I watch all kinds of movies. Especially the ones that are more real, and deal with real relationships, real people... like in my books.
I am not into the whole Avengers hype. I can watch it, but I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. I wish I could get it, so I too could have written a story like that.
But I remember this movie that I watched when I was very young, and it left quite an impression on me. It was Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), which had this bathing scene of Mandakini (laughs).
A poster for ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’
It was referenced in the film Kapoor & Sons (2016) too. I remember being stunned by it. I was very young... maybe, eight or 10.
It was not an adult movie. But that song ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili Ho Gayee’ showed more skin than what had been shown on Hindi cinema before. And I watched this with my parents! It was super awkward.
- Directed by Raj Kapoor, Ram Teri Ganga Maili turned out to be the highest grossing Hindi film of 1985. The film kicked up a “controversy” due to the bold nature of scenes featuring the lead actor Mandakini, including a sequence where she is shown taking a bath in a transparent saree. The film still released with a U certificate.
Another memorable experience was watching Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge with my wife (Anusha). This was the first movie I watched with her.
There’s a drive-in theatre in Ahmedabad. We were in IIM together, and we didn’t have a car. So, we sat outside. It was quite a nice experience, and the movie was such a big hit also.
It showed a couple who had problems… about getting married, their parents don’t agree. We kind of anticipated it. But, at that time, we didn’t know that there’ll be a movie about us too.
Kai Po Che! is my favourite among the movies that were adapted from my books. It’s a beautiful movie, and it’s a hard one to make. I wrote the screenplay for it. So, maybe I have a bias, but I would say that it’s better than 3 Idiots.
My kids like 3 Idiots better and my wife likes Kai Po Che! among the movie adaptations of my book.
(As told to Praveen Sudevan)
