Ashutosh believes in Harman

Gone is the Angry Young Man of Film Awards! Ashutosh Gowariker sounds like he's found just what the doctor ordered
Ashutosh Gowariker sounds like a man in love. A far cry from his slip disc over-schedule Jodha Akbar days, by the end of this interview he���s done voices, attempted poetry and cracked quite a few thigh-slapping good ones. He is not even the Ashutosh Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai man of the IIFA and Screen awards and has ���Z-I-L-C-H��� to say about ���what���s already been said���.
No, he���s not even worried that What���s Your Rashee, no matter how well it does, will not even take him anywhere close to the Oscar/film festival/award function circuit that is the usual company he keeps.
Is it ���done��� for a director to just up and change genres like this? He chuckles. ���If you ask Peter Jackson if he���s going to make another trilogy, he will probably wipe his brow and say ���dude, been there, done that, what���s next?���.���
And how does a director who has stage managed... er... some 100 horses, 80 elephants, 55 camels apart from extras and two superstars, never mind 400 pieces of handcrafted royal jewellery and a few forts even begin to cut down on his sense of scale. Isn���t it quite a leap? Don���t fall off your seat just yet, but Gowariker launches into poetic metaphors here. ���See you either look before you leap or you leap before you look. I do the latter because if I look I won���t leap. That said, if in the process of leaping I happen to look down or notice some obstacle in the place where I am leaping to, then er... I make suitable mid-air adjustments.���
���Budget and scale is really not important to me. It is probably important to people who have certain expectations from me. For me, a film is about enjoying the experience of it, getting the team together and arriving at the perspective that I want to express.���
Ashutosh, who recognised Rahman���s genius long before the Academy did, has never before worked with another music director, and the change to Sohail Sen is also symbolic of his shifting sensibility. ���I never conceived that I would be taken by this story, would want songs at such a pace ��� 13 songs in 3 months, and at the time I discussed it with Rahman, he was busy with everything from Slumdog to Dilli 6 to Shankar to Jaane Tu to numerous other Tamil films. We mutually decided that he wouldn���t work on it and I went ahead with what I needed.���
But what induces the momentum for such an aesthetic leap? Could it possibly be, for a director well known to push himself and his actors to the precipice of perfection at a pace that Aamir Khan finds himself panting to keep with, a testing of the self?
���Absolutely. At that point I had already made a period drama, a social drama and a historic romance. I grew up watching historicals and had never thought I���d get the chance to get a chance to make one. It was a joyous process especially when it was a successful one, especially considering historicals had not done well for over 40 years. In romantics, I���ve always loved Chupke Chupke because I sat through the film smiling to myself. I wanted to see if I could accomplish that.���
And come on, (nudge nudge) tell the truth - did it seem easier than it looked? ���I came in with the expectation that I could just breeze through a romantic comedy with a 60-70 day shoot. I now realize that for David Dhawan to be able to do it successfully time after time, he must be a king! Truth be told, after Jodha... anything seemed like it would be a cakewalk. But, if that is possible, I���ve had a tougher time with What���s Your Rashee. On two counts: we shot in 65 locations, which meant picking up the sets and running every 2-3 days, and 12 characters, 13 songs. Then there is the nuance of humour. I had to change my entire approach, had to challenge myself, I basically had to change my toolbox.���
What must a love story seem like to a director who has never really wrapped his head around love as an end in itself but as weave to the warp of a larger story? ���That���s not entirely true. A love story essentially sees two people in love, puts obstacles in their way, finds resolution, but its not that I don���t go there. Just that I haven���t gone there yet.���
And let���s not be kind about it. Gowariker, known for his attention to detail, is not the easiest of directors to work with simply for the sheer scale of dedication he demands from his actors, even known to push budget and scale and schedule as per the demands of the story. But at the end of the day are actors thought ill-suited to the role making miraculous transformations ��� nobody believed Hrithik would make for a Shahenshah, commercial Shah Rukh for an NRI-returned Swades-type, ���People didn���t believe Aamir could be Sadhana-haircut sporting Bhuvan,��� Ashutosh chips in, helpfully.
Some of Priyanka���s 12 characters in WYR have already stunned the few critics who have seen it ��� particularly her portrayal of a 15-year old girl subject to a child marriage. Hrithik is still having his knee repaired. So what exactly does he do to his actors? Whip, cut, mould them into shape?
Gowariker chuckles at the mental image. ���I ensure that I know every single aspect of my characters; every like, every dislike, every habit, every quirk, his mental make up his family background before I present him to the actor. It���s like preparing a suit of armour. But eventually, it is the actor who must wear the suit of armour. My method is to ensure that I am prepared to preempt and answer every question, direct or indirect, that an actor, spot boy or light technician may have about the character. Then, I ensure that the entire team of characters does a reading together. In WYR ��� that reading was done 12 times over. Such interactions help the actor a lot.���
And Harman? Really, why Harman at a time when he was being written off? ���The problem with us is we write off a talent instead of writing off his work, if that work has not been successful. And success, of course, is all important to us. When I saw the rushes of Love Story 2050, I was taken by his dancing, his ability to perform and an inherent innocence in his eyes which is what I was looking for in Yogesh Patel (Harman���s character in WYR). He fitted the bill.���
���At the end of the day I enjoyed my leap and am simply sharing it around,��� he shrugs. If that merits the academic appreciation of an award, then maybe it will win some. If not, my joy is still shared.���
So, for all you know, What���s Your Rashee might just have been just what the doctor ordered to put Ashutosh Gowariker, Angry Young Man of Indian Film Awards, in a perennial good mood