… so you get two days off in a week or three days off in a week… and we got to shoot on a cruise liner. Take off from Barcelona on a Saturday, sail on a Sunday, Tunisia on Monday, Rome, Naples, Florence… places that I have never heard of, that I love pronouncing …

Farhan: Cappadocia (in an Italian accent)

Ranveer: La Spezia (in an Italian accent)

Farhan: Porto Venere (in an Italian accent) 

Farhan: No matter where it was, it was said in an Italian accent … Mumbaaai (in an Italian accent)

Ranveer: Kolkaaata (in an Italian accent)

(Everyone laughs out loud)

Ranveer: Loads of young people, like 200-plus of us on this ship. All party animals… 

Priyanka (pointing towards Anil Kapoor): And he was the youngest?

Ranveer: Of course… he is a toddler, yaar! 

Anil Kapoor: What?! Can you repeat that again, yaar! 
(Everyone laughs)

Ranveer: So, this amazing mostly 20-something unit that would party till 2am and be back at work at 6am. Incredible!

Anil:What’s that? (points towards a Jolbhora Sandesh)

Team t2: That’s another yummy Sandesh.

Farhan: Pass that one also, ya! 
(Everyone laughs)

Priyanka: This is a film about a dysfunctional family and we all have quirks in our families. What’s the quirkiest thing about your families?

Farhan: My family is a very tight and loving unit till we play a game. When we play any game, then it could descend into some serious violence! (Laughs) If we knew that we didn’t love each other, then there could be some fisticuffs! It becomes seriously competitive and there are arguments… I have been witness to quite a few. It could happen with Scrabble, Pictionary, Articulate!…

Ranveer: Even beach cricket?

Farhan: Kho-kho… anything that we play, it just descends into serious competition. Something happens… all the love goes out of the window. Two days and we will not talk because we have major fights during games! (Laughs) But then it’s okay. Those are the highlight dysfunctional moments.

Ranveer: There is an ongoing debate — whether to have a television near the dinner table or not. It’s been going on for 15 years now. So sometimes, we are eating together, there is a TV and then I’ll be working for a week outside and I come back and suddenly there is no TV and I am like: ‘Have we not decided yet?!’ Personally, my vote is for no TV, because then we get to talk more. But then, you want to watch if the match is going on, something is going on…. It will continue and the TV will keep coming and going, coming and going.

Ritesh: In my family, there are these two days which have not changed since the time I remember… days which should not be changed — one is that you are vegetarian on Monday, which I intend to change … I have challenged it. So if you invite me on a Monday, I will very happily eat anything non-vegetarian! And the other is this family day that has to be Sunday lunch… where the entire family from my parents, older bother and older sister… we all live in the same building… get together for lunch. So when I turned 40, I decided to again be rebellious since I am the youngest and I can’t eat that Sindhi Curry anymore! So I have told them this Sunday lunch has to change. So since it is vegetarian Sunday lunch, make it on a Monday. It’s easier. 

Farhan: I now want to come and make a documentary on the guy who has bought their (Ranveer’s family’s TV). Imagine him… imagine that family. They are just living in fear…. ‘They will come and take it back!’ (Thumps the table loudly and everyone laughs)

Anil: In my family, I dread the day when there is a puja in my house because it’s just impossible to get everybody for the puja. Obviously my wife (Sunita) goes completely hysterical and that’s the time both of us realise that we’ve not really been able to get everybody together for the puja. So, they have to be literally pulled out and brought to the puja…. and once they sit in the puja, it is like you have achieved something really big… this is the best thing to happen ever and obviously by the time they have come, both of us are fed up…and we are like… ‘Please go yaar, the puja is already over! (Laughs)
 
Ranveer: Let me tell you one anecdote now, never been publicly revealed. I have been for a puja to Anil Sir’s house at the age of eight, 10… something like that….

Priyanka: You guys are related, right? 

Ranveer: Yes! (Anil’s wife Sunita is Ranveer’s aunt.) So, I went to the puja and sat there very sincerely, but with a Mohawk! Summer holiday tha, I had my ears pierced… I was in third grade or something. And I remember very, very clearly that my grandparents came and told me: ‘Anil spotted you and he was asking about you and he said, ‘Yeh ladka kuch karega life mein!’ I will never forget that.

(Everyone laughs) 

Priyanka (to Anil): And now you’ve done a film with him!

Anil: Yes! And of course, in the family there is not one thing that we all agree on. So everybody has their opinion for everything. Everybody has got different tastes and opinions and at the end of it, I am like, ‘I am fed up… I am doing what I think is right!’ 

