"I was put in that bracket of film critics who do not make good filmmakers" – Kunal Kohli 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, January 13, 2007 - 07:00 IST
You last saw him make the hit film Fanaa. After a disastrous Mujhse Dosti Karoge, director Kunal Kohli went onto make Hum Tum and subsequently the Aamir Khan-Kajol starrer. Not much news from him post Fanaa so IndiaFM decided to romp in on the film-critic turned film-maker and an exclusive interview.
The following is the first segment of a three part interview with Kunal Kohli.
Starting from a film reporter, you venture into film, how was the whole journey?
It has been a long journey and I was a film reporter only because I could not become a film maker. I reported on films. I used to work on a video magazine with Bhatt saab, called Bollywood Plus. Then I did a film critic show called Chalo Cinema and I did all this because I was not getting an opportunity to make films. But I love films so much that I had to talk about films or do something connecting with films. So I became a film critic and I made film based shows on TV. So that was my passion.
Did film journalism help you?
Yes and No. It helped me because people got to know who I was because I was one of the first few people in India to start making film based shows. On Zee TV, all the film based programmes were made by me at one time. Kya Scene Hai, Philips Top Ten, Galaxy, Sitara, and the whole stuff of film based shows I used to do. So they all knew my name and they all knew that if there is anything to do with the film based programmes then Kunal Kohli is the guy making it. So, yes, it helped in that way.
No comes in with Chalo Cinema, because when I started making my first film, most of the film industry was like, "accha chalo ab dekhte hai what he does." It was like, "you criticized all our films let us see what films you can make." So that was where it did not help me, people were like gunning for me once I made my first film.
Film critics do not make excellent films, that is the general concept that is going on because we have Mr Khalid Mohammad, Samar Khan who have delivered that being a very notable film critics.
I almost went into that category too because Mujhse Dosti Karoge did not work. The first film was not a success and I was also put in that bracket of film critics who do not make good filmmakers. Then Hum Tum happened and then Fanaa happened and now although people still remember me as a critic but lot of people do not know that I was a film critic. There is a whole generation that does not know that I was a film critic and there is a whole generation that still remembers me as a film critic.
I was always a populist critic; I was not criticizing films for the sake of criticizing them. 99% of the time; I am not showing off. I have all my reviews of Chalo Cinema on a CD, I can give them to you. I was right about when I said a film is a hit or a film is a flop. The one percent when I was wrong was when I said Dilwale is a hit and it became a blockbuster, one was Ram Jaane, which I said would not do well and there is still a controversy over whether Ram Jaane did well or did not do well. The film maker says that it did well and the distributors says that it did not do well. So there is a bit of ambiguity on that. Dil To Pagal Hai, again I said will be a hit and it became a super hit. So I think that is where I went wrong, otherwise by and large, I had quite a good track record.
I was a populist critic, I spoke about popular cinema, and I looked at cinema as the way audience looked at it. I did not look at it sitting on a high handed chair and saying that "no, this is not nice and it is not creative enough, it is not artistic enough", I cannot even talk the language the way our critics talk and I think that is where those critics have gone wrong. I think that you cannot criticize films and then do exactly the same thing. You cannot criticize item songs and then have an item song in your film, which does not make any sense. So I think that is where those critics or specially Khalid went wrong.
| I cannot even talk the language the way our critics talk and I think that is where those critics like Khalid Mohammad have gone wrong. |
Sushmita Sen was doing an item song in the middle of a desert, that is exactly what he has criticized in one hundred films and he still criticizes that in one hundred films after that. I think that does not work and you cannot be a critic and a film maker. It is not possible. How can I work with Hrithik and next day criticize his films which is on TV? How can I work with Aamir or Kajol or Rani or Saif and next day be criticizing them? Somewhere my role as a critic will get diluted. I will start cheating on that front; I would not be as honest as I was. I enjoyed being a critic, till today whenever I watch a film, in my head I give a full review of it.
So it is very important that when you are a critic, you cannot be a film maker. When you are a film maker, you cannot be a critic; it is not possible to do both. You will somewhere go wrong. You can pull out reviews where he has criticized Urmila Matondkar and blasted her but from the moment Urmila started acting in his films, Urmila is the best actress.
So you cannot be honest being a filmmaker and a critic together, it just does not work.
| You cannot be honest being a filmmaker and a critic together, it just does not work. |
What do you feel about current media scenario; do you think it is heading the right way?
It depends what you are talking about as in the current media scenario, it depends whether you are talking about film media or you are talking about the general media.
I think today in India, there are very few critics whose reviews I will read and whose reviews I will respect. Apart from trade critics, I do not think most of our reviewers write without agendas. Most of the reviewers today have agendas and have biases, which is not what the reviewer should have. Except for a trade reviewer, most of our reviewers in our national papers are writing with biases and with agendas. I have got reviews for my film about a scene, which was not there in my film. In Hum Tum, one critic wrote that the scenes where the children tried to get the parents back together reminds one of Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi. I want to know from which angle does any scene in Hum Tum remind anyone of Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi and which scene was there where the children are trying to get the parents back together. I have not seen any scene like that in Hum Tum when I made the film. I think it is really strange when people write like this.
Then there was a critic who wrote about Hum Tum in a national paper. He spoke about the scene between Rani Mukherjee and Saif on the first day of college. Where was there a college in Hum Tum ever and these are coming in national dailies. So I think that a lot of reviews are even written without seeing the film. They have got their fixed biases and then just write based on that. That is what is sad.
| Except for a trade reviewer, most of our reviewers in our national papers are writing with biases and with agendas. |
Not many years ago that you made music videos also, how did that happen?
