Look Who’s Talking, now, it's Niranjan Iyenger!

He was 22 when he began working as a cub reporter for G magazine. It was meant to be a summer job, but he ended up working there six years, although what he really wanted to do was study nuclear physics). Then this journalist chucked writing to became a designer, with no formal training in the business. After that, he wrote a book, then dialogues, screenplay, lyrics for songs…. Wait, I am not done. He then acted in a play and a TV show. Now he is hosting a talk show called Look Who’s Talking on Zee Café. Some people plan their every career move. Some people take up things that come their way and somehow excel at it. I believe that the only qualification you need to do any job is honesty, passion, commitment and hard work. Niranjan proves that theory to be true. What next for this tall, lanky boy I first met in 1992 on a outdoor location of a film in Goa? Over to Niranjan...

Are you a writer, a lyricist or a director-in-waiting?
Depends on the day of the week you ask me that question. Manish (Malhotra) keeps laughing at me all the time. He always tells me. ‘After the number of professions you have taken up, tomorrow if you call me up and tell me that I have become a woman, I will not be surprised at all because every day I get up I hear something new that you have done to your life or some career choice that you have made.’

What did you want to do when you were growing up?
I wanted to study nuclear physics. I got 60% aid. There was still 40% (about two lakhs) that we had to raise. A big amount for a government employee in those days. My father mortgaged the house and that night I really got very scared. I thought, ‘I am going abroad to study, what if I get into drugs there? What if I become wayward?’ This was the only house that we had and I have a younger brother... what will my parents give him?’ So I decided that I will not go abroad. My father was a little disappointed. We had even made the part payment for the university hostel I decided I would continue my graduation in Bombay.

How did your connection with the movie world begin?
I was always a film buff. I loved movies and Rekha was my favourite actress. I was completely crazy about her. I’d finished my third year graduation in BSc in physics and was waiting for my results. I used to read all film magazines and but G was like really big glossy with lovely pictures. So I to the editor, Bhavna (Somaya) saying I would like to intern with her. I met her and she said, ‘Idon’t have a job right now but I’ll give you some assignments to do.’

My first was to interview Nirupa Roy. It was a very funny incident because I thought she will be this very demure and lovely person where she was wearing this light saree and give me mithai to eat and she turned out the exact opposite. She was very ill-tempered and quite angry at the fact that suddenly this reporter had landed up and she refused to give me photographs. I came back and I wrote the piece as is. My editor was rolling with laughter and she finished reading it and she said ‘But I can’t print it as we can’t write these things about Nirupa Roy in the magazine.’

Anyway, she liked my writing and a week later she told me to join the magazine. I accepted and my parents said, ‘What is this nonsense? Why are you joining the film magazine? etc.’ I thought I was only going to do it for my vacation period, but I ended up working there for about six years. I became the assistant editor, but then I got tired of that and decided that to explore something else. My aunt used to work in the Boston Globe in America. I got an internship from them in a year. I was going to take off and I quit G. By that time, Manish (Malhotra) had become a good friend, said, “You have invested six years in the movie business, it is silly to up and leave. Why don’t you join me?” He was starting his mainstream label with the Birlas. I said, “Are you crazy? I am a writer, not a designer.’ He said to me, ‘You have a basic level of aesthetics and I am also looking for somebody who I trust. So that’s how I joined him. I worked with him for three-and-half-years. 

What did you do exactly?
I designed his clothes, I made them, I handled his store, I handled his workshop. I did a lot of work in designing at that time. I did a lot of weddings, films and fashion shows. I did clothes for the same actresses that I had interviewed. I made clothes for Urmila in Mast, I made clothes for Lolo for various ad campaigns.

