All their films have been loved by critics and celebrated at the box-office. Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru who credit themselves quite simply as ‘Raj & DK’ are best known for the light-hearted fun vibe their films emit. After a successful hat-trick spread over a decade ( Flavors, 99, Shor In The City ), they gear up for their first big Bollywood film Go Goa Gone , produced by Saif Ali Khan’s Illuminati Films, releasing today. They insist on speaking in one voice and here are the responses from an email interview.
You guys are yet to make a bad film. Do you think it’s possible to keep it that way or are you sometimes unsure?
Well, we start off with a script we think is great, but can never be sure. And direct the way we think is best, but can never be sure... So yes, honestly, we are always unsure. We always make it a point to show the film at a rough-cut stage to some friends and then tell them to be “brutally honest”. And they always are. But even that is not foolproof. Until the first shows happen for outside viewers — and the truly brutal feedback trickles in — we can never be sure!
What inspired you to attempt a zombie comedy and will people who have watched Zombieland be surprised?
The newness of the genre and the fact that it is a fun genre if done well is what excited us to make this film. We have tried to portray this western concept of a zombie in the Indian context. The characters in the film are very identifiable, they react exactly how the audience is expected to react when faced with a zombie.
How did you pitch this cameo to Saif and how did it evolve with his participation?
Initially, we were very aware that this being a new kind of film, there would be resistance from any producer. It is not exactly a ‘safe bet’. When we met Saif and Dinoo (his partner in Illuminati), we started narrating the story. When we came to the word ‘zombies’ there was stunned silence! The immediate response was “Have you lost it?” But about 10 minutes later, Saif was rolling on the floor laughing at the idea. And the conclusion they came to was: “There’s no way we are NOT doing this film!” That’s how it all started. I think it is the unconventional nature of the film and the conviction somewhere that audiences are hungry for new content that got this project going. And Saif was thrilled about playing a role no one has ever played before.
You guys hired a completely international technical crew. What have you introduced?
Even though this is a Hindi film, we can’t ignore that fact this is India’s entry into the zombie world, and that there will be eyes on the film internationally. There being no experienced technicians here in this genre we had to look outside. Especially, the prosthetics. We chose Dan, an Australian DoP, because we liked his style of filming. And for sound, of course, we carried our technician from Shor In The City , who’s from Barcelona, on to this film.
You’ve come all the way to have one of the four Khans in your film. Where do you go from here?
We have learnt a lot with each film. We are still learning. We have also been careful not to do the same kind of film twice. Our next is a romcom, with Saif again. It is a guy’s point of view of a romcom. But we still miss the days of Flavors -style indie filmmaking. Now everything is a lot more organised, official...
You’ve also turned producers.
We started out as producer-directors. We had co-produced Flavors . Since then there have been other people willing to put money in our films, so we didn’t have to. Now we have produced a film in Telugu called D For Dopidi , directed by our associate director from Shor In The City , Siraj. We also have plans of regularly producing a stream of films. There are so many genres we want to explore, so many kinds of films we want to make — and as directors there’s only so much we can do.
