menoftheyear farhan akhta SINCE DIL CHAHTA HAI, r HE HAS DELIVERED HITS CONSISTENTLY, AS A DIRECTOR, ACTOR, SINGER AND PRODUCER. WITH BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG, A FILM YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE PICTURED HIM IN, HE SHOWED HE CAN DO MORE OR LESS ANYTHING photographs by dabboo ratnani styled by tanya mehta hair by Walter Dorairaj make up by Swapnil Pathare words by ekta mohta , Rs 7,990 DECEMBER 2013 • MW 155 Diesel T-shirt by menoftheyear , Rs 1,990 Superdry T-shirt by arhan Akhtar experienced postpar- mailed into doing the Fakir of Venice. The director, Anand Surapur, tum depression when he stopped was my friend, and he was convinced I should do it. Honestly, I did not doing 2500 crunches a day. When feel ready. We used to hang out a lot, and he used to see me doing my he stopped training and living as antics. Working on that film, the first thing I felt was some degree of Milkha Singh, it felt like he’d “lost artistic liberation. I felt that you can be something 100 percent. To be so somebody”. In his words, “It is an uncorrupted was a wonderful feeling. The story of my acting career is intense experience when you deal incomplete without a mention of how helpful my Fakir of Venice co-star with a character that so consumes Annu Kapoor was. Not that he told me what to do. He helped by talking you. I remember, when the film to me about his own experiences as a theatre actor, the importance of wrapped up, my first instinct was to being relaxed and other things like that. Because I’m not a trained actor, tell Samir [Jaura], my trainer, ‘Let’s maintain going to the track once a it took me a while to lose my inhibitions with so many people staring. week and training. Let’s go to the high-altitude centre once a week.’ He Usually, I’m the one watching other people and commenting on their Fsaid yes, but he knew it wasn’t going to happen. The drive to do it was nuances.” gone. It had to gradually work its way out of my system. It was hard to Akhtar did not study filmmaking either. He learnt on the job and deal with it being over.” made sure he hired the best professors to teach him. In the four films We are in Akhtar’s sitting room. A book by poet and lyricist Sahir he has directed (Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya, Don 1 and 2), he’s never re- Ludhianvi is in one corner. A large drum with the cover of Beatles al- peated a director of photography, a job he describes as “my closest as- bum Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band painted on it is in the other. sociate in the technical department”. He’s worked with three costume In person, Akhtar is no-nonsense and nice, but also slightly aloof. His designers, four editors and five production designers. “You want to work words are carefully chosen. Not like he’s reading from a press release, with people whom you can rely on to do the little, important things. For but as if it isn’t like him to shoot his mouth off. Half the interview is over example, I was working with Suzanne Merwanji [production designer] before he starts making eye contact and smiling more easily. on Dil Chahta Hai, and we were shooting in Dimple’s [Kapadia] house. He says he found the role of Milkha Singh tougher to handle emo- There was a desk there, which you only really see in one shot — when tionally than physically. On his rigorous training, which involved two she’s talking to her husband on the phone. While setting up the shot, I intensive workouts a day, six times a week, he says, “It becomes a part opened one of the drawers and found it filled with pins, pencils and pa- of the process of becoming the character. There’s something inside you pers. I thought it was just junk the production team had left there. But, telling you, this is what I have to do. And, no matter how long it takes, Suzanne said, ‘It’s meant to be there because Dimple plays an interior no matter how many times you have to wake up early and push yourself, designer. This is where she keeps all her things.’ I was completely blown you’ll do it.” away. It opened a little door in my head to just how far you can go with Most actors wouldn’t have touched Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Most di- details.” rectors wouldn’t have approached Akhtar for the role. There’s nothing It isn’t new information that you need to get the right people together Checkered jacket, in his filmography to suggest that he understands the villager’s or the to make a good film. Akhtar has just pulled it off more consistently than Rs 1,18,500; Grey shirt, athlete’s perspective in India. The film is a strange experiment, in which most. Before Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, his standout films were Dil Chahta Rs 16,400; Printed tie, Rs 12,500; Blue trousers, hydrogen was mixed with oxygen and ended up in buckets of sweat. Hai, which he directed, Luck by Chance, which he produced and acted Rs 25,000; all by When Akhtar acted in his first film, The Fakir of Venice (unreleased), in, and Fukrey, which he produced. For those who haven’t seen Fukrey, Corneliani; Watch by he never thought he’d end up in a biopic. “I was emotionally black- it is this year’s Vicky Donor. The film is absolutely nuts. “When Mrigh- Xylys, Rs 17,000 156 DECEMBER 2013 • MW DECEMBER 2013 • MW 157 menoftheyear “There is something deep [Singh Lamba, director], an extremely witty guy, narrated the script, we knew it was a laugh riot. It felt like he knew this world, these telling you, this is people. We even asked him, ‘Which one of the four characters are you?’ what I have to do. You could see it was special for him. When the material is so strong And, no matter how and powerful, it’s rare that you’ll get it wrong. Plus, he had a certain control over the story. Every time we spoke to him, he seemed to know much you have to the answers.” push yourself, you Among all Akhtar’s ventures, the only ones that haven’t interested me enough to even watch them are his Don films. I start telling him will do it.” about a friend who’s seen Don four times. He interjects, “What a nice guy. I hope he is not talking about the 1970s Don.” “No, that’s me.” He responds, “That’s me also.” What the original means to me is also what it means to him. It makes you wonder: why would a man who cares so much about growing as an artist remake a classic? Why would he then make a sequel to that remake? Then, you look at the beautiful two-tier bungalow, at the sparkly Bandra sea it overlooks, at the big rooms, and you think, well, it all has to come from somewhere. ut, to write Akhtar off as a gold-grubbing “Because I am not a director is an unfair assessment. He does understand the value and respon- trained actor, it took sibility of being a celebrity. Last year, he me a while to lose my launched a social initiative called MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination). inhibitions with so many “We’re in a fortunate position because people staring. Usually, people are looking at us and reading I'm the one watching other about our lives. We can’t just use it to say, ‘Come, watch my next movie.’ people and commenting.” BWhen I travel with the MARD concerts, people come and talk to me about it. Universities have set up awareness booths, and several NGOs are also part of this. All we have to do is keep the volume up.” There is a scene in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag depicting marital rape that is nearly two minutes long. It is one of the few scenes in a slow film that justify the time they are given. “That was Rakeysh’s [Om- prakash Mehra, the director] doing, and I completely agree with him. I remember when we watched the edit, I felt so uncomfortable watch- ing that scene. Your first instinct as a human being is that it stifles you. That’s how it should be. You should feel like, pardon my French, but, what the fuck is going on? How can this be allowed to happen? If you don’t feel that way, it just becomes titillation. The scene will transgress voyeurism only when the length is as long as it was. The treatment of important issues, concerns and crimes, if not portrayed correctly, becomes voyeurism.” Akhtar’s next film, Shaadi Ke Side Effects, which will be released in February 2014, also deals with the position of women in our so- ciety. “Shaadi Ke Side Effects felt like a simple but sweet story. Men need to start accepting responsibility in a relationship, especially in our patriarchal society. If your wife’s making certain sacrifices to make your marriage work, why are you complaining? Either respect that, or give her the same freedom you have. That message, which isn’t preachy, but more subliminal, I liked that.” Akhtar is picky about his projects because, “You know your entire Opposite pages: Caspian stretch nylon motorcycle padded jacket with contrast leather life’s journey has brought you to this point, at which you want to make detail by Gucci, price on request; White polo neck this one film.” It isn’t a bad philosophy.