Choreographer-filmmaker Farah Khan is on top of the world. Her film Om Shanti Om (first released in 2007) has released in Japan. “The Japanese fans of Shah Rukh Khan were tweeting about it and holding flash mobs on OSO ’s songs. It’s a huge release in Japanese. I reckon SRK is going to be the next Rajinikanth!” said Farah, just before flying to Japan to attend the premiere.
It’s celebration time for the OSO team as the film is also set to be the opening film at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (May 3 to May 12) and Farah has been invited to judge a dance competition towards the end of the fest. Farah, who couldn’t fly across the globe during OSO ’s release as she was pregnant , is only too happy to live that moment now.
“At the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, they are celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema and they wanted the fest to open with a Bollywood film. OSO seemed the right choice because it is my ode, as a filmmaker, to the industry through decades,” she says, adding that her five-year old son watched the film last week. “Of course, he didn’t want to watch the ‘spirit’ of Shanti and some action bits but he was enjoying the film!”
“We must celebrate the colour and the song and dance in our films as that is what sets us apart from the rest of the world. We should be proud of this. Otherwise, like Italian cinema, we will be in danger of getting wiped out. Our critics possibly have been brought up on Polish cinema or something else because they keep denouncing our type of films,” she says. “When my film Main Hoon Na was released, everybody ran it down. Now it is celebrated like a cult film that brought back the 70s action in movies which was then ruled by romance. Of course, I regret starting that trend looking at some of the mindless films churned out nowadays.”
Farah’s next project is with friend-turned-foe-turned-friend Shah Rukh Khan. Tentatively titled Happy New Year , the film is the most talked about in Bollywood even before it has gone on floors. “The heroine is the most speculated feature of our film right now and even I don’t know who she’s going to be. But I am not unduly worried. For OSO , we got our villain Arjun (Rampal) days after we started shooting for it. He wasn’t sure of pulling off a negative role. But that turned out to be the turning point of his career. For my next film I want someone desi who can be a very tapori Indian girl,” she says.
