When Ranbir Kapoor offered Imtiaz Ali to make Rockstar with him

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As best described in Ranbir Kapoor’s words – He offered Imtiaz Ali to make Rockstar with him. Call it destiny, perfect casting or the power of Imtiaz Ali’s storytelling, Ranbir Kapoor was drawn towards the film from day one. When Imtiaz  Ali thought of making Rockstar, Ranbir Kapoor had not entered the glamour world as the leading actor. It was planned to be made with another actor. Imtiaz Ali wrote the film even before Jab We Met and had approached AR Rahman for music. Mr. Rahman had already started working on the music of this epic film. But due to unforeseen circumstances, the project came to a standstill. During the time of Love Aaj Kal, Imtiaz Ali met Ranbir Kapoor few times casually, and he happened to offer a film to him which was not Rockstar. However, the offered film didn’t excite the young Kapoor so much. While Imtiaz Ali was leaving from the meeting, Ranbir out of curiosity asked him about Rockstar. It was before Ranbir started shooting for Saawariya that he had heard about the concept of Rockstar from a friend. It excited him from that very moment and he grabbed the opportunity to inquire about it directly from the filmmaker. While Imtiaz said that he is no longer working on Rockstar but he wanted to know about Ranbir’s information on the film and hence kept pushing him to share what he knows about the film. Basically the tables turned and Ranbir was giving a narration to Imtiaz Ali on Rockstar on whatever he knew of the film. Gauging the passion and interest level of the actor, it pushed the director to give another shot to his ambitious project. Three months later, Imtiaz Ali came to the talented actor with a new script of the same Rockstar.  The acclaimed director never referred back to his old draft, he rewrote it from scratch as the concept was inked in his mind. This draft was more organic and relatable. Ranbir immediately hopped onto it and marked the beginning of this cult film. Casting of Nargis Fakri was also not less than any destiny tale. While Imtiaz Ali was looking for a girl, not particularly a newcomer, but a face that can make the handsome Ranbir Kapoor look like he doesn’t deserve to be with this ultimate beauty as the film revolved around a guy who wants to go through a heartbreak so that he can became a musician. One of the crew member of the film, pulled our Nargis’s photo from the internet,  Imtiaz used the print out of the image as reference picture while looking out for girls to be cast opposite Ranbir Kapoor. However, due to some or the other reason, it didn’t materialize with anyone else. On a recce in Prague and knowing that Nargis was in Europe too, they planned a meeting, cut to Nargis being the muse for this ultimate Rockstar. The casting of this film is nothing short of any film drama, looks like the roles in the film called out to their respective artists justifying the words from the film – ‘Sadda Haq’.  The film helped these stars in adding a rocking credit to their slate of films with the magnificent - Rockstar.

Source: Talking films with Imtiaz Ali, Making of Rockstar and ETC Bollywood Business with Ranbir Kapoor

Story behind the final script of PK

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The all-time highest grosser of Bollywood, appreciated for performance of its star cast and acclaimed for its storytelling, PK swept all critics and box office with great margins. Little did we know the actual draft that transformed on celluloid was actually the 4^th or 5^th draft of the film considering the changes it had to go through because of other films released during that very period. Convinced with their own idea of using Alien as a device for the narrative of the film, Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi started building the structure of the script. 

As per the draft been written, Aamir Khan’s character possessed one more supreme power apart from the one already part of the film, was aimed to build a base for the second half of the film. This power was to enter a person’s memory and be able to change a situation/incident that played a major role in shaping the personality of the individual. For eg. If a person has gone through the traumatic times of Indo-Pak partition and developed ill feelings towards certain religion/country, then PK would have the power to get into the memory of the person and change the incident which in turn would transform the outlook of the individual towards life and people around. Unfortunately for the film maker, ‘Inception’ released during this period which talked about the same concept. Disappointed with the thought that the writer duo won’t have a new offering for the audience, they decided to drop the idea of using this power as an important element of the film. But the effort continued with another draft, wherein post Aamir Khan’s encounter with police in the film, he gets offended by the treatment he receives at the police station, Aamir’s character decides to sue god for his suffering. The second half of the film was largely set out to be a court room drama. During this phase of writing, they became aware of a Gujarati play – ‘ Kanji Virudh Kanji’ by Paresh Rawal on similar lines and an Australian film – ‘The Man who sued God’. But due to its niche owing to the language and country respectively, they decided to go ahead with their concept as it was meant for a wider reach. In the meanwhile, Paresh Rawal brought the play on Hindi platform and announced about the film ‘OH MY GOD’ based on the concept of the play. Rajkumar Hirani decided to quickly finish their writing and get into production as he wished to be the first one to bring out the film on the much in demand topic. But Paresh Rawal shot the film in lightning speed and was ready with its theatrical release. With not much option left, the writer duo set out to pen down another draft of the story. The final draft was eventually the one made after numerous modifications but box office clearly appreciated the efforts of the film makers and gave a thunderous applaud to the power packed film

Source: ETC Bollywood Business: Interview of Rajkumar Hirani & Abhijat Joshi by Komal Nahta