It is very difficult to get into the film industry. The film industry is a very incestuous place. Outsiders are not very welcome and it takes time to break in. There are very few outsiders who have made it big in this film industry. Shahrukh Khan, Ashutosh Govarikar, myself, we are like the outsiders who have made it in the industry otherwise everybody is related to somebody, even directors. If you see Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Goldie Behl, Rohan Sippy, all industry kids. There are very few outsiders.
| If you see Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Goldie Behl, Rohan Sippy are all industry kids. |
I had to showcase my talents somewhere to get an opportunity and when I started making music videos, Ken Ghosh was the boss of music videos and there was a format of making Indian music videos, which was just having the singer singing and having dancers dancing in the background.
I said let us make an Indian music video, so I did mera laung gawacha which was the first desi music video and it was the first music video that looked like a film song. It looked like straight out of a Yash Chopra film and people started noticing that. There was a whole story in it and the dance and people said that, "this guy can say a story in five minutes." Then I did the whole Rajshri series of chuimui si tum lagti ho and I did six-seven videos through which a story kept progressing and every video of mine had a story. People started realizing that this guy knows the medium somehow, let us try and give him some break, so I started getting film offers and that is how it started.
That is why I made music videos to showcase my talent as a filmmaker. I said, "Please watch, here is something I can do so give me a break." And so many of us came then from music videos, Anubhav Sinha came, Ken Ghosh came, I have come from there, so actually I belong to two camps of filmmakers. I belong to critic turned filmmaker and I belong to music video director turned filmmaker also.
So how did Yash Raj happen?
I was actually signed by another company- a very big company. I would not name that company because they are very sweet people. I still meet them and I interact with them but I was not connecting on the same wavelength with them unfortunately. They had other plans and other ideas. We were not connecting on the same levels. I had wanted to sign Hrithik even before Kaho Naa Pyar Hai released but my producer felt, " nahi yaar, naya hero, naya director, mai kya karunga, mai fas jaaunga", and I was just discussing all this with Karan Johar once, and he said, "why don't you meet Aditya?". I said, "what will I do meeting him?” He said, "no, he is looking for other directors," so I was like, " wo mereko kyon sign karega?" Anyway I met Aditya and he being Adi and being the principal person that he was refused to even hear my subject till I was signed with another producer. He said, "you leave that producer and then come and meet me with your subject and I am not guaranteeing you that I will sign you. I might not sign you even after that." So I took the gamble. I left that producer, gave him back his money then I came back to Aditya and said, "Look Aditya, I left that guy, now here is my story." And he heard it and he did not like it, so I was very scared that he might not sign it, but he said that I don't like it that much but lets work on it and then we started working on it and then he signed me for that. That is how the journey happened.
You once said that you made Mujhse Dosti Karoge for the Yash Raj people and not for yourself because you wanted to have the Yash Raj stamp on it and Hum Tum was something that you did for yourself.
No, I did not say that I made Mujhse Dosti Karoge for Yash Raj. I said that I made Mujhse Dosti Karoge thinking that this is what the audience wants. I made Mujhse Dosti Karoge thinking that this is what is going to work. This is the type of film that has been working- Dilwale, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, these are the types of films that have been working. So let me make a film like a Dilwale, like a Kuch Kuch, like a Hum Aapke Hai Kaun.
So I was trying to make a film like Aditya and Sooraj without being Aditya and Sooraj and not realizing that only Aditya and Sooraj can make films like Aditya and Sooraj. I can make films the way I should be making films. That is what I said. So I made the film not being Kunal Kohli. I made the film being little bit of Aditya and a little bit of Sooraj and little bit of Karan and little bit of Yashji and little bit of everybody but there was no Kunal Kohli in that and the result was the khichdi that nobody liked. So when it did not work I realized where was I in that film. Then I said okay, now I will only make what I believe. I will make what I can say, what I can express. Let me express myself. Let me find my voice and the original is always better than a copycat. An original is an original. Hum Tum is not like any other film made in India, Hum Tum is a Kunal Kohli film, Fanaa is a Kunal Kohli film, Mujhse Dosti Karogi was Kunal Kohli finding himself.
| I was trying to make a film like Aditya and Sooraj without realizing that only Aditya and Sooraj can make films like Aditya and Sooraj. |
So now hopefully I will always make films which are my films. There is a misconception amongst people that the Yash Raj banner or Yash Raj gets too heavy on people. They don't let people grow or there is not enough growth in Yash Raj or the Yash Raj is the biggest brand and no brand grows beyond Yash Raj. I think I am a living example of that that there is as much of me in Hum Tum as there is of Yash Raj or vice versa. Hum Tum is a Yash Raj Film's film and it is a Kunal Kohli film. Fanaa is a Yash Raj Film's film and it is a Kunal Kohli film. Everyone knows that the names in Hum Tum are Yash Chopra, Kunal Kohli and Aditya Chopra. In Fanaa, everyone knows all the three names again, none of the names are not there in the public eye. The public will not say that Fanaa is Yash Raj's movie and not Kunal Kohli's. They will say that it is Kunal Kohli's film and Yash Raj has produced it. So they know that and that is the beauty of Yash Raj that they let people grow as a brand, they let you make your own brand. So I have made my own brand being in another brand which is quite a big thing.
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Kunal Kohli to judge the Asian First Film Festival
