‘I’m not a director, I’m a filmmaker’

He���s the ���funny man��� of Indian cinema, both on camera and behind it, and Sajid Khan loves it.
Because for him, comedy is not just funny, it���s serious business! His directorial debut Heyy Babyy was a laugh riot, and a hit, and now, Sajid���s laughing all the way to his second venture ��� another comedy ��� titled Housefull, starring Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh again, along with Deepika Padukone and Giah Khan, amongst others.
This one���s a romantic comedy, Sajid tells us, not a family comedy, but it promises to have its Sajid Khan signature style of humour. ���I will not leave the comedy genre,��� Sajid affirms. ���Comedy is what audiences expect from me. Today, both making movies and watching movies is expensive, so it is my duty to give audiences their money���s worth,��� says Sajid.
And the director takes his work pretty seriously, even though his job might seem to be, well, on the lighter side of life! ���I have plenty of ideas in my head, but I prefer to work on one film at a time. I like to see myself as a filmmaker, who enjoys the entire process of filmmaking, rather than a director who just churns out film after film.
So, do his words signal that he���ll never move out of his comfort zone ��� comedy ��� and experiment with another genre? ���I will make the best action film in this country, but not now, after five years. Because right now, India doesn���t yet have the technology to make the kind of action film I���m looking at doing,��� says Sajid. And no, he���s not joking. On the other hand, he tells us horror films excite him too. ���Afterall, I started my directorial career with Darna Zaroori Hai!���
Back to his original love, comedy. Sajid says that while the final outcome of a comic caper is all laughs and gags, the process of making a comedy is far from simple. ���Strangely, humour is the only emotion that gets generalised. Fear, sorrow and other feelings are universal. Everyone gets scared in a horror film, everyone cried in Titanic. But it���s not possible to make everyone laugh at the same joke or same kind of humour. However, I believe that even if I make 70 per cent of the audience laugh, then I have succeeded in making a blockbuster,��� says Sajid, admitting that he���s a complete people���s director. ���I may not believe in a gag, but if majority of my audience enjoys it, then I go for it. Afterall, the audience is always king!���
But despite being an actor for years, it's directing that the multi-talented Sajid finds more challenging. ���As an actor, you have to be yourself, but as a director, you have to pretend to know all the answers. It���s like leading an army into a battlefield, only here you don���t know who your enemy is!��� says Sajid. And how good a director does he consider his sister, Farah Khan, to be? ���I���d give her 10 on 10, because her films are not pretentious. Farah���s films are synonymous with Bollywood; we come from the same school of thought that solely believes in entertaining the audience.���
Last, but surely not the least for this bundle of energy and talent, what���s up his sleeve next, after anchoring, acting and directing? ���I haven���t reached my potential or got my dues as an actor. I plan to do more of that,��� Sajid concludes.