Danish Aslam made Break Ke Baad (2010), starring Imran Khan and Deepika Padukone and then went on to make several web series. After nearly 14 years, he’s back with another film, Khwaabon Ka Jhamela, starring Prateik Babbar, Sayani Gupta and Kubbra Sait. The film releases on JioCinema on November 8 and its trailer is refreshing. Bollywood Hungama exclusively spoke to Danish Aslam about Khwaabon Ka Jhamela and a lot more. This writer remarked that the promo reminded him of the good old days of youth romcoms, a staple of Bollywood at one point, like Hum Tum (2004), Salaam Namaste (2005), Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007), Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (2008), Love Aaj Kal (2009), I Hate Luv Storys (2010) and of course, Break Ke Baad. Danish smiled on hearing this and said, “That was one of the intentions behind making this film.”
All your films and shows have had quirky titles like Break Ke Baad, It's Not That Simple, Time Out, Flesh, etc. Khwaabon Ka Jhamela is no exception. Is this intentional?
(Laughs) The shameful truth is that I am terrible when it comes to titles. I am not responsible for a single one of them. In fact, naming a film causes a lot of panic. At times, you reach the end of the shoot and it hits you that you still haven’t titled your project. With Break Ke Baad, I was lucky because I got the script (by Ankur Tewari) with the title. With this film, we had a working title. I finished writing the whole script and I was hoping that ‘Dialogue mein se title mil jaayega’ but to no avail. While doing the songs, I was saved. The lyricists Chandan Raina and Surya Raghunaathan came up with the line ‘Khwaabon Ka Jamela’ and I realized it's clutter-breaking and makes you sit up and take notice. It ticked all the boxes for us and it seemed to have worked.
What was the working title for Khwaabon Ka Jhamela?
It was Crash Course. I didn’t quite like it. Also, a show, which was released on Amazon Prime Video, also had the same title. Hence, main bach gaya!
In the trailer of Khwaabon Ka Jhamela, we see that Prateik Babbar is not able to perform well in bed. It’s something that a lot of men face but it’s not talked about. Do you think this aspect makes your film very relatable?
I am glad you say that because it is indeed a problem among men. Kubbra’s character has a line in the film, ‘Imagine telling someone that you want to dump your boyfriend because he’s bad in bed and then imagine having that conversation with your parents in India’. It’s almost impossible to tell your parents the reason for the break-up. At the same time, it’s a theme we can now talk about as society is changing. I was talking to my wife (Shruti Seth) the other day about how in our time, a couple getting divorced is not something you’d often hear. And now, so many classmates in my daughter’s school come from broken families and in 1 or 2 cases, even same-sex families. Hence, a topic like this is relevant and a lot easier to talk about. Also, when it comes to romcoms, it needs to be updated with the times. A film like Khwaabon Ka Jamela couldn’t have been made 15 years ago. But today, you can and you should.
How was it working with Harman Baweja as a writer and producer?
I call Harman an old-school Bollywood person. We have production houses like Dharma Productions, Yash Raj Films (YRF), etc. and then there are modern corporate structures that have come up in the last decade or so. I have worked in both setups but I prefer the former. Like in YRF, there’s a rule that lunch sab saath mein karenge. Harman also belongs to the same school of filmmaking.
How did you come on board for the film?
The film is produced by Harman Baweja and Vicky Bahri; Vicky is an old friend and he was the producer on Break Ke Baad as well. They had a story and offered it to me. I liked the skeleton of it but I insisted that I’d like to make changes at the script level. I removed a few characters and changed the ending. I made Sayani’s character an intimacy coordinator as I felt that it was a relevant and interesting profession. The producers along with Jio Studios liked it.
I also worked with Arpita Chatterjee on the screenplay. Then I wrote the dialogue. This was a time when my friend Bejoy Nambiar offered me a role in the web series Kaala. That’s when I wrote the dialogues – in between the breaks or during the off-days. This was possible because – and my wife will beat me up for this – but actors have a lot of free time on the sets!
We often see that intimacy coordinators are approached while shooting intimate scenes. But since Sayani plays an intimacy coordinator, did you approach one to understand them better?
I used to joke with Swara Bhasker, who has worked on 2 of my shows, that I should become an intimacy coordinator. This is because I counted and realized that I have shot 14 sex scenes, including guy-on-guy, girl-on-girl…everything basically!
To answer your question, yes, I did a fair amount of research. There aren’t many intimacy coordinators yet in India. But I knew some abroad. Sayani also spoke with somebody.
I know what it’s like to shoot a sex scene. It is one of the most difficult scenes to shoot but from a technical point of view, it is also one of the most comfortable. That is because you have a closed set; it’s literally you, the DOP and the actors. So, on the one hand, I am happy that things move faster. But on the other hand, it is also extremely awkward as it’s like choreography. You can’t do a dance unless someone teaches you the steps. Action is also choreography. The sex scene is also like that but we don’t treat it that way. We are like, ‘Kapde utaro, yeh karo, wahaan mud jaao’. You need to put actors at ease. You wouldn’t ask actors to do action without a warm-up session. Similarly, you can’t shoot a sex scene without asking the actors what their boundaries are. That’s something I learned on the job.
How was it working with Prateik Babbar, Sayani Gupta and Kubbra Sait?
Sayani has been a friend for a couple of years and was the first person I cast. I believe that she has a great range as an actor. For the male lead, we were not able to find the right actor. Sayani recommended him and I had no idea that they had worked in Four More Shots Please. In 3 minutes, I realized that he fits the part. Sayani later told me that their characters in the movie are the exact opposite of their respective roles in Four More Shots Please, where he’s cool, suave tough while she is the straight face.
As for Kubbra, I wanted to work with her since Sacred Games and this role seemed good enough to be offered to her. A week before the shoot, she almost broke her arm and was in a sling. We feared that we’d have to recast. I met her and realized that she could keep her arm in one or two positions. We decided to go ahead. When you see the film, you’ll notice that throughout the film, her left arm is static and doesn’t move too much! Immediately after I would say ‘Cut’, she would have the sling on her arm.
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