I am like Superman, says Rohit Shetty

I remember last year when Rohit Shetty walked in our office. All the girls swooned at the sight of the tall director, with a warm smile and big arms covered in sexy tattoos. They still gush about him. I don’t remember the first time I met him but I recall seeing Golmaal in the morning show and then again in the evening. (The only other time I have done this is with Dhoom 2, and it was for that tanned God called Hrithik Roshan).

I have always enjoyed Shetty’s films. I’ve laughed through the Golmaals and hooted like a tapori while watching Singham. Yes, I have had my IQ questioned by some filmwallahs, who are now working with him. Of course, now that he has delivered a few Rs100 crore films, they suddenly think he is talented. Today, he is B-Town’s highest-paid director. And though the zeroes on his pay cheque have changed, he hasn’t. He might come across as arrogant to those who don’t know him, but I see it as confidence. In who he is and what he brings to the table. No wonder every top actor in the country wants to work with him today. So what makes Rohit Shetty most wanted? Let’s find out...
 
I am going to start with the most obvious question...
...About Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn... (cracks up).

Yes, how have you managed to be friends with top actors who are rivals?
By being honest. Today, just because I am working with Shah Rukh, doesn’t mean that to be in his good books, I will go and bitch about Ajay. To be in SRK’s good books, I will work hard and prove that I can do some good work with him. Or you know I will be a better technician. Same thing goes with Ajay. He is a brother, he is family. Even tomorrow if I work with Salman... I have not worked with him but he has always been supportive because he knows me and used to know my dad. If I go and meet him, I will never talk about Shah Rukh and Ajay, and I think that works. At the end of the day, everybody has a sensibility. Everybody is smart and intelligent enough to understand why someone is saying something, so it’s best to be all about your work and stay out of the other stuff.

So if it’s that simple, why hasn’t anyone else been able to crack it?
Everybody cannot be Rohit Shetty.

Ah, the arrogance!
You need to be man for that. Be who and what you are, not different persons for different people.

There is a perception in the industry that you are arrogant. Are you?
I like my space. Nobody knows where I am. I am like Superman. I come, do my work and go back into my world. You don’t see me at parties, premieres etc... except for a few friends, no one knows where I am.

And you like it that way...
Yes, I do because I feel that except for some friends... like Ajay, and now I can even say Shah Rukh... also Sanjay Dutt, Kareena (Kapoor), Abhishek (Bachchan), and I am forgetting, I can take three-four more names... everyone, except this lot, who wants to meet me or wants to work with me or is with me, it is because I am doing well. Tomorrow if one film goes wrong, no one except these people will care for me.

So I want to be in my own space whether I am doing well or not, so that it doesn’t come as a shock to me someday. I have seen my dad going through that and I don’t want to relive that. I was in the third standard when I lost my father. I must have been seven-eight and I remember the low phase he went through. It is a scar on my heart and mind... I was sad and I don’t want to revisit that... But I know that 80 per cent of the people who like me, or want to know me or work with me, do that because I am doing well. That is the way our industry functions. So I am happy in my own space.

You have worked with Ajay in all your films. With SRK you this is your first time — both of you are not used to each other’s style of working. How was the first day of shooting?
It was superb. What happens is by the time you land up shooting, it is almost as if you know the person. There is so much of pre-production work that goes into making a film.

And he being the producer, you are constantly in touch, you end up meeting every day.
We were meeting for a year before we started shooting. So you know the person by then.

And it has been a great experience. He is very hard working. You can shoot with him for 24 hours in a day without any hassle and he will have a smile on his face even at 4 am even if you tell him that he has to shoot for four more hours. He is a fab producer, a very hard working guy.

You have delivered most Rs 100-crore films, with CE will you add one more? (Laughs out loud)
Oh God... I haven’t thought about that at all.

