Various Bollywood interviews that amuse me.

[dangermousie]

Oh gosh, I adore Shahrukh Khan because he totally cracks me up and he actually sounds not like a moron.

Exerpts from interview:


What are your Valentine's Day plans?

Too old for Valentine's. It was not fashionable when we were young, by the time it became fashionable I am too old. But I will get my wife a gift.

What are your five most romantic films?

I don't like romance.

You will break a lot of hearts with that statement!

No, I don't like romance in terms of watching them because I do so much of it. You do that, and you keep on watching it also, means you got to be really obsessing about this (laughs). This may sound a little strange, but I don't know.

The kind of films I have liked, Padosan was very romantic though it was a comedy about a teacher wanting to be in love with his student. That was very romantic. I can tell you a great heartbreak was in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, where the guy is in love and the woman cheats him and uses them. Among the romantic films I like, let me see, Dilwale is nice. Even though it is a personal film, but it's a nice film, I saw it about three-four months back in Australia, it was nice. Again one of my own, I like Yes Boss, that was very sweet, that's taken from For Love Or For Money.

Among English movies... I thought whackily that There's Something About Mary was good, it was quite sweet, quite romantic, a guy who's in love with his college sweetheart. And there was this book by Graham Greene, A Quiet Affair I think it was, yeah, which Attenborough made it into a film with Julianne Moore, about the woman who says if you bring him back to life, I will give up the thing I love the most, and she has to give him up. That was very romantic. I liked the book a lot, I saw the movie before that, I didn't know it was based on the same book, then I read the book a year ago, and I thought that was very romantic. Is it A Quiet Affair or An Affair to Remember? I will remember Dangermousie's insert: he loves The End of the Affair? Even if he can't remember the name? DIES.)

A lot of young people hesitate to get into inter-communal marriage, on account of various pressures, family, societal etc. As a Muslim married to a Hindu, what is your advice to young lovers?

Well, just marry. We did a film called KANK, which people were sort of slightly disturbed with. But the message was this: you marry only for the sake of love and friendship. You marry because you think he/she is a good person to wake up with, be with. He is my friend or she is my friend, and you know, religion, discipline, communities, mohallas, relatives, and parents, everybody has a viewpoint, but you got to remember that finally it's about your life with someone, and if you think someone is right for you, you need to go ahead and do it.

I think the educated youth of our country and everywhere else, I think communalism and religion and inter-caste is becoming a thing of the past. It is only left as an agenda for politicians now. And you have to remember as a youngster, that even if you intend being a politician, do not make this as your agenda at least for your marriage. Just go ahead and do it.

When I meet youngsters now, I think nobody is really bothered. Like my kids ask me, papa what are we, Hindu? Muslim? We are both na? They are quite happy about it yaar. They know the difference, and the difference makes them realise that there is really no big difference! Because mom and dad both seem to be quite cool, and we like them each. In my house when kids can grow up like this I am sure youngsters, if they grow up with this belief that religion should only be considered as a discipline, and nothing beyond that.

I am Islamic by birth, I follow that religion, that's a discipline. I should do things because it disciplines your life in a certain way. Somehow the things culturally have changed, and you need to grow out of them and accept that change and know that okay, you don't need to be doing this because this happened only five hundred years ago because there was a need for this kind of discipline then, and is no longer required. So you got to read it and understand religion. And if you understand religion you will understand one thing, that there's no problem in inter-caste, inter-communal marriages.

Unavoidable but inevitable, is there a rivalry between you and Mr Bachchan?

No.

You are saying this completely media-generated, then?

I think so, absolutely. They have been trying it for a long time, and finally they have had some sort of success. So my congratulations.

Also, aliterati, you win. I found Hrithik being snarky (Good Lord, did body snatchers attack him?). Samples from Koffee with Karan:


Karan: What’s the sexiest compliment you have received?
Hrithik: Well, let me just say that there were these whole bunch of SMS’es that I got, in which it was pretty clear that a lot of the girls said that they were very happy ... a long way before the film had climaxed.

Karan: (interrupts) I know of a lot of women who went to see the film with their husbands or their boy friends. And there were very shattered husbands at the end of the film and you managed to do that.
Hrithik: It should be something that should motivate them.

Karan: Tell me, what is the worst criticism you have ever received?
Hrithik: Worst criticism? I don’t know if you can call it a criticism but, here was this magazine which had my face on the cover and said ‘Finished.’

Karan: The over hyped kiss episode of Dhoom, the whole paparazzi, the media attention it got, I believe it was absolutely for no reason. What do you think?
Hrithik: There was a reason for sure.
Karan: What was the reason?
Hrithik: The reason is some people are just not getting any action.

But since he rerecently admitted to reading The Notebook, the ultimate chick lit book, I think the snark points got lost in the giant reshuffle...