With no background in fashion!
I am a good learner, that’s one thing that’s good about me. So I worked with him for three-and –a-half years and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I decided designing is not something that I want to do as it is not my calling. At the time, Karan (Johar) was making Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and we had all become friends. He was telling me about casting Amitji (Bachchan) Shah Rukh and Kajol. So I suggested he write a book on the making of the movie. He said it’s was a good idea, and asked me to do it. So I quit designing and I got into writing a book. I travelled with him for one year and I didn’t do anything else. While I was doing the book, because I had nothing to do on the sets, I used to help Karan with the lines, dialogues and the scenes and we used to discuss everything. After we came back and I was thinking about the next book that I should write, he offered me Kal Ho Na Ho. He said, ‘You are good at writing dialogue, why don’t you try?’ I was like ‘Are you crazy, Karan? How can I do it?’ But he insisted and I wrote the dialogues. While I was working on Kal Ho Na Ho, my other friend Pooja (Bhatt) was making Jism, asked me to write dialogues for her film too. And that’s how two completely diverse films which were my debut films in the same year. Then slowly I did movies, dialogues, then I did screen play for Madhur for Fashion. Then I started writing lyrics…Honestly the reason, why I think it’s been a great success story so far, is because I took on whatever came to me and I did it.

Please continue.
I remember for Jism, I wrote about 10-20 scenes and which I was suppose to read out to (Mahesh) Bhatt saab, who was writing the film. I started reading out and after two scenes he said “Beta, zara ek minute, just give me the paper.’ He took the pen and started correcting my lines and then, he changed almost 80% of those lines! I got so demoralised. I thought if he has to change so much, then obviously, I am not good enough. This was on a Friday. I decided to call Karan on Monday and say ‘I don’t think dialogue is my scene’. On Sunday night, Bhatt saab called me and asked, ‘Are you feeling devastated?’ I said yes. And he said, ‘You are feeling demoralised because I corrected the 80%? But whatever changes I have made and based on what you have written, so the foundation is yours.’ That gave me a lot of strength. I was also fortunate to meet the kind of people I met who actually encouraged me. Even when I came into this business, I was so different from the people around. I came from a South Indian background, film people was totally different. I used to cry and say, ‘Why are these people like this? How do these basic things that are taught to us, not relevant to them? But Bhavna told me, ‘It’s alright to be different. You don’t have to fit in, you don’t have to become them but at the same time you can adapt yourself.’

How did theatre happen?
Again, acting in a play was something that I had never considered. I had never been on a stage, I am not a public person. I was writing a TV show called Jee Le Zara and the dialogue writer of Jee Le Zara is the author of this play Purva Naresh. I have been learning classical music for
fourteen years. I sing and she had come for one of my singing sessions. One day she called me and said, Can you come to me at 4 o’clock to Prithvi? I went because I was very intrigued by the play and that world. She gave me the script. It was not a very long script. I read it and
I said it’s beautiful. So she said, ‘I want you to do Ustaad’s part.’ I said I can’t do it but she said, ‘I have confidence that you can do it.’ It was a singing part and I had to sing a classical part as an introduction. There was a death scene and all. I told her “Give me a week. If by then, I
don’t feel confident, you find someone else.” But I found the confidence because the other actors were so warm and supportive…The world was so different. There was no insecurity, no back-biting, nobody was looking at each other as a threat… I had not encountered such a fresh perspective for a very long time. I loved it and I took it on. I had the jitters on the first day of performance but when I went on stage it just added up. The only thing that I relied on, like with everything else I had taken up before, was my honesty. It took me a couple of performances to get to the exact sur, but I did. Around the same time, Shrishti (Behl) was making a show for Myths and Legends, and asked me to play sage Vashisht,. I did that as well.

It’s so wonderful that you are open to taking up new things.
What else can you be, I don’t know. Yet, there are a lot of areas of my life about which I am very rigid, about which I am inflexible.

Like?
I take comfort in routine. I am not an easy person to change. If the change is organic, it comes to me, but if I have to change... Like, for instance you have caught me at a time in my career where it is very shaky, it’s not all hunky dory, I am going through some insecurities….

Your career sounds hunky-dory to me!
No, I mean there is an emotional side to a career and there is also a professional side. Professionally it all seems nice, there are movies, a play, a chat show and my music, but somewhere as a creative person, you know that if you don’t creatively reinvent yourself every five years or six years,it’s the beginning of the end. You have caught me in a phase right now where I am wondering how I am going to reinvent myself.

Just last year, a play, and this year, you’ve become a chat show host.
But still, in terms of writing, in terms of the actual core of my profession... I am wondering what I am going to do next. When you are in your twenties or even in your thirties, that phase is exciting. But when you are in your mid-forties, the unknown brings about a little bit of nervousness that even now you don’t know what you want to be.