Farhan: You know, I think everything under the surface of a family comes out when the house goes under renovation. Then you are allowed to have a very strong opinion, backed by your aesthetic! (Everyone laughs)

(Pretends to give an opinion): ‘I think the wall should be… blue!’
 
Malancha Dasgupta, t2: Who would you use the line dil dhadakne do for? 

Farhan: I think, without a shadow of doubt, for my two girls (Shakya and Akira)

Ritesh: For most who are parents, we will say children. Ask Ranveer! (Laughs and smirks)

Ranveer: For my family doctor who says if I don’t reduce my caffeine intake, I am a goner by 35. 

Ritesh: Is your family doctor your grandfather?

Ranveer: Ya! (Everyone laughs)

Anil: For me, it is Sonam, because I feel Harsh and Rhea don’t need me… Sonam does.

Riddhima Khanna, t2: Ranveer, Dil Dhadakne Do has made you Priyanka Chopra’s brother! How do you feel about that? 

Anil: I think he is very happy about that!

Ranveer: Ya, that’s the truth.

Farhan: This is a conspiracy that Bollywood has put together!

(Everyone laughs)

Ranveer: She played my girlfriend in Gunday, now my sister in Dil Dhadakne Do and my wife in my next film, Bajirao Mastani. The only thing left to play is my daughter and my mother… I don’t know (laughs) but the truth is, as I have always maintained… and it sounds better in Hindi: ‘Maine Priyanka Chopra ko hamesha bhai ke hi nazar se dekha hai!

(Everyone laughs out loud)

Priyanka: I don’t think she’ll feel very flattered about that, will she?

(Anil whacks Ranveer on the back)

Ranveer: That I agree… this whack would’ve come from her if she was here, hain na?

Chandreyee Chatterjee, t2: While we are on the topic of siblings, Farhan, is the brother-sister relationship in the film anything like the one you share with Zoya?

Farhan: I think the bond definitely is. There was a time when Zoya and me were very dependent on each other. You know to talk about what is going on in the house with the family and stuff. And I think that, from a very young age, we had a very, very strong emotional bond in terms of communication of what someone’s feeling inside the house… more often than not even with parents, we would both talk about what’s going on with them as opposed to them telling us… you know ‘bete this and beti that’. So I think that is reflected in the film for sure, the bond that we shared.

Riddhima: But then she was your boss on set!

Farhan: She has been my boss since I was a kid! Apart from the few times when I used to scare her. I used to love scaring her when I was a kid, like hide in the cupboards and scare her. I used to love doing it…

Ranveer: You mean spook her?

Farhan: Ya! There was a mask and she used to be so scared of it. I used to chase her and Farah Khan (Bollywood director and Farhan-Zoya’s cousin) around the house with that mask and say anything. Like, ‘I’m going to watch TV, warna (laughs naughtily and mimics pulling the mask over his face)

(Everyone laughs)

Pratim D. Gupta, t2: Does she get you to pick the role after she’s done with the script or is it like ‘Jo last mein bacha rehta hai’...

Farhan: No, when she wrote Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara she was very sure that I was to play Imran’s character. With this film, it wasn’t like she wanted me to play the character of Sunny, but when I read the script there is this certain belief system that this character has that I do like very much. Also, I want to work with Zoya. I had a great time working with her in Luck By Chance and Zindagi…. And just to be a part of another film… and this whole experience with so many people together…it was just nice to be a part of a good film.

Ranveer: I just want to point that that among the 275 of us (winks), Farhan has had the best shooting experience! (Laughs) Because he had to shoot on Monday and then again on Friday… and Farhan would have done a mini Europe tour on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday!

(Everyone laughs out loud) 

Farhan: Because out of the five weeks, I had about 12 shooting days on that ship. It was that kind of a role.

Ranveer: ‘What did you do this week, Farhan?’ (Bangs on the table in mock jealousy) (Mimics Farhan): ‘Oh, I just went to this amazing music festival for three days. I saw this artiste and that artiste’. ‘And then what did you do?’ (Mimics Farhan again) ‘Then I just put on my headphones and walked around exotic locales!’ (Laughs) That was Farhan’s shooting experience.

Farhan: That was me… ‘Main do minute mein aata hoon!’

Ranveer: Do minute mein aata hoon and…. (gestures a plane landing) London!