C’mon give me a figure.
No, really. I don’t have a figure in my head. I think it has now become a joke that every film is doing Rs 100 crore. The whole charm and the seriousness of Rs 100 crore is gone. Because when we were doing Rs 100 crore films three years ago, we were releasing 800 prints. Today, people release 3,500 prints. Next year onwards I think 50 films will be doing Rs 100 crore. Even small films will hit that number because the number of prints are increasing, and the number of footfalls are increasing...

And CE is coming with...
We will be releasing more than 3,500 prints. It’s Eid, it’s Shah Rukh Khan so... With  the kind of audience I cater to -- woman, family audience, mass --  I think the film will do really well. I can’t say what the business will be, but I know my audiences will like the film.

CE is more in the romance space, right?
Yes, I would say that in the way Singham had action, this film has romance. But it has humour too. And we prepare the audience for the romance, they suddenly won’t get a shock like, ‘What has Rohit made.’ It has humour, it has action, it has romance but you will come out of the theatre satisfied that having seen a Rohit Shetty film, as well as a Shah Rukh Khan film.

After a film with SRK, do you think you be taken more seriously?
I don’t really care about people’s perception of me.

I mean the industry...
They are not running my kitchen, so I don’t care what they say or feel about me.
Guys who said, ‘How can you like Rohit’s films?’ are now lining up to work with you.
I would say these are the people who don’t know what they want. I have not changed. Nor have the kind of films I make. I have a set of audience who love that kind of cinema and I cater to them. I am not here to please everyone. If I try to do that, I know I will be the most dukhi person on this Earth. You can’t please everyone.

Your strengths as a filmmaker?
I am not saying what others are doing is wrong, but I try to keep it clean. There is an item song with Priyamani in CE but it is nothing that will make you squirm. Kids and elderly people come to see my films, and I don’t want to make them uncomfortable. I keep that in mind and that is my strength. I make films for the women audience and the family audience. They are not on Twitter and Facebook so you don’t come to know how many people love me and my films.

Speaking of followers, who is the one person you consider your Guru?
Veeru Devgan. He has taught me the technique of action, filmmaking... I have worked with him, observed his work and learnt everything from him.

How much of your success would you attribute to luck?
Hundred per cent. Every director works very hard on his film. some of them I would say are more talented than me, more hardworking than me, but they haven’t had the kind of fame, money and success I have been blessed. I think I am very lucky that my films have done well.

You are just being humble.
No, I am not humble. There are so many directors when I see their work, I think, superb work they are doing but they haven’t been lucky.

What are your weaknesses?
I am quite stupid. Anyone can fool me easily... I am very emotional. I get hurt very easily. So I keep away from people, and that gives people the impression that I am arrogant.

How religious are you?
I believe in one God. And I don’t know by which name to address him. I believe there is one power, I don’t know 5,000 or 7,000 names. I am a convent student so I go to Mount Mary. My dad used to go to a dargah, which is very strange being a Shetty... but I also follow that ritual and visit that dargah in Marine Lines. I don’t go there on a fixed day or a special day, I go whenever I feel like going there. I just tell my driver to take me there. I don’t believe that I only need to go there when my film is releasing. I don’t think it works like that.

Your music is never of the chart bursting variety. Agree?
Yes,  I admit that I am very poor with music. I don’t have a great music sense. But please note that despite that my films make Rs 100 crore (grins).

Where do you see yourself five years down the line?
I want to do good work, expand my business... work with a lot more people, and try to bring everyone together. I want everyone to sit together and discuss the business of cinema and how we can take it forward. Because that is not happening in our industry. I would be happy if the South system was also followed here. Where the producer and the association has the control over everything, from promotion days... amount spent on publicity, release dates... that’s how we should all work. When I met Surya in Chennai recently, I learnt that his film opened on Rs 7.5 to 10 crore a day, and that is just one state. We do that kind of business in Mumbai, we are a bigger market and we do pan India and also overseas... we all need to sit together but everyone is busy pulling the other guy down.

