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All for houseful!

Photo: Sandeep Saxena

few laughs more Sajid Khan

Talk shows are nothing new to Indian television. So when the new television channel Colors announced a chat show, Sajid Superstars as one of its flagship shows, it came as a surprise. But few minutes into conversation with the host Sajid Khan and you know it’s going to be different. There are almost weeks to go for the channel to hit the air waves, but the quintessential anchor spices the anticipation with disclosures like Anil Kapoor has admitted on his show that he bought an award.

“It is because of this that Aamir Khan stopped attending award functions,” he claims. Once known for his frank but tacky shows like Ikke Pe Ikka, this time Sajid has got the budget, presumably to suit his new found status of a director. “Over the years budgets have been reserved for English chat shows. This is the first time that a Hindi talk show has been given such importance. Watch out for my spectacular entry. Also our research and my experience shows that after 10 minutes, whoever is the celebrity, a chat show starts getting boring. So this time we have made the show segmented.”

Talking of segments, Sajid reveals that in one segment he asks the guests how much they know about themselves, their family and their films. “Like I have asked Ranbir, which was the first film in which his parents were paired.” In another he shows the guests their best and worst acting moments. “I am the judge here and I ask them what was going in their mind when they were giving that particular performance. Like Karan (Johar) in that small bit in Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye,” he relates. Sajid, whose exhaustive guest list includes Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, also checks the sense of humour of the celebrities by asking them to crack a joke. He insists that his journalist friends should not take the stars’ behaviour – that is sharing their personal lives – as a case of double standard. “It is true they call it intrusion in their privacy when the media asks them similar questions. But then you must understand that they are my friends and are sure that as a package I am going to highlight their positive sides and hide their weakness. For instance, Sanjay Dutt hardly speaks, but I tried to explore his emotional side and he opened up.”

Time for a photo shoot and Sajid is conscious that his double chin should not reflect in the images. So after Heyy Baby, he has also started taking himself seriously? “What to do? Laughter has also become a serious business,” he quips. “But as a director I am not going to change my style because I know the moment a director gets conscious about critical acclaim, the camera angles, he loses touch with the middle-class, which largely decides the fate of a film. I am here to entertain and from my years of experience in dissecting cinema I know what the audience want.”

Is he sure, he knows the elusive formula? “Certainly, I can say my next film Houseful will be one of the biggest hits of 2009. By then the ticket rates would get even higher but I will put enough ingredients for the audience to return to the theatres twice or thrice.”

ANUJ KUMAR

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