__SHOWQUESTION__What made you confident about taking to direction again with KanchiI took time off to rejuvenate. I needed to introspect why my last two films __SHOWANSWER__Kisna: The Warrior Poet (2005) and Yuvvraaj (2008) didn’t work. You can’t make films while walking on a treadmill. They need thought. I’m also a good student. I read and am in touch with the youth. Kaanchi is about a mountain girl who comes to the city with a mission. Rishi Kapoor plays a powerful and flamboyant character while Mithun Chakraborty is a godfather. I haven’t yet selected the girl. Even if a top heroine wants to work with me for free, I wouldn’t be able to cast her. The role demands a talented new girl. It’s a musical love story and will surely be a blockbuster.
__SHOWQUESTION__Why did Kisna and Yuvvraaj fail?
__SHOWANSWER__When you are at the zenith you have a desire to move away from the run-of-the-mill fare and make a classic. I admit that’s a risk. Some attempted epics have been disasters like Cleopatra, Mera Naam Joker, Lamhe, Razia Sultan… Even Karz (1980) was considered a flop in its first week. It was bulldozed by Qurbani. We were told that people were leaving the theatres saying, ‘Raj Kiran has been murdered, so why is Rishi Kapoor bothered?’ Rishi even fell into a depression. But even today, after 30 years, youngsters come up to me and say that they loved Karz. The DVD sales still fetch profits. Perhaps, Kisna and Yuvvraaj were not with the times. They didn’t match the sensibilities of the youth. Kisna was a bilingual. I held auditions abroad, hired British talent and had a complete bound script, my only one ever. At the film’s trial I asked my 16-year-old niece whether she liked the film. She replied, ‘The cinematography is good, the background score is excellent…’ ‘But what about the film?’ I asked. She said, ‘Why did the hero have to give such nonsense about karma and dharma?’ I turned around and told my wife Rehana that the film wouldn’t work.
__SHOWQUESTION__What do your films say about you?
__SHOWANSWER__Filmmaking is a democratic art. Like we have different faces, we have different sensibilities, which come across in our films. Like I can never, ever make a horror film. For me cinema is a celebration, it’s a festivity. You do deal with your issues and conflicts but in a celebratory manner so that the audience adopts it with a sense of joy. My movies should have satyam (truth), shivam (moral) and sundaram (beauty - in people, locations or music).
__SHOWQUESTION__What do you look for in your heroine?
__SHOWANSWER__Innocence and seduction! I’d define a heroine as a seductress, someone the hero wants to romance and also make his wife. Initially, an aspirant comes to me with a lot of pretensions, with a lot of make-up. Later, she gets friendly and down-to-earth as I joke and chat with her. It’s most important that she match my character. When I selected Mahima Chaudhary for Pardes (1997), I had already met girls more beautiful and talented than her. But I wanted a girl with medium height because in the film her character moves around with kids.
__SHOWQUESTION__How did you manage to keep the two superstars Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar in good humour while making Saudagar (1991)?
__SHOWANSWER__You don’t have to play any tricks. You just have to be sincere and honest. I was warned not to make a film with them as it was said they didn’t get along. Our first schedule was in Kulu-Manali. There Rajji watched Dilip saab shooting from a distance and heard him speak in a colloquial language. He called me during lunch and said, ‘Ghai I’ll not do this film. You didn’t tell me that he’d be speaking a regional language. He will take the cake. Either I’ll also speak the same or not do the film.’ I reasoned that Dilip saab’s character had been born and brought up in the village and his was supposed to have returned from Harvard University, so his language had to be polished. I added that if he still believed in the contrary, we’d pack up and return to Bombay. In the evening, over a drink, I explained to him again that it was not about Raaj Kumar vs Dilip Kumar. It was about the characters Rajeshwar Singh and Veer Singh.
__SHOWQUESTION__Finally, what happened?
__SHOWANSWER__I left a note for Raajji at the reception the next morning which read, ‘I hope you understand the dilemma of a writer and director. Let him be true to his film.’ At 10 o clock, Raajji was present on the set. Also, on purpose we didn’t shoot the confrontation scenes first. We shot the Imli ka buta song which was about their friendship. Dilip saab and Raajji had to dance and both of them were bad dancers. I made them rehearse the steps together like kids - ‘one, two, three’! They saw each other with their shortcomings. Egos were dissolved. The atmosphere turned friendly. After Saudagar released, Raajji sent me a beautiful letter with a small gold coin as a souvenir. It read, ‘Chief, hats off to you, people are calling up to tell me how much they loved me in the film’.
__SHOWQUESTION__Like Alfred Hitchcock, you unfailingly make an appearance in your films. Is it to fulfill your aborted dreams of acting?
__SHOWANSWER__It began with Karz. I was shooting the song Paisa yeh paisa and had asked the production team to hire a fat man to say ‘Paisa’ in the heavy voice. But when the shot was ready they said, ‘Sir, you’ll have to do it.” They had planned it and I did it for fun! Then they made me do it in each film. It becomes a happy picnic. I enjoy flirting with the audience.
__SHOWQUESTION__Tell us about your patch up with Salman Khan.
__SHOWANSWER__Our fight, a few years ago, was the silliest thing. It was like what happens in films - pehle taqraar phir pyaar. The morning after our altercation, I received a call from Salim saab (Khan), ‘Isne badtameezi ki hai aap se. I’m sending him to you. Please forgive him’. That was a great gesture. Salman came over and said, ‘I’ve not come to you because you are Subhash Ghai but because I was wrong. I’m sorry’. We had dinner together that night. Today he’s family. He’s one person who respects you for your inherent merits. He’ll never be taken up by the exterior.
__SHOWQUESTION__Your marriage has survived 37 years. The secret?
__SHOWANSWER__I belong to a fractured family, my parents divorced and I went through a lot of pain. I met Rehana (Farooqui) in Pune while I was at the FTII. After a four-year courtship we got married. I was keen to have a happy home. I’m blessed to have a wonderful family. They accept my faults, my nonsense, my irregularities, my moods... And I love them all the more for it. My elder daughter Meghana (President of WWI,) has brought the institute in the top 10 of the world. (Smiles) The younger one, Muskaan (10) was born after 27 years of marriage. She’s my friend; she discusses life and logic with me.
__SHOWQUESTION__Doesn’t your wife Rehana feel possessive considering you worked with beautiful women?
__SHOWANSWER__Rehana has inner strength. (Laughs) Touchwood, we’ve never ever fought over a woman though we’ve often fought over a towel. She has faith in me, she knows I love her most and understands that I’ve to be friendly with my heroines. If people misconstrue it, it’s their problem.