Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra on Delhi 6 and more

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra finally lifts the shroud off his Abhishek BachchanSonam Kapoor starrerLets get this right Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra with Abhishek Bachchan on the sets of Delhi6The giant poster of Delhi 6 with a mirror reflecting your image greets you as you walk into Rakeysh Mehras Bandra office Casually dressed and in an upbeat mood the director almost tells me the actual story of the Delhi 6 about why he thinks Aamir Khan is his biggest competitor and reveals his plans for the futureu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 If I ask you which was the easiest film youve made youd sayI think Rang De Basanti came more naturally to me it was the easiest to make As a filmmaker how different is the guy who made Delhi 6 from the guy who made RDB They are two different people altogether RDB has another Rakeysh Mehra and in Delhi6 I am another person I feel a certain growth in me I felt very scared to attempt Delhi6 its a far more difficult subject to handle than RDB I wasnt going to attempt it In fact I had the story with me before RDB and had narrated it to Abhishek that time Destiny had RDB being made and after that I wanted to make Paanch Kaurav and I had everything with me from the budget to the story I thought I wasnt mature enough for Delhi 6 then RDB made me grow as a person That helped me with Delhi6 Do you want to attempt a comedy a la GowarikerDelhi 6 has shades of black comedy in it But I havent overtly gone with that However after Delhi6 Iam in the frame of mind to make an outandout romantic film Delhi 6 gave me the confidence to attempt that Is it true that you didnt know where to fit the Masakali song which has now become quite the rageNo the song was always there in the screenplay Its a song about the spirit of the girl Its about Sonams character whos a smalltown girl Shes a girl who wants to get out of old Delhi and not end up like her mother or aunt She wants to break free for reasons we dont know We want to find them out The dove symbolises freedom Everyone wants to know if the dove has a larger role in the film No its just symbolic Its not a talking dove Jokes apart a dove also signifies peace and thats an important theme loving We are all living in a time of fear and hatred And in this time the dove stands for love and peace Apparently theres even a goat Yes there is her name is Heena bhabhi The soundtrack of the film has been received well How important do you think that is when it comes to accepting a filmYes its a complete album Each song has a different meaning The tune of the track Maula Maula came to Rahman nine years ago but he wasnt giving it out till now He heard the whole script and then started humming the same tune He found it too hard to part with it since he had kept it for so long In the song Bhor Bhaye we have actually used the original recording of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Shreya has sung it now so we brought both recording together even though they were recorded in separate time periods Then theres an aarti Tumre Bhavan Mein which my dad used to sing every morning We didnt compose it so I took my sound engineers to an old temple in Delhi where they still sing the song during jaagran So we took our instruments and recorded it as it was sung got the track back and made my actors sing it live on screen Im excited with the overwhelming response to the soundtrack Delhi6 is about a boy who comes home to the land of his ancestors from and falls in love with it Hasnt it been tackled before in many filmsIn Delhi 6 the basic storyline begins with Abhishek getting his grandmom Waheeda Rehman back home where she wants to die when the time comes Shes ailing for a long time and believes that her motherland should be the place where she takes her last breath But when he comes to drop her he gets attracted to this place so it isnt a choice but a subconscious awareness of what you feel Its the discovery of India but not in the Karva Chauth Holi Diwali way I am not dealing with symbolism here but with the journey of the people in this countryu00a0 The movie is reportedly based on your growing up years in Chandni Chowk What are your early memories of the capital cityYes I have pulled out many memories of my childhood during the making of the film I practically grew up in my nanis house in old Delhi and weve given the same name to the roads and places I would frequent I simply love old Delhi the chaat gullies the pigeons the cricket the kite flying everything about it and Ive created the sights and sounds of it in the film Why was the project shrouded in secrecyBut thats because its a film that I cant sit down and talk about I can show you the screenplay and tell you its about a boy who comes to India sees a girl and falls in love with her The girl wants to get out of the place while the boy is attracted to it so thats the basic premise However I find it unfair to discuss the film without a retrospective The monkey man episode is also a grapevine in the film I have used the entire incident at a very key point in the film We have gone verbatim as per the media reports and research covering the episode Apparently even your cast and crew didnt have bound scripts TrueNo thats untrue I cant make a film like that everyone had a script with them Even my makeup artist had the script with him What made you pick Sonam KapoorMy experience as a filmmaker and my eye for casting I tested so many girls there was a debate if we should take a fresh face And then the commercial viability angle came into the picture When someone first suggested Sonam I said Are you crazy I am casting an Indian girl and shes a Juhu girl They are all brats out there When I met Sonam we talked for six hours She kept reacting to the script and her character at the right places and times The credit goes to Sunita and Anil Kapoor for the way they have brought her up What about focus groups Will you be showing the film to them Or is it too late to incorporate the changes nowI think focus groups are most important With Rang De we were saved by focus groups I recently showed Delhi 6 to a few people and they all loved it They called it a family film and that was a huge compliment It helps me decide the kind of theatres I have to choose Among your peers which filmmakers inputs do you valueRaju Hirani and Vishal Bhardwaj These are two directors whose opinion I would value Not because others arent that good but because I can relate to their work most Have you been in touch with Aamir after RDBOf course we are in touch In fact I had narrated the Delhi6 story to him as well and he told me I have to make it someday In fact I am happy that hes turned into a sensitive director himself I think now that hes taken to direction Aamir is my biggest competitor in the fraternityu00a0u00a0Billu Barber releases a week before your film do you see it as competitionIts unfortunate that this had to happen I dont know why we cant all plan our releases I find this cannibalistic approach of eating into each others releases very depressing It would definitely have been in the better interest of both the films had they released in a decent gap Whats your next after Delhi6 I plan to start Paanch Kaurav and I also have another script that I am reading At the moment I am just waiting for the audience to watch the film and give me their reactions I think letting go of any movie and moving on to another is a tough process