There is no unity and it is sad. Producers, directors, actors, everyone will benefit from coming together and talking. I don’t know why everyone is scared to talk about money.
People run down a film that makes Rs 100 crore and say, ‘it is not good cinema’  if someone is talking money, he is brushed off and they say ‘he is not an intellectual guy.’ I am saying, let’s all come together and take this industry to a new level. It is possible because we are such hard working people. Instead there is piracy, promotions going overboard...

Can you make a make a small budget film?
(Laughs) I can produce a small budget film, I will never be able to make one.

Neither can Karan Johar, and the two of you are making a film together...
You know, my whole crew laughs at me. When a film is getting over, I tell myself that I will make a small budget film next. The sad part is my films are called a no-brainer or whatever, but a lot of hard work goes into this kind of a set-up and every time the film  is getting over, I am so tired and I tell my team, next we’ll make a small film. That’s how when I saw Hrishida’s Golmaal, I said, ‘let’s make this film’ and I landed up making Bol Bachchan! I think I will start producing small films, because I can’t seem to direct a small film.'

Isn’t your first film as producer Singham 2?
I am not the producer of that film. Technically it is Ajay Devgn and Reliance. My plans as a producer are in the planning stages as of now.  I will start gradually. But I will mostly producer films because I will not be directing.

Why not?
Because I will ruin my company, I will go out and say, ‘who cares? It is my money. I will spend how much I want.’ And in one film I will spend whatever I have earned. So no, I will not direct for my banner. I will work for outside producers as a director and produce other directors’ films.

Would I be wrong in saying you are the highest paid director in Bollywood today?
I don’t know how much others are charging (roars loudly).

That’s not a denial. Anyway how have you managed that distinction in a decade?
I just worked hard. That’s it. No other formula. I never went to a film school. I don’t think it works. Not for me, or for anyone else. I have visited a few of them and I am not commenting on any school in India or abroad but I think directors teaching directions are not qualified to be directors themselves. Till the students don’t come out and work practically, they will not understand how films are made.

Who are the directors you grew up idolising?
Vijay Anand, Nasir Hussain, Manmohan Desai...

What’s the one film you can watch over and over again?
There are many... Jewel Thief, Johnny Mera Naam, and if you ask me a film from recent times that I can watch over and over again, I would say Zindagi Ne Milegi Dobaara. I have watched it innumerable times. I just connect with that film. I don’t know why.

About the whole clash between CE and OUATIMD. Did it spoil relations on either side?
Not really. See what happens, if you ask me technically, my film Golmaal Returns released with Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion. During Golmaal 3, Action Replay had released and All The Best had come with Blue. So I don’t think about these things. My only worry was that the business would split between both the films. Coming out and saying, ‘We will do better than them’ or ‘We will thrash them’ makes no sense. From an economic point of view, it would have harmed Ekta and it would have harmed me as well. I am very happy that we are coming solo now. It will be good for both the films.

If Ekta hadn’t backed out, would you have?
No. Why will I back out?

Three reasons to see CE?
One, it is a feel-good film. Two, it has me and SRK coming together for the first time, and three, it will make you feel happy for two-and-a-half hours!

What’s next? 
I will take a break now. I am not shooting for five months now. Then I will start on Singham 2. I keep taking short breaks. Even when I am with friends, family, I write. I am a workaholic but so is SRK. If there is anybody in the industry who can compete with me on that, it is him.

So can Akshay...
Yes, but he starts very early... he starts his day at 6 am! If I have to meet Akshay I have to start reaching his home at the same time as his doodhwala. But I can adapt. I was early sleeper but Shah Rukh has changed that. Now I go home at 5 in the morning and I start my day in the afternoon. With Ajay it was ulta. Since he sleeps early, you have to start early with him. It is fun working with everyone and different kind of energies, though.

Who are the directors who admire from the current lot?
In no particular order... Imitaz Ali, Anurag Basu, Zoya Akhtar, Gauri Shinde, Raju Hirani (he is the best of the lot) and Anurag Kashyup. He makes whacky films but he is a nice human being. When we meet we just chat and it’s nice.