Rajesh Khanna passionately carved his way into the film – Anand

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One of India’s biggest superstar of the country – Rajesh Khanna carved his way into the finest film – ‘Anand’. Hrishikesh Mukherjee wanted to make ‘Anand’ with his best friend Raj Kapoor. However, due to the ill health of Raj Kapoor, it got Hrishikesh Mukherjee superstitious that the reel character of the film shouldn’t affect the real life of the Show Man and hence he dropped the idea of casting Mr. Kapoor for this iconic film. He then discussed the film with number of other talents in the industry, from Bengali film superstar – Uttam Kumar to Shashi Kapoor and even Kishore Kumar, but unfortunately or fortunately, these artists couldn’t be part of the film. It was during this time that Rajesh Khanna got introduced to the concept of 'Anand' through Gulzar who was the common link between the actor and the director. Rajesh Khanna instantly fell in love with the film and reached out to Hrishida. A commercial superstar who was at his career’s peak after giving hits like Aradhna and Do Raaste, was passionate to be part of this small budget film left Hrishikesh Mukherjee total amazed. Though Hrishida was excited with the level of interest shown by Rajesh Khanna, but being realistic at the same time, he kept three conditions or rather expressed 3 wishes in front of the acclaimed romantic hero of the nation. First one being that though Rajesh Khanna’s market price at that time was around 8 lacs per film, but Hrishikesh Mukherjee could only afford around 1 Lac as fees to be paid to Rajesh Khanna for this film, second one was that he demanded total punctuality from the superstar and third one that he would require bulk dates from this busiest actor. Complying to his own determination to be in the film, Rajesh Khanna agreed to all by putting forth his diary in front of Hrishida to fill out the dates he wanted to shoot. This is how ‘Anand’ - the highly celebrated film of the country got his leading man in Rajesh Khanna. ‘Anand’ gave two superstars – Rajesh Khanna & Amitabh Bachchan, one of the most remembered role of their careers and is considered as a cult movie

Source: Suhanna Safar with Annu Kapoor – 92.7 Big FM

Akshay Kumar’s khiladi way of getting the money from the producer

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With remuneration of actors playing a significant role in the budget of any film, there were days when actors were paid in thousands.  One such actor who now is milking money in crores per film, Akshay Kumar started his career with 50,000 per film. Moving on to earning in lacs and now adopting the model of profit sharing. During his tenure of acting in diversified roles, he has also met some interesting producers. Among those were also some who didn’t pay his complete fee. Him being the perfectionist in business, didn’t like to keep any balance payments. One such producer, who owed him Rs. 15000, stopped picking his calls or replying back to his messages. In order to collect his money, the khiladi Akshay Kumar landed at the doorstep of the producer. The producer went numb when he opened the door knowing very well the purpose of the actor visiting him. Akshay too without saying a word, stepped in the producer’s house, unplugged the tape recorder from the socket and moved out as silently as he had entered. The producer too being well aware of the due payment, remained a silent spectator to Akshay’s gimmick to get his money back. Akshay sold the tape recorder considered as priced possession years back which got him 7000 bucks. The balance amount is still pending to be recovered. However, with the choice of Akshay Kumar’s film and business acumen, he has earned much more in the last few years be it in terms of respect or cash and now we are eagerly waiting for his next release ‘ Rustom’ which already looks like a winner.

Source: The Actors Roundtable 2015 with Rajeev Masand

Priyanka Chopra had almost walked out of Gunday because of Ranveer Singh

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On the sets of Gunday, when Ranveer become the actual Gunda, the lead actress of the film – Priyanka Chopra decided to walk out of the film merely after doing one scene with Ranveer. It so happened that in order to showcase his skills in the very first scene with Priyanka and being nervous about acting with a National award winning actress, Ranveer over-prepared himself. When Priyanka walked into the set dressed gracefully in a saree saw Ranveer who she had only met earlier in trials preparing himself to be all wild like an animal as they were performing an intense pre climax scene where Ranveer was supposed to manhandle Priyanka. The Director, Ali Abbas Zafar assured Priyanka that he is just being a method actor who wants to be sure of his acting deliveries. With the sound of ‘Action’, Ranveer used all his force to keep pulling Priyanka towards him with real aggression leaving her dusky skin to turn all purple. By the end of the day, realizing his mistake, Ranveer sent an apology message to Priyanka but never got a reply from her. However, still being happy about his own performance, Ranveer was relaxing by the pool side the next day when Ali called him. Ranveer had expected it to be a praise call but it turned out to be a panic call instead as Priyanka in the feat of anger expressed to move out of the film owing to Ranveer’s over involvement in the scene. She also questioned Arjun Kapoor on his tolerance of working with Ranveer. Though Ali had already calmed her down and made her try one more day of shoot, Ranveer was ordered to apologise to Priyanka. But Ranveer being Ranveer, his style of apology was also so filmy, entered the set with a white rose to bring peace in his professional relation with Priyanka and also coupled it up with a Sharbat made by himself. This turned out to be the biggest ice breaker for both of them where Ranveer made a dashing Entriyaan in Priyanka’s close friends and made the box office’s Ghantiyaan ringing to great collections for Gunday.

Source: ETC Bollywood - Ranveer, Arjun Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra with Komal Nahta