Only in the movies (perhaps the kind Karan Johar represents) do we see archenemies unite for the sake of collective good. Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet , featuring Karan Johar as the antagonist, has managed something similar, bringing together these titans from opposing worlds who have now buried an infamous hatchet. Excerpts from a combined interview:
What brought both of you together is still a mystery…
Karan:Bombay Talkies and Bombay Velvet have brought us closer. Bombay has somehow connected us ( laughs ). I still ask him why he wanted me to work on Bombay Talkies . At that point, everyone thought I would cast two superstars and make a happy film, but I wanted to be part of their club and make a film like they would.
Anurag: I still remember how he observed us watching his film for the first time, sitting in a corner, biting his knuckles.
Karan: I was scared people would say ‘ Karan ne picture bigaada’ (Karan has ruined the movie). Now, I want to ask him why he cast me in Bombay Velvet .
Anurag: See, I resented him at one point in my life, when I didn’t understand him. This man has no personal life…he works round the clock, hosting TV shows and award functions. With all the money he makes, he’s not building palaces. He’s helping newcomers make films. The effort that goes into producing films is something I understood once I became a producer myself.
People say he's a clown, he's too rich and all that. He laughs off everything. He's an astute businessman with his fingers on the audiences’ pulse.
He might not make the kind of films I make, but he has been such a support to me. Even today, I got a message from a hardcore fan who said I shouldn't associate myself with Karan and that would ruin me. And his fans tell him that I will pull him down. Once, a lady blamed me for his Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna because of the infidelity theme. I didn’t even know him then.
The truth is people don't know anything. Earlier I was so shy, I would need a drink or go to Twitter to talk to people. I’ve opened up now and have become a better person because I met a Karan Johar. I may not be his best friend, but to me he's irreplaceable.
Karan, what did you notice while working on an Anurag Kashyap film?
It was the first time I realised that the director needn't be the biggest person on the set. Anurag follows an unobtrusive style where the staging isn't set around the cameras like it is in my films. It's something I want to incorporate in my films. Doing Bombay Velvet was like going to film school. It's not a film I could contribute to beyond acting because I didn't understand it. I've learnt so much from observing Anurag that it will consciously or sub-consciously make its way into the next feature I will be making.
Not just that. Even as a producer, there are people, concepts and scripts that come to me now because I have aligned myself with Anurag. The Lunchbox and Hasee Toh Phasee are the outcomes and now we’re making Shandaar together.
Karan, what is the one thing Anurag has that you don’t?
Karan: Abandon.
Anurag (interrupting Karan):gareebi (poverty) ( laughs )
Karan: He has abandon and has achieved his own freedom. I’m a victim of expectations who succumbs to limitations.
Anurag, what about you?
Karan’s flamboyance and his ability to laugh at adversity. I get emotionally affected by things and I always react. Karan isn't like that. He's much stronger and can confront his problems.
What role would you offer Anurag in one of your films?
Anurag interrupting again: Ramu Kaaka from Kal Ho Naa Ho. Like Kantabai.
Karan (laughs): No Anurag, you wouldn't understand the dynamics of that role.
Anurag: How about the role of a background dancer?
Karan: Not at all. I would never cast Anurag in my film. But I hope he casts me again though. He gave me a film that doesn’t ride on my shoulders. Yet it’s a solid role in a wondrous world with some of the best actors and biggest stars of the country, under one of the best directors.
I believe if there was someone who could control my pout, it would be him. Others would have just had me play variations of myself. The only time I haven’t cringed while watching myself on screen is when I see Kaizad Khambatta in Bombay Velvet .
Is there one thing from Anurag's films that will never make it to a Karan Johar film?
Karan: I think the darkness. The deep darkness of Anurag Kashyap. My problem is I come into a film with light; he comes into one with night. He'll switch on one light and later he will switch on another. After some time, he will switch off both. Mine's a brightly lit frame where my efforts lie in lowering the brightness. If I'm a switchboard, he's a fuse.
And one thing from Karan's film that you wouldn't imbibe?
Anurag: Lip sync songs without any reason. In Bombay Velvet , Anushka is lip syncing only because she plays a singer. If someone is singing, there will be a mike.
Karan: We don't believe in mikes. But if you see my next film, you will realise that there's logic to all the songs. I think it's because Anurag has rubbed off on me.
Anurag, if you were to make aKuch Kuch Hota Hai, how would it look?
Karan: He would have shot it in Bihar.
Anurag: Hmmm... I think it would have been a lot like Udaan .
And Karan, how would your version ofDev.Dhave been?
Karan: It would have been Devdas, no? Big money, big stars, lip sync songs and melodrama. My film would also have been like Bhansali's.