Like always something will come along or happen.
Ya… May be these are my own demons. Probably, I’ll get over them. In another two months, I’ll be a different person. But I am just being completely honest with you because I am talking about my life right now, my whims and my emotions right now. There is a little bit, because see the entire film industry is in a flux. There is a whole lot of new people who have come in. There is a whole lot of ideas that are being chucked out and you question whether you are going to be a part of that old guard, which is going to be discarded or are you going to be able to adapt yourself and become the new. 

As long as you are questioning it, you are in the right place. 
That’s the only confidence and the solace I have. I question myself every six months. People say that I question too much, that is the reason why I feel so anxious. But I have led my life like that. I always re-examine, find out where I am, on a personal level as well as professionally and emotionally…What am I feeling, am I taking it too lightly, am I taking my talent for granted, am I people around me, or my family for granted? It’s important to examine oneself. Through my examination, there are insights which I then impose into my work, whether it is writing, or acting. I can’t stop that process. People keep telling me that you think too much. What is too much, you either think or you don’t. There is no too much or too little.

Do you get into that space where you disconnect from everything and everyone?
I think I am going through that phase right now. Because I engage so much. I don’t regret that because as much as engaging hurts you, it also gives you insights. It also gives you a first-hand experience. It’s very easy to say things that are borrowed from books and from other people’s experiences. But when you say that it forms the space out of the perspective of the prism of your own experience, it has a different tone and a texture and people connect to that. My entire essence of being a journalist and interacting with film stars for about 15-17 years percolated into Fashion and even today people quote the dialogues of Fashion back to me. Even yesterday, somebody was talking about that line about that ladder of success coming down, in Fashion. It’s so wonderful because it applies to every sphere of life and it came across so effectively because it’s come from my own experience. I have seen it, I have observed, I have interacted with people who are going through it. That is I think my corestrength as a writer especially of dialogues.

A lot of our directors and producers lose touch or connect with their audiences because they cut themselves off from the world. And meet just those ten people every day.
No one does that consciously. It just happens. In the last one-and-a-half years, whatever I have done, whether it is my starting to do concerts, doing a play, a chat show, it has been a very conscious endeavour to break out of my comfort zone and engage with people. I feel if something that is coming to you, examine it, try it. Earlier, I was always like, I’m doing movies, I’m doing this, I’m doing that, enough. Apart from my music, which I did purely for myself.

Have you thought of calling your old favourite Rekha on the show?
It’s funny. My relationship to Rekhaji is exactly my relationship with the film industry. I came in with complete stars in my eyes. My editor was sweet enough to constantly send me on errands to Rekhaji so that I could meet her. There was so much affection and warmth she
gave me. You know I was an oddball even as a journalist. I never got along too well, I didn’t know what to say where, I have made a lot of faux pas and I have gotten into trouble because of that. But somehow she managed to zone in into that oddness and be like, it’s alright.

But things are not the same between you two now?
I just realised with time, that film stars are a different kind of people and film stars like Rekhaji are even
more different. Also, I was younger then. I kept in touch with her and all that for almost 10-11 years. Then, I started working in movies. It was during Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, 2001 if I remember right. There were some incidents where I felt that, for me she is this larger-than-life thing, but for her I was just one of the million people that she interacts with. I was younger then, and couldn’t deal with it with the maturity that I would have dealt with it today. So I wrote her a letter and I said, ‘It was really wonderful interacting with you for all these years and that you will definitely be a milestone in my life but unfortunately, the tragedy with milestones is that you cannot carry them along to your future, you have to leave them behind. So I don’t think I’ll come and see you anymore.’ And that’s about it.