Saionee Chakraborty, t2: So did you all complain to Zoya about the partiality and the favouritism?
Ranveer: Naaa… how can I complain… I’m the favourite! (Laughs in an evil way)

Pratim: Anil Sir, you worked with Zoya’s mom Honey Irani in Armaan and now with Zoya in DDD. Your thoughts?
Anil: I want to work with Honeyji again and I don’t know why she is not directing. I want to ask Farhan that.
Farhan: She loves her retirement in Coonoor.

[The Dil Dhadakne Do cake, mirroring the poster with the ensemble cast lounging on the deck of a cruise, comes in, the handiwork of chef Madhumita’s team at The Lalit Great Eastern. Team DDD can’t hide their excitement and are up on their feet.]

Ranveer: Arre, baapre baap! It’s too much! (Mimicking Anil) Gotta Instagram this moment (twirls his moustache) 

Farhan: Iska toh photo banta hi hai!

Ranveer: Ek achha sa angle lena.

Farhan: If you don’t mind can I put this here (a piece of Sandesh) as a reference to Pluto (the family dog in the film) (Everyone laughs) Aisa lage jaise Pluto bhi baitha hai!

Ranveer (points to the figures on the cake):  Please don’t miss AK (Anil) with the sunglasses and the mooch! And Mr Akhtar with the stubble…

Farhan: I’ve got the stubble also?

Ranveer: And my navy stripes. Detail detail, everything is in the detail!

Farhan: Where’s Shefali’s (Shah) glass?

(The DDD team laughs out loud at the inside joke)

Ranveer (to Anil): You are looking the sexiest on the cake also, yaar! (Anil cuts the cake and everyone claps) Dil dhadakne do!! Wooooooh… fantastic!

Anil: Fantastic! Mind-blowing!

Ranveer: Too good, that’s too good! Oh, teri! (Notices icing on his shorts)

Ranveer: First things first, Farhan what is the hit item (on the food platter)?

Farhan: This (cake) was outstanding and that and this was good (pointing to the Mango and Jolbhora Sandesh).

Ranveer: Done baby done! Liquid gur.

Pratim: Coming back to Anil Sir, did you find similar traits in the directing styles of Honey Irani and Zoya?

Anil: Both are very sensitive directors, very real. I worked with Honeyji in Lamhe and that was one of the finest films I’ve ever worked in. And if there’s any film…

(By this time, Ranveer has spotted the white board behind Anil and started doodling on it, writing ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ and drawing ‘Pluto’)

Ranveer (turns around): She wrote Lamhe? I was very young, but I looove that one!

Anil: That’s my wife’s favourite film, that’s my best film…

Ranveer (imitating Sridevi in Lamhe): Kunwarji… Kunwarji aa gaye! Kunwarji… 
(All laugh out loud)

Anil: And then I did Armaan and it was a pleasure working with her and so was it working with Zoya also. 

Riddhima: Did any of you get tempted to do the Titanic scene while shooting on the ship?

Farhan: Priyanka tried it one time, na?

Priyanka: Ranveer did, we are sure he must have!

Ranveer: Ummm… I did actually. It’s a must, cheesy thing that you have to do when you go on a cruise. 

Pratim: Farhan, was there any kind of research that you had to do while playing a journalist in DDD? 

Farhan: There’s a fictitious magazine called ‘The Geographic’ that he writes for and he’s a political reporter. He’s just come from Egypt where this whole Arab uprising is happening. But the film isn’t about all that. It is about what’s going on with the family, his history with the family, his history with Priyanka’s character, specifically. And how it all comes together. With journalists, people think that wherever you go, you have to be responsible and serious, which is not the case. I have seen them really let their hair down and go and party….

(Ranveer takes a look at the t2 logo and starts drawing it on the board and breaks out into Lamhe’s ‘Kabhi main kahoon’ , joined by Anil.)

Farhan (to Ranveer): Every song you have sung like Shabbir Kumar (Everyone laughs)

Ranveer: You… you! Your astuteness I can’t handle!

Priyanka: So Ritesh, were you like the “big daddy” on set? Did they drive you up the wall?

Ritesh: No, no I was not the big daddy at all. I was also enjoying the cruise with them. As they said, it was so much fun. So, I was just making sure that the party was ready for them to come into (laughs). But it was fun. Like they said, all of us had a great time.

Ranveer: Ritesh Sidhwani has not made some of the biggest films of Hindi cinema in the past 15 years to be doing all the running around on the set, I’m just saying! He has a small army of minions doing all that, while Ritesh is drinking red wine! (All laugh)

Ritesh: But honestly, in this film, all of them, all the youngsters… we were dry docked for a week, but we still managed to shoot and the entire crew and cast, were very, very helpful. 

