Gunning for action: Rohit Shetty!

What motivated you to become a film director?

I think it is because of my family background. My father was an action director and an actor. I think I would be a very bad actor. I used to idolise my father, and would get a high when I would accompany him to his shoots. When you see Mr Amitabh Bachchan fighting live in front of you as an action hero, you begin to fantasise about the highs: meeting stars, seeing your dad shooting. At the age of 15, I started my career, so you can imagine to what level I was attracted to this industry. I wanted to be a stunt manager, but that’s tougher! I wished to become an action director. Maybe it was in my destiny to become a director. I think I’ve been lucky as God chose a path for me, which I always wanted to take.

Your last few films were comedies; what made you try your hands with an action movie?

I’ve wanted to make an action film since long, but was waiting for the right script to come. Then I saw this movie and really liked the story line and the characters in it. It was originally a Tamil film, and I thought of remaking it, as I had to make a film for Reliance, and Reliance was the co-producer of the Tamil film. I narrated the idea to Ajay (Devgn) and told him that we can re-write the film for our Hindi audiences, and it can really work. That’s how Singham happened.

Pick up any scene from the movie which you found the most difficult to shoot.

I think the climax of the film was very difficult for me to shoot. Though it’s an action movie, climax is quite dialogue-heavy, and it is between lots of people. But thankfully, I had good actors with me, so it was just technically that I had to handle things… It went off well.

How do you draw inspiration for all the crazy comic sequences in your films?

It happens when you are writing a film, it happens when your team is writing for you. I alone can’t do this. I have a team of writers who work with me and we all come together with our scripts to make people laugh. At the same time, it is easy if I tell you the formula behind it. If you are watching somebody else’ movie or you are watching a show on television and it makes you laugh, that means it’s funny. It’s a very simple formula: if you are laughing on a scene while rehearsing, the audience will laugh. But if you think that you are writing something and you aren’t enjoying it but you tend to think that the audience would laugh and will enjoy watching it; it doesn’t work. There is no nuclear science behind it.

Why do we only see Ajay Devgn in the main lead of your films?

(Laughs) Actually, to be very frank, even I don’t know! It’s been 20 years since we have been working together. I started my career as an Assistant Director for the movie Phool Aur Kante in which he was in the lead role. Then he started his own company Devgan Films in which I was the Assistant Associator. So, it’s been a long association. It just happens for us, we don’t sit and plan … when I was making Golmaal 3, Singham came my way. Now that we are promoting Singham, next month I am starting a film with Ajay and Abhishek Bachchan. It’s happening and things are working, so why not. We have built up a comfort zone, which makes things easy.

In 2012, you are coming up with the film Angoor. Tell us more about it.

I had a meeting with Shah Rukh (Khan), and I narrated the idea to him which I had in my mind. The process is going on; my team is writing the script. It takes two to three months to write a script. When the script is written, it’s all his call.

It’s rumoured that Singham’s story line is similar to Dabangg. What is your comment on this?

No, not at all. I think people would realise this once they see it. It is being compared because Dabangg was a huge hit and Salman was playing the role of a cop in it and so is Ajay in Singham. But these days, every second hero is a cop, like in Dum Maro Dum Abhishek Bachchan was a cop, Aamir is a cop in his upcoming film, John Abraham too is playing a cop in his next. It is just because of the look and the uniform. We all have to have the same uniform for a cop, we can’t help it! (laughs)

What is your message to all the aspiring directors who want to become directors?

They need to work hard and focus in their field. Firstly, they need to have an interest in the field. I believe that instead of going to institutes, they should watch a lot of films, and then they should take the initiative to assist someone in the same field. This is how it should
be done.