You weirdo!
I bumped into her exactly five months later at a party. We looked across the room and... I mean... she is Rekha. Rreally poised and dramatic about everything, so she looked at me from far and she made a gesture saying, I will call you. Then 8-9 years later I bumped into her on the Om Shanti Om sets where she was in that song for Farah. I was very nostalgic because I met her and she was just as warm and as lovely as ever and she told me that you have become very big now, that you don’t keep in touch with me anymore. She was just pulling my leg and all that and she said something to me in Tamil which really made me feel like, "Oh my God, she is so right. Of course, she was being dramatic but she said, ‘You know I am very old, Niranjan. And one day, I'll just go away and then you will regret not patching up with me.’ But I feel there are some people or there are spaces in your life which are meant to be at that particular zone and you can’t just continue with them. Having said that, the past has a very powerful space in my life because I always look at the present and even at times, at the future from the 
prism of the past. I don’t know whether it’s healthy, or not but it has worked for me, whether it’s my relationships, my writing or the music that I sing. It’s all seeped in my memories, it all comes from my nostalgia so as a result, it’s a different kind of texture that I have to my creativity.

For your show, how did you decide which people you want to interview?
My only thing was that in my 22-23 years of being in this business I made some relationships and I knew that those relationships have stood the test of time and I knew that those who would be very interesting to explore in this zone and fortunately, for me, if some of the relationships that I have made still very active, big names. Like Karan Johar, Kajol, and Kareena Kapoor whom I have known through the 90s when Lolo was an actress. We have gone through seasons, so I knew that there is a pocket of people who if I make the call would do the show. There were these kids with whom I happened to work with in Student of the Year. Varun, Siddharth, Alia, Arjun because he worked on Kal Ho Na Ho as assistant, so it became very interesting. Ideally, when I had said that I’ll do the show, I only wanted to do the youngsters because in my head when you interview somebody, you have to be clueless about them to have any sense of relevance. I have wanted to about the younger lot because I didn’t know them, I didn’t socialise with them too much. I don’t know what their likes and dislikes
are and their lives are like, it would be interesting. So I started off with that idea and then I interspersed them with a few friends whom I have known so that there is a bit of comfort level. That’s how these 13 people I decided. Out of that, a couple of people I didn’t know at all. There people who have shot with people whom I absolutely didn’t know. Like Sonam, Vidya and Parineeti I got to know them via doing this show and it was wonderful.

What has been your fav episode so far?
My favorite episodes would be two, one with a guy and one with a girl. One would be Karan and of course, even though I knew such intimate details of his life, he really threw me off on that show. I was a bit taken aback. I had to take him aside and say, "Listen, don’t go beyond a certain point on my show because I don’t want the show to be burdened with that. The second is Shruti Haasan. She and I have a very strange relationship. I babysat her when she was six or seven and now she is my friend and that doesn’t happen normally in life. Her mother Sarika used to be Bhavana’s friend and she used to come to office very often with the kids and they used to go shopping and the kids used to be with me. So Akshu and Shruti used to be with me and I used to give them crayons and play with them in the office. Then she met me during D-Day where she sang the song, that I wrote. With Shruti, it a strange equation and she is someone who is very vocal about what she feels and does, so that episode is special. Kajol also is a favourite episode because I was most uncomfortable in that episode, that was the first episode I shot and she was taking care of me instead of the other way round because every time I turned too much she said, ‘Cut cut, you can’t turn so much towards me, you have to face the camera.’ She really took charge. I would say these three episodes are on top of my list.

It is believed that you can’t make friends in this industry. Agree?
You know, it’s a very thin line. Like in all friendships, one of the two friends decides to balance that line. Like in all human relationships, it’s an unequal relationship, but with celebrities it is especially unequal that they will only allow you equality till you believe you are unequal. The day you start believing you are equal, then they will point out the inequality and that’s across the board. Honestly, I don’t have a problem with that because even in normal life, you don’t have equal relationships. It’s always dependent on who is more dependent on the other. So as a result, I feel it’s just a little bit more glaring in the film industry, it’s a little bit more magnified in the film industry and if you are not okay with it, you’ll end up getting hurt. I think I am also fortunate because I am a person whose ability to look at a larger picture even in life is far stronger than most people and when you look at things from a perspective, from a broader prism, it becomes easier to deal with day-to-day and ignore certain things that might lead to conflict.

