"While I am setting up the production house by myself, my films will be financed, distributed and marketed by Yash Raj films" - Kunal Kohli 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, January 19, 2007 - 05:19 IST
Part 1 of Kunal
Kohli interview:
Part 2 of Kunal
Kohli interview:
Presenting the third part of the Kunal Kohli interview.
So how is life after Fanaa?
It is the same. I am the same after Mujhse Dosti Karoge, after Hum Tum and after Fanaa. Just sometimes it
is the way people look at you which gets different. But you are essentially the same.
How much risk you feel is there in getting independent now that you are starting your own production house?
Starting my own production house is like taking my relationship with Yash Raj films to another level. Before I signed with Yash Raj
films, Adi had planned that he will only do three films with any director and then after that either that director can go anywhere
else, or he would like to set up an independent production house for the director. So while I am setting up the production house by
myself, my films will be financed, distributed and marketed by Yash Raj films. I will be only producing the films. So in effect, I
would say that I am still a part of the Yash Raj family in a way. I have an independent production house but I am still connected
with Yash Raj.
| While I am setting up the production house by
myself, my films will be financed, distributed and marketed by Yash Raj films. |
Even in the west, you have various things like this. You have one studio and then you have various companies who are affiliated
with that studio who only make films for that studio. I do not know which studio Spielberg is affiliated with but he only makes films
for that one studio. Till now Manoj Night Shyamalan only made films for Disney. Now he is moving out of Disney and making films
for someone else, but till now he was just making the films for Disney. So it happens all over the world and now it is happening in
India too.
As for the risk factor, it is there as much as in making an independent film because, like we discussed earlier, I have my own little
brand in my own small way. So it is no way near the Yash Raj brand. Even when I was making Fanaa, the risk was there. It
is still going to be a Kunal Kohli film as much as Fanaa was a Kunal Kohli film.
What is coming up next?
That is what I am working on currently which I would not like to talk about now. It is too soon because I am working on two-three
ideas and I do not know which one I will finally work on.
| If I have an access to Aamir Khan, or to Kajol,
am I mad not to work with them? |
Your wife is also an executive producer to Yash Raj Productions.
I believe that there should be freedom and there should be space between people and she has her own individual personality and is
her own individual person. She was the director of Koffee with Karan. She used to direct that show and she is again going
to be directing the second season of Koffee with Karan. She is her own person and she does her own things. She wanted to
get this feeling of producing a film so she is working on Tara Rum Pum which she says was nice to work on because she
knows Mamta (director Siddharth Anand's wife) very well. Mamta and she are very good friends and she knows Siddharth, of
course.
What movie genre do you intend your production house will make?
You cannot really put Hum Tum in a genre. If you call it a comedy film, I will be very upset. If you call it a romantic film,
somebody will say it is a romantic comedy. What genre is Fanaa? The second half is more like a mind thriller than anything
else. The last twenty minutes are definitely a thriller. It is an out and out love story in the first half. I do not believe in genres that
way. I mean Mujhse Dosti Karoge, Hum Tum and Fanaa are three completely different films. They are broadly love
stories but all three completely different genres of love story. So my production will make films that I like.
| Mujhse Dosti Karoge, Hum Tum and Fanaa
are three completely different films. They are broadly love stories but all three completely different genres of love story.
|
Will you be directing all the movies?
No, I will in the future make films with other directors too. There might be scripts that I feel that I really like but might not have
time to direct. So I will give someone else a chance to direct and I think that there are so many talented people out there. I know
some personally too who I am trying to get films for but I am not being able to. And I think that is one of the finest things that Adi
has done – to give breaks to people. I think that is very important – when you reach to a certain position in your life, you help other
people also reach to that position. It does not diminish your position, it just makes you as higher.
| When you reach to a certain position in your
life, you help other people also reach to that position. It does not diminish your position; it just makes you as higher.
|
What do you feel about this new breed of directors that is coming up – Your contemporaries like Siddharth Raj Anand, Sanjay
Gadhvi. Do you feel they will also follow your path or they should stick to direction?
I am very close to a lot of these people and there are couple of people who I find very interesting today as filmmakers. I like Homi
Adajania's Being Cyrus a lot. I like Khosla Ka Ghosla. That was a very fine film with a nice filmmaker with a nice
thought. I think what is interesting today is that you have your masala filmmakers like Siddharth Anand for making masala films and
then people like Homi Adajania and the guy who made Khosla ka Ghosla, and Farhan Akhtar and Madhur Bhandarkar and
Ashutosh Gowarikar and Bhansali too. Today the filmmakers are just encompassing everything. They are covering all different
kinds of cinema and that is what is exciting. You have ten-twelve filmmakers, making ten-twelve different kinds of films at a time
and different genres of films. I think this is really the most exciting time to be in cinema.
There is one question that we always get queries about. Does Yash Raj people like Aditya Chopra or Yash Chopra ever
interfere in your films while directing?
Not at all! In fact Siddharth Anand went to Australia for his first film (Salaam Namaste) and shot there for three months and no
one went there. Neither Yashji, nor Adi, nor me- no body was there to supervise what he was doing. He made the film entirely on
his own and that is the kind of freedom that Yash Raj gives.
Do you have enemies or people who do not like you in the industry, are you aware of them?
I definitely do. Everyone does have enemies and I think a lot of people do have enemies. I think I have my share of people who do
not like me. I have a problem of speaking the truth and I have a problem of speaking too much also sometimes. Might be one
person's truth is another person's lie. I also, like everyone else, have an opinion and sometimes people do not like my opinions. And
because of that they do not like me. So I cannot help that and yes, there are people who do not like me, definitely.
| I have my share of enemies in the film
industry. |
So whom would you call your friends?
I know who my friends are, so I do not want to take their names and I know who my enemies are so I do not want to take their
names either. But I think in this world, there is a very correct saying that you have got to keep your friends close and your enemies
closer.
| There is a very correct saying that you have
got to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. |
Will your next movie be with all top stars?
I do not know. I do not know what my next film would be so I do not know who will be in that film.
One thing I would like to say about taking top stars is that I do not think that there is any director who has an access to top stars
and will not take top stars.
When you have an access to stars, who will not take that star? If I have an access to Aamir Khan, or to Kajol, am I mad not to
work with them?
|
Kunal Kohli directs Amitabh Bachchan