Anil: It was really teamwork. It is a cliched thing, but this was really, genuinely, teamwork. 

Pratim: Is there are lot of male buddy-hood in this film also, like Dil Chahta Hai and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara?

Farhan: No, I think that the big relationship in this film is the siblings and then, of course, their dynamic with the parents and then the parents’ dynamic with each other. I think those were the big relationships in this film. 

Malancha: Ranveer, which was more fun — Priyanka as sister or Anushka as lover? In the film, of course!

Ranveer: The most fun I had with any of the ladies from the core team was Zoya, actually. I created a very, very special bond with her during the course of the shooting of this film. And Zoya, since before I even became an actor, we used to hang out because we had common friends. I had actually told Ritesh, well before Dil Dhadakne Do came my way, that the day Zoya wants to take me in a movie, I won’t even ask for a script. That’s how much I admire her work. Dil Dhadakne Do happened and it is the best director-actor experience I’ve had. She is just so affectionate, so warm, so nurturing. She’s brilliant at her work. I have had one of the most special creative-collaborations of my life with Zoya. 

Chandreyee: You wanted to put Pluto on the ship in the cake and you’ve put Pluto on the white board… so, who was Pluto most fond of?

Ranveer: Pluto was most fond of Farhan.

Priyanka: Is his real name Pluto?

Farhan: No, he is Hamish.

Ranveer: Yaar, there are some magic moments in the film between the dog and Farhan’s character and Farhan himself, as a person and the dog, just wow! You know what we’d do? We’d call for those shots on the laptop just to see them over and over again. They are so heart-warming. We couldn’t get enough of it. It is just movie magic that you are blessed with. You can’t design that stuff, you know. 

Farhan: Seriously, once he gave me this big hug… a dog hug… which was amazing.

(Team t2 goes ‘aaawwww’!)

Pratim: We always have this debate about Dil Chahta Hai vs Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. We can’t ask Farhan, of course, but which is your favourite?

Ranveer: I’ll say Dil Chahta Hai because it was a landscape changer. And that he made that at the tender age of 25, Farhan Akhtar, I take my hat off to you, Sir.

Farhan: I was 26 when it released.

Ranveer: Ya, so landscape changer. No one had seen anything like it, that kind of cinematic language and syntax had never ever been seen before and was a long time coming and these guys were all of 25, decided to make this very brave film for its time, but with full conviction and…

Farhan (interrupting Ranveer): Just one second (takes out his phone and mock-calls Zoya) ‘He said Dil Chahta Hai… ya, chal I’ll call you back!’ (Laughs an evil laugh)

(Everyone laughs out loud)

Anil: Exactly what Ranveer said (on Dil Chahta Hai)!

Ritesh: The first film (Dil Chahta Hai) is always special. It has to be.

Ranveer: It was on TV two-three months ago and I saw it and I have to say that the film is timeless. The humour still gets a chuckle out of you, you still smile.

Ritesh: It is very strange how the music still works, no? You just feel like the music is today.

Riddhima: Coming back to Dil Dhadakne Do, Anil Sir, you play this flamboyant father and you offer Ranveer’s character Kabir a plane to marry the girl of your choice. Have you ever bribed your children to do something? 

Anil: My wife tried her best to see that all my three children should not be in films. She kept them away from all the magazines and the premieres and shootings, and now all three have joined films. Now, the only way I can bribe them is with a good script or a good film. They just love cinema.

Riddhima: And what has been the last flamboyant gift you gave to any of them?

Anil: Well, I believe in taking the gifts from them! (Laughs) They shower me with gifts, especially Sonam. Sonam is a very generous person and we have to control her, sometimes! (Laughs) Harsh and Rhea, though they are not in that situation, they give me gifts. But it is my wife, we all wait for her to give us gifts. That’s why I’ve never really given any gifts.

Priyanka: And what’s the idea behind the hair that you have in the film? It is really eye-catching but we’ve never really seen you with that kind of hair. 

Ranveer: Except in Lamhe!

Anil: Lamhe was just the sideburns. 

Ranveer: He was hot in Lamhe. The first time he took his mooch off!