Have your parents accepted your association with this industry now?
It actually took them 10 years to actually understand what I was doing. They come from a very academic background where people become either doctors, engineers, scientists or whatever. Nobody took on journalism, that too, film journalism. Then I quit film journalism to become a designer. My father was horrified and he said, 'First, you were running after film stars with a paper and pen and now you will run after them with a needle and thread.' I think the first time they really felt I was doing something worthwhile was when they were all invited for my book release. They sat on a table of 12 people which was right bang in the center and lots of guests from the film industry were on stage. Amitji, Jayaji Shah Rukh, Kareena and Karan talking about me. I think that’s the day I saw my father was feeling that so many people are saying such good things, he must have done something right. So that’s the day actually I redeemed myself, but my parents don’t watch my movies, they are too old. I called them for the first film trial (Kal Ho Na Ho) because it was my first film and when I was nominated for my dialogue, I had taken my mother to the Filmfare awards. But beyond that, they were like... even this chat show, my mother keeps saying that 'You all talk too fast, can’t make out what is being said'. My father doesn’t watch it at all. He is only happy that I am on TV.

How have you changed over the years?
I have been so judgmental as a journalist, so opinionated. I had opinions about movies, film stars, situations, and even media. Today yes, have my opinions but I also don’t want to assert those on to others. If I am asked, I express it. If you agree to it, well and good. If you don’t agree to it, I am fine with it. It doesn’t change my opinion of you or it doesn’t change the texture of my interaction which I think I had to arrive at. It’s not something that was naturally there in me. First of all South Indian, extremely strong and aggressive opinions about even the weather. It’s the nature. Even today, my mother at 80, reads Times Of India and my father, at 84, is a diehard Indian Express fan, so they still argue about the editorials and she says that your paper has sold its soul and he says that your paper has no circulation and they keep fighting with each other. I was born and brought up in a very opinionated family. I was not unduly impressed with success or praise.

Let's talk about your personal life?
I have not had a relationship since 1991 and I know it sounds bizarre but like I said -- rigid, inflexible -- that’s the part of me. I got out of a very troubled relationship at that point of time. And for some reason in my head, this whole poetic idea of destroying yourself over somebody’s love was very glamorous then. So I decided that I would spend the rest of my life keep loving the same person. I spent a decade doing that. I sometimes feel that my phase stemmed out of very low self- esteem. I never thought of myself as somebody who looks good enough. So my defense mechanism was: If I liked somebody, within fifteen minutes I would find a reason to hate that person because you know it’s going to go nowhere so might as well condition your mind to not like them. Like if I got into a train and I saw someone really attractive, I would start finding faults like he is picking his nse, or he hasn’t offered a seat to a older person... So by the time I was travelling from Elphinstone Road to Charni Road I would go from finding someone attractive to hating them. That became a personality trait. It took me a decade to realise what I was doing... not allowing myself to get attached to someone.

You realised it on your own?
At the time, I was working on Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and that also changed for me a lot. It was 2004 and we were in New York, a city to explore love, lust, hate and we were there for three months during the most turbulent time of my life. I had this really stiff oily tiny South Indian hair, I was clean-shaven and I never did much for my looks or whatever. Abhishek (Bachchan) sat me down and he said, ‘You know, Niranjan, you and me have the same problem. We have thick lips and we have very hard hair and we have oily skin.’ He said I should do three things. Treat my hair, grow a stubble and change my dressing. I said. "Okay I’ll try it and all. I was like ‘It itches, and I don’t want to do it.’ So he finally told me that I will not let you come on to the set until you grow a stubble and that’s how I grew a stubble. You will not believe this, but that stubble somehow gave me a character. Then I came back to Bombay and then I told myself, ‘if you think you are not in a relationship or if you are not going around because you are not good looking enough, then you either need to do something about it or give up on the idea of a relationship.’ So I decided to do something. I joined a gym, I changed my life style, I went and got my hair styled differently, I changed the look of my clothes, eventually I managed to put together a personality. Finally I feel that my exterior is looking like my insides. But its 20-35 years of habit, so I am still not been able to break out of it completely. Yes, I am open to a relationship. I think I am also in a constant fear of rejection which is somewhere deep down which also makes me a writer, lyricist, write songs and sing about heartbreak. I was most comfortable like Tabu in Sorrow. It’s taken me a long time to realize that, wait a minute, sorrow and happiness are equal in this world. So, now you have dealt with sorrow for 40 years, now the next 20 years try and be happy.