My film with Shah Rukh Khan will be in a new territory altogether: Rohit Shetty

Rohit Shetty might be one of the most sought-after directors in the country and the highest paid, but he still manages to make time for things he enjoys. And being the son of a stuntman, he loves to host the TV show Khatron Ke Khiladi! We caught up with the director to talk about his second season of KKK and his next few films. Read on for excerpts...

Taking over the reins of hosting from Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra, you managed to take the show further..
(Cuts in) I was really scared! Priyanka and Akshay had done it and they are huge superstars. I am a director, all said and done. You cannot compare me with them because they have a superior fan following which I cannot even think of competing with. The show was not doing well. So we started working on the format and we realised why it was not as interesting. So we changed it. Previously, there were 13 people trying the same stunts. So after a point, it was becoming tiring and lethargic for the audience to watch the same thing 13 times. When we changed the format, it was difficult initially because it meant doing three different stunts in a day. Then, we thought of bringing in humour, a little bit of reality and a little bit of characterization. The last season was not just big for me but for the contestants. A lot of known people came in the last season. We had Gauahar, Kushal and this season we have Ashish, Sana, Chang and that packaging has worked.

What are the new things you have incorporated this season?
We have a team which does the research on what worked last season. So we definitely have all of it and we have devised some new stunts. There would be more stunts this season because we don't want things to be monotonous. This time, we will have more reptiles on the show because I personally feel kids love these. And that was something I wanted.

Have you ever taken a stunt from the show and placed it in your film?
No, not really. We have taken stunts from the movie into the show but not vice versa. I will explain why. In a movie there is a story involved and we cannot film a particular sequence if it doesnt fit in with that. Also, the length of the sequence is bigger. Yahaan stunts mein gadbad hona hi hai because here, it is about competition, about who's performing well and who's not! So I don't think you can implement them in films. There will be an episode where the contestants will try out Bollywood stunts. We will have the car stunts from my films, then there will be the Dhoom 3 stunt which Chang and Sana will perform — the one where Aamir was seen walking down a building.

Fusing your staple dose of action with entertainment was always your agenda..
Because who is watching the show? The audience! They love entertainment and that is why my films work so well. Whether you make people laugh or you scare them, the audience reaction is very important. There are a lot of saas bahu serials which we may not like but there are doing well because there are audiences who are watching it everyday because it connects with them.

You were scripting for your next film when you were shooting for KKK. Did you take your script team with you?
Yes, at times the team travels with me. So once I am done with the shoot, we sit and discuss the ideas. This happens as I am working back-to-back. So once I finish my film, I get into doing KKK and at the same time, I am finishing the pre-production of my next film. Last year, March 1, I came back from Khatron... and March 12, I started shooting for Singham Returns. My team is actually planning for my films when I am not there.

Has your film with SRK also been planned similar way?
Yes, but it happened way before Singham... People don't get to know that because nobody knows where I am going, what I am doing. I don't go out much. Our planning goes on for two years in advance. So what I am doing with Shah Rukh, we started that almost three years ago on a script level.

And there are so many conjectures about the film..
Somebody is saying it's Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, somebody is saying it's Hum and someone recently told me that it's about Mr and Mrs Smith. But we wrote the script three years ago and the pre-production and planning started right after Chennai Express. Chennai... was itself planned during Golmaal Returns. Similarly, Chennai... had just released when I discussed our new film with him and he immediately said, 'Let's do this'. This film is going to be in a completely new territory — totally different from Chennai...

Is it an original script?
Yes. My film with SRK is an original script for sure. It's not a remake at all! I am doing Ram Lakhan, which is a remake. If I wanted to hide that, I could have not announced it. If I can accept that I am remaking Ram Lakhan, I would have accepted this as well, had it been true. And it's funny how people have been writing that I am trying to hide it. There's nothing to hide.

So what's the status on the film?
I already have finalised my lead cast. But there have been so many rumours about the film that I and Shah Rukh decided to come out in March and announce the film and the cast in a grand manner. We will start the film too in March. Shah Rukh will join a little later, maybe from May.

And Ram Lakhan?
I will start planning for it after two months. We will do the same while we shoot for my next with SRK.

Have you thought of the lead cast?
I have thought of it but I have not yet approached anyone, leave aside finalising the cast. Even for Ram Lakhan, from the day it was announced, people started making their own cast. People have become very lazy. They just put whatever they want to on the net and it gets picked up, without any confirmation or truth to it. It's all copy-paste. But yes, Ram Lakhan will have two younger actors from the new generation. Some said Ranveer and Arjun, some said Varun and Sidharth. But once we write it, only then we will be able to decide on who to cast.

Will you call Subhash Ghai for inputs?
We have that in mind. But once we write it, I will see how it turns out and then we will take a call.

What about your next with Ajay? Do you have anything in mind?
Next year, after Ram Lakhan we are planning something with Ajay for sure.

Another Golmaal?
I want to do another Golmaal. But I am not getting the right script. I don't want to make it for the heck of it. When the last Golmaal released, the kids who were 10 are now 15. So we need to make something in that space. It has to be better than Golmaal 3. We've tried to work on two-three scripts but I am not happy with it. I don't want to cheat the audience because I know whatever we make, people will come and watch it because it's Golmaal. But making anything randomly would destroy the brand that Golmaal is known for. If I get a nice script, then my next with Ajay will be Golmaal 4.