Anil: In this film, one thing that Zoya wanted, she said ‘I just want your hair to fly!’ And that was it. And, of course, she wanted to age me, for the role, because she felt that I looked too young! As a matter of fact, I am older than my character in the film is. The character is 50, but I am 58, actually 59 this year. So keeping that in mind, I colour my hair, the look was decided, and Zoya said the hair must fly, so we went through a lot of references. Of course all the guys were better-looking than I am, so we really did not get the exact look, which we wanted. In a way we cracked 70-80 per cent of it, but I think if I really wanted to get the perfect look for this film, I should not have worked for eight to nine months, completely stopped colouring my hair till the entire grey came out and then I could pepper it. But that was not possible because I was shooting for (his TV series) 24. But we did our best. And whatever we have achieved in this film is remarkable. But for the other actors in the future, what Avan (Contractor, hairstylist) and my creative artist Deepak has done, I think, it is path-breaking work, in terms of the technique. I was in the chair eight to nine hours a day, sometimes 14 hours. But it is still 70-80 percent. 

Saionee: This is a cruise film… is there someone you would like to take along if you were planning a cruise?

Ranveer: I would like to take my family on a cruise… I think it would be a lot of fun. I think it is a great concept. It is just like a floating hotel, right? And you get to see so many different places. It is an incredible concept. It was my first time ever on a cruise. So ya, I’m looking forward to doing those Alaskan cruises…

Farhan: And the Norwegian cruise…

Anil: I’ve been on a cruise for a few days, but I really didn’t like it. I had gone as a performer, so it was tough. I had gone as a dancer. (Looks at Ranveer staring at him in disbelief) 
I can dance!

Ranveer: When were you a dancer on a cruise?!

Anil: It is a fact. I was a dancer. I’ve performed in the (Royal) Albert Hall also. I went first time with Zarina Wahab, Padmini Kapila, Nutanji and we toured all over England and Amsterdam…. After that, I went for a cruise on this film. I thought I would feel seasick and I would be bored and it wouldn’t be fun being in the middle of the sea. I’m more of a mountain person. But it was absolutely one of the best experiences of my life. I had a great time and it is unforgettable. You know there are certain journeys in your life, a few films, successful films, and very successful films, you work with great directors and good co-stars… but when you see 360 degrees, I would say this, by far, is the best of my career. 

Chandreyee: All of you are very active on social media… so is it a pain or a gain?

Farhan: No, no, I find it a gain. I don’t find it a pain, at all. I’m very good at switching off when things aren’t interesting me or stuff’s happening that I’m not wanting to be a part of. I don’t have that urge to constantly keep checking. So whenever I want to put something out there I find it a very convenient way to directly say it.

Ranveer (to Farhan): Can I publicly request you to infuse more of your very unique and original brand of humour in your social media platform?

Farhan: Okay, I shall. 

Ranveer: Not that there isn’t, but I want more.

Chandreyee: What about you, Anil Sir?

Anil: See, I’m just a beginner, it was when I did 24. Sonam’s been on social media for quite some time. But I was one of those actors who had never done endorsements, wanting to have a mystery, being exclusive, not being seen, you know that kind of stuff. Then when I was doing 24, my PR and my children, they said: ‘You must’. So, I’m just learning now. I’m not really good at it yet, but I think in some years, I will be able to do it better. 

Ranveer:  In fact, I would advice you guys to keep your eyes peeled over the next few days on Mr Kapoor’s Instagram account. Interesting stuff coming very soon….

Chandreyee: And Ranveer what about you?

Ranveer: I don’t know, I am undecided. Mera NOTA (none of the above) kar do.

(Everyone laughs)

Chandreyee: But we love your Dubsmashes… can we request you to do a Dubsmash for us?

Ranveer: Yes please! Can we please do a Dubsmash… I haven’t done one in a while!

Farhan: I want that one… ‘Ajeeb jaanwar hai’.

Ranveer: I want Black Dog!

Anil: Ajeeb jaanwar, matlab? 

Farhan: The Shaan line… 
(Farhan gets ready for his Dubsmash)

Farhan: First, I have to do the Kullu (Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Shaakaal in Shaan) smile and do the eyebrows and sit like him…

(Farhan’s Dubsmash is a total win and brings the house down)

Ranveer: Win! Farhan… you have matched the expression. 

Team t2: Okay now Ranveer you have to…

Ranveer: I don’t know which one. Pick one…

Riddhima: Can we surprise you with what we’ve picked?

Ranveer: Sure!

Team t2: ‘Ek chutki sindoor’ from Om Shanti Om! 

Ranveer: B***s I’m doing that. Chance hi nahin hai!

Riddhima: You want a Govinda one?

Ranveer: Of course! Anything with Govinda works for me. 

[Suggestions like Crime Master Gogo come up, Anil Kapoor dubs are searched, but finally, Ranveer goes with Team

t2’s choice: Doing a Deepika Padukone (ahem, ahem!) in Ek chutki sindoor!]