Bollywood Blitzkrieg - saying yes, meaning no in Bollywood 
By Subhash K. Jha, April 12, 2007 - 08:28 IST
Besides the wardrobe and the sleeping partners, does anything ever change in showbiz? The same set of stars and filmmakers giving the same pre-release interviews about their forthcoming opuses week after week.
The same publicists trying to push their cunning clients (posing as babes and babas in the woods) into your face. The same directors claiming their films are super-hits long after they've been declared super-duds.
And worse of all, the same attitude of abject hypocrisy garbed in a show of bluntness. "Please be honest about my film," the filmmaker will tell you on the eve of his film's release. What he means is, "Please say you love my film, and please mean it."
That's why I like my South Indian friends Kamal Haasan, Madhavan and Ram Gopal Varma so much. They're prolific in their output, and not scared of tripping on their face in their effort to break new grounds. And if you tell them their latest work sucks, they don't sulk.
When I hated Darwaza Bandh Rakho I didn't have to hide from my cell-phone to avoid Ramu's questioning. In fact he called the very next day and didn't even ask me what I thought of his film!
He knew.
Not too many filmmakers allow you the liberty to speak your heart out. That's why they stop growing after a point. Ramu frankly tells me, "I need people from the outside for honest inputs on my work. Those whom I work with are either too close to the project or too scared of me to say the truth."
That's the most honest confession I've heard on the dilemma of being successful. Every notable artiste needs a check-and-balance support system. Even the divinely flawless Lata Mangeshkar has a ruthlessly honest and infinitely talented brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar who tells her when she goes wrong.
Of course you or I wouldn't notice those flaws. Not in Lataji. But very often we see where far lesser artistes go wrong. But we don't speak up for the fear of causing offence.
That's where we go wrong in our duties as the conscience-keepers. It's all very well to consider the actors and director infallible. But that image of unerring artistry must be kept within limits.
As Rekha said to me during one of our priceless heart-to-heart conversations, "Don't say yes when your heart says no. Do not flatter the person you love. And do not waste your writing skills in writing open love-letters to your friends in the film industry." I wondered what she meant…until I realized how much of media space is taken up in flattering stars.
I don't flatter Kamal Haasan. He loves praise, oh yes! But he isn't averse to criticism. When I told him his last Hindi film Mumbai Express was the pits (and that too barely hours after the release!) he didn't stop talking to me, although he was going through a traumatic time at that time with his lady love in hospital. Nor did he turn nasty and call me a traitor. He certainly didn't accuse me of changing loyalties.
Some of our most intelligent actors in Bollywood are terribly insecure in their superstardom. For them it's always an either-or situation. If you praise one mega-star's film to the skies you're automatically considered a traitor to the other person's cause. If you say you love apples you automatically hate pineapples. That's filmy logic to drive you bananas.
When Vivek Oberoi's love story went kaput he decided to end his 'friendship' with me. He remained a friend even when I criticized him severely for dumping his first girl - friend Gurupreet Gill. I remember he understood my point of view even when I criticized him for spending the entire day on live television lashing out at Salman Khan. So why is he so sullen now when the tables have turned and someone else has done a Gurupreet on him?
Where's there a Gill, there's a way….
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