'His understanding of human nature and emotions can never be matched by me.'
It's been 15 years since Karan Johar's My Name Is Khan released, and saw Shah Rukh Khan in an entirely different light.
Karan looks back, and tells Subhash K Jha, "Who am I to pose new challenges to Shah Rukh? He challenges himself every day of the year. All I could do was give him a role that my writer and I had worked on for almost two years."
How do you recall your best film?
My Name Is Khan wasn't easy. It's the socio-political journey of Shah Rukh's character Rizwan from the age of four to 40.
In his journey, Shah Rukh encounters major political upheavals, from a communal riot in India to 9/11 in the US. But my film is not about any specific political event. Nor is it about Asperger's Syndrome.
My hero is autistic.
He couldn't be neuro-typical because he had to see life with a honesty and clarity denied to normal people.
My Name Is Khan excited me. For the first time, I was directing a film that had characters and situations I didn't know about. I was excited by the research that I had to do for this film.
It challenged me.
Were you also posing a new challenge for Shah Rukh?
Who am I to pose new challenges to Shah Rukh? He challenges himself every day of the year.
All I could do was give him a role that my writer and I had worked on for almost two years.
There were visa problems for some Muslim members of your cast?
Yes. We had certain legal issues.
We had to make some changes to accommodate the developments.
I believe in going by the law of every land. That's what we did in LA when troubles arose.
Was Aamir Bashir replaced by Jimmy Sheirgill after a great deal of deliberation and pain?
I wouldn't say it was painful. Yes, we did have to do some serious re-thinking.
I spoke to my casting director Shanoo Sharma and was very happy to have Jimmy Sheirgill on board.
I had done his clothes for Aditya Chopra's Mohabbatein so I knew him.
It was unfortunate that things didn't work out with Aamir Bashir.
Was it a painful experience to shoot in LA?
In all my years as a filmmaker, I never felt the experience to be so different. Content-wise, My Name Is Khan was diametrically opposite to whatever I had done in the past.
You know, on the very first day of shooting, my cameraman Ravi Chandran looked at me and said, 'I don't think you've ever shot something like this.'
This was the first time I'm directing a screenplay I haven't written myself.
This gave me a level of detachment from the proceedings and yet, a lot of attachment.
It released a whole plethora of unexplored emotions in my head.
This time, I was being creative in a different way. And Shah Rukh played a completely different human being; I had never directed that person before.
My Name Is Khan had no lip-sync songs.
No, the songs were all in the background.
Even Rakeysh Mehra's Rang De Basanti didn't have lip-sync songs but did we ever feel any loss?
In LA, we had fans coming to us to ask if there was any track like Suraj Hua Madhyam.
Music is an integral but seamless part of My Name Is Khan.
How was it directing Shah Rukh and Kajol again?
I am blessed to have them in my film. I don't know what it's about them, it's just magic.
They build an inexplicable energy on screen. They instinctively understand each other's acting.
When I direct a scene with Shah Rukh and Kajol, I know I'm doing my best work. These two characters in My Name Is Khan *had* to be SRK and Kajol.
You almost didn't get Kajol?
She had to read the script, that was it.
She said yes.
I wouldn't want any actor to say yes to my film just because he or she is a friend.
I've great friendships but I don't want any actor to compromise on his or her basic tenets on cinema.
Was Kajol weighed down on location by her motherly duties?
Not at all. I've worked with Kajol in various stages of her life.
I'm working her again eight years later.
When we worked the last time, she didn't have a daughter. So of course, she's a different person.
Today, I find her calmer, more focused on her work than ever before.
Of course, she has a really cute daughter to look after but Kajol manages to be fantastic wife, mother and actress.
I find Shah Rukh and Kajol alike in their attitude to work and family. They're both so much into their spouses and kids.
When the shot is over, they rush to their respective families.
On location in LA, between shots, they spoke to each other about their respective families.
How was Shah Rukh?
Time and again, I'm blown away by Shah Rukh. How can he think of so many things about his character when he has so much on his plate? He had done monumental research on his autistic character.
I was zapped by how much he knew on the subject and he brought all the knowledge on the sets without any strain.
He had written reams of notes on how he wanted to interpret his character, and to him, it was no big deal.
He's ready to direct a film any time. He will be outstanding at it. His understanding of human nature and emotions can never be matched by me.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
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