Sit with Hitlist: Rani Mukerji decoded in an exclusive interview with mid-day

Excerpts from the interview with Mayank ShekharFirstly weve got to thank you and your filmmaker husband Aditya Chopra as well for coming over Hes an invisible man surely hes sitting in the room is heYes he is Youve got to find him You had to see Mr India through a red tint Now I cant decode which colour makes him appearNo seriously does he actually existOf course And the proof is in the pudding mdash my daughter She didnt get baked and come out of the oven laughsI was coming up the lift and everybody knew you were coming over one of them said shes married The other went to some Chopra god knows who Of course youve known Aditya for years Do you remember the first time you guys metIts quite historic in my head actually He had called me for a film called Dulhan That movie never got made But I became his dulhan bride eventually in lifeWas he producing the filmHe was actually directing it And I had signed up for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai So hed asked me a bunch of professional questions that he does with everyone And this was much before the first film I did for Yash Raj which was Mujhse Dosti Karoge 2002 And of course Saathiya 2002 although that was more of a Bobby Bedi production with Yash Raj presenting it Shaad had come to me and said he was remaking Mani Ratnams film I was like Why are you remaking a great film that Mani Ratnams already made Yash Chopra uncle was involved with the film So was Adi They were actually shocked to hear that I had said noMayank Shekhar and Rani MukerjiYou said no simply because it was a remakeSometimes we actors think we know it all although actually we dont know anything And we have to have people guide us to do the right things Obviously I wasnt guided properly and in my enthusiasm of youth I said no Thats when Adi called me for a meeting asked Whats the reason for you not doing this filmI didnt have a good enough answer so I said Because the girl doesnt have a good role He just burst out laughingTrue the films all about the girlYes thats when Adi realised that Im a clueless person in the industry If I can say that the girls role in Saathiya has no meat then I must be really crackedWhats he like as a personI think the best way to describe Adi is that hes a great leader Hes got great leadership qualities After so many years in the industry its really difficult for me to respect someone mdash we tend to know people in and out Adi is somebody I can genuinely respect as a human being and this has been the case from even before I became his wife and lifepartnerYou mean he has paternal qualities or is a natural mentorI wouldnt say paternal Hes essentially a nononsense person He tells you in your face the way it is I think thats great because a lot of people in films need that reality check You are surrounded by people who constantly tell you that youre the best Hes a really good bubblebuster in that sense You need someone to say Youre good but not the best Also whenever someone goes to him for advice he puts the other persons interest first before his own I think thats a rare quality to have not only in business in life as wellWhat surprises me most about him is when someone told me the poster on the wall behind his desk is that of Fernando Meirelles grittygangster film City Of God 2002 essentially Brazils Satya 1998 Now thats the last film Id associate with Aditya Chopra Does he still have the posterYes its still there My education of foreign language films or the films I know at all is thanks to Adi Theres so much to learn I think its important for every actor to not only see the big entertaining blockbusters but watch films where the performances are so real its hard to tell its a performanceYou obviously come from a space where you simply didnt want to be an actor and was forced into it by your mom rightNot forced I just thank God I was really a good obedient daughter In 1993 I got offered a film called Aa Gale Lag Jaa which I didnt do Growing up in Juhu being from a film family was not really looked upon as cool as it is now Back then being from a film family was like Oh youre from films That word filmy was treated as an abuseBollywood was basically uncoolYes Bollywood wasnt seen as a place you could make a career out of I was in my 10th standard when I got offered Aa Gale Lag Jaa by Salim uncle Salim Akhtar and I had the most bizarre reaction I started crying I was like How can you offer me a movie My mom and dad cajoled me You dont have to cry Hes only offered you a film Eventually Urmila Matondkar did that film Two years later Salim uncle came back to me because Mamta Kulkarni had said no to Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat 1997 My mom asked me if I wanted to just give it a try and if I didnt like it I could always go back to college I thought she was being practical At my screen test they made me wear Mamta Kulkarnis clothes that she had worn in Salim uncles previous film And I was like what are these clothes They put glycerine in my eyes It was crazy for meMukerji goes through the scrapbook made by one of her fansAnd this was just the screen testAnd it was a disaster My mom saw it and realised I wasnt cut out for this But Salim uncle said I was really photogenic and the cameramen were really happy with me He asked me if I wanted to join an acting class I joined Roshan Tanejas school The first thing he Roshan told my father and that remains stuck in my head is that acting is not something that can be learnt Its not mechanical You have to feel it Its a process being another human being for a particular amount of time In my class there were Jimmy Sheirgill and Chandachur Singh prepping for their film with ABCL Amitabh Bachchan Corporation LimitedTere Mere Sapne which had Arshad Warsi in it as wellYes Tere Mere Sapne 1996 And Jimmy was preparing for Maachis 1996 if Im not mistaken The whole group was in awe of Chandrachur Singh because he was the next Amitabh Bachchan had a deep voice had been cast as lead in an ABCL productionI would diligently go for the morning and evening classes I just didnt want people to laugh at me when the film came out The day I gave my first short for the film it just came to me They said Cut I was like Shit I actually did it It wasnt difficult for me From that day onwards Ive never looked back as an actorIt just happens when the camera rollsI think I just need the camera to come aliveAlso youre from a hardcore showbiz home Most people dont know how the Mukerjis were once the biggest family in Bollywood mdash owning running Filmalaya Filmistanhellip Can you take us through these titans and hows everyone relatedMy father would have made this more entertaining So it goes this way S Sashadhar Mukerji was the producer of films like Naagin Anarkali and several others He was the producer for Filmistan Someone else owned the studio mdash Jalaram if Im getting his name right S Mukerji was the only one who branched out of our family in Jhansi ran away from home to make movies My grandfather who was a judge and S Mukerji were brothers So S Mukerji joined Bombay Talkies His wife was Kishore and Ashok Kumars sisterRani MukerjiOkay so thats how those two families are relatedYes it starts from there And then my dad who passed out from Allahabad University came to Mumbai to be with his uncle S Mukerji and his brothers Subodh and Prabodh who had also joined him to make films like Junglee and others Are you getting itTryingSo at that time they were these four My dad started off as a camera person and then became a director It was a family thing So they made a