Kedarnath released on December 7 and since then has been getting good numbers at the box office. It marked the debut of Saif Ali Khan's daughter Sara. She managed to get rave reviews for her act. Well, it was time to have a chat with the director of the film Abhishek Kapoor and to know his view on everything that people have been talking about post the film's release. The filmmaker revealed as to why it was difficult to direct a newbie like Sara Ali Khan.
India doesn't really make too many disaster dramas. Did you have any apprehensions about the film's story as it addressed the devastating Uttarakhand floods?
One of the reasons I decided to make this movie was this. And if you see the kind of movies that I have made before, they are not the regular movies that are made in Bollywood per se. Also I don't like to repeat what I have done before. If you talk about disaster film, it is a love story, it is about people and it is about our country. The scale of it is just way of telling you what happened. I am not making it to show it like a Hollywood film. Hollywood films have already been made on this genre and they are doing it beautifully. It wasn't made to tell you what amazing VFX it has. It's not a fictional film. It is the scale of the calamity that made me create something like this.
Kedarnath had to face ban in Uttarakhand. What is your take on the controversy?
When you make a movie on such sensitive issues, there are people out there who are very fearful of it. They said how this movie is about love jihad and all of that. There is nothing like that in the film. They watch the trailer and form an opinion... they are actually reacting from a place of fear that someone is playing around with their ideologies. I have made Kai Po Che! before, I have dealt with a delicate matter. I don't touch upon these issues so that I can exploit it or take advantage of it. My intentions are very honest. As a country, we are suffering it. We are suffering this divide. The attempt is to help us see ourselves without a politician telling us who we are. I think it is an important film and the ban was uncalled for.
Padmaavat had to go through a lot this year and now Kedarnath too. But both the films managed to make a mark at the box office despite all the resentment. What do you have to say about that?
Controversies are a separate matter. It is the people who are deciding whether to see the movie or not. If the movie was actually affecting Hindu sensibilities, they will not be watching it. But people all over the country are watching it. I don't need a passport to go to Uttarakhand. They are us and we are them. We are all one. Somewhere this is a misplaced ban and they should lift it. Censor board has watched it and a team from Uttarakhand has also watched it - none of them had any issue. I don't know what to say. The film is running successfully everywhere else but you ban it in Uttarakhand. They need to rethink for themselves.
Many have compared the end of Kedarnath with another disaster drama, Titanic. What do you have to say about that?
Titanic is a mammoth film which has earned millions of dollars. The thing that is similar is it has a real backdrop. The ship actually existed. Other than that the worlds are totally different. As for Mansoor dying in the end, I would have loved to have a happy ending. Box office would have been happier if I had a happy ending. I cannot have a happy ending because so many people died in that calamity. How can we not participate in their loss? If the person you rooted for died, you also feel a sense of loss. In a movie, it is easier to make them laugh, you tickle them they will laugh. To make someone cry in the movie, you need to break them down because aadmi apne aansu keemti rakhta hai. You have to make a genuine film to break him. As much as they enjoy a good laugh, they also enjoy a good cry.
What kind of reaction did you get in terms of the climax?
They were moved by the climax. They could feel that they were in Kedarnath and they could feel the pain of the people who lost their dear ones. That was the idea. They need to experience what it is like to be there.
You launched Sushant Singh Rajput in Kai Po Che! and now Sara Ali Khan in Kedarnath. How different or easy is it to launch a newcomer vis-a-vis a star kid?
I also worked with Farhan Akhtar in his first film (Rock On!). Every actor comes with their own positive and negative experiences. You can't generalise you know. To bring a new actor in a film is another task altogether. Especially with someone like Sara, who has absolutely no experience. She has never been on a film set before. The kind of movie she is in or Kai Po Che! for that matter... you need some professional to come on board - be it actors or technicians - to make it of certain standard. When you get a new actor in that world, you have to work doubly hard because the new actor is not working with another new actor but with an established actor. That is a very tricky game and I have been doing that for a while, so I know it's difficult.
Was there any pressure to launch Sara in a certain way because there was so much talk about her debut film?
The hype has happened because the movie has gone through so much. Now the movie is coming and then it got stalled... then it shifted hands from one producer to another. All of that created more pressure and hype. For me, she is a newcomer and I have to bring her up to speed. If I buy into all that, I will fail and so will she. For me, it doesn't matter whose daughter or son you are. I have my own film to look after. The character she played had to be delivered. I do not think about all of that. They are all working for the film like me. That's the only criteria. Nothing else matters.
When Kedarnath was going through an upheaval, did it ever strike you that the film might never get released?
Not even for a moment! This movie is like a yatra for me also. Some stories you choose while others choose you. I was chosen to make this film. I never doubted that for a minute. At the end of it, I think I have come closer to Bholenath.
There were also talks about how Kedarnath will be clashing with Zero. Did you have any chat with Shah Rukh Khan regarding this?
It was more of an internal matter than external. The project, as I said, shifted hands. The project was not resting with reliable people back then. They were misusing the film and announcing dates on their own. That's the moment I realised that the movie is in jeopardy. That's the reason I took the movie away from them and I chose to work with Ronnie Screwvala. Once that happened, things started settling in and in a correct manner. It was a whole slander-fest earlier. I couldn't say a word because the movie was at stake. Every time I opened the papers, there was something nasty written about me. It was all manufactured by the same set of people.
When we spoke to a few trade analysts, they revealed how Kedarnath went over-budget because it changed hands. Is that true?
This is actually the fastest film that I have made. The budget has not gone overboard even by 50 paisa. If anything, I ended up making it cheaper than I had set out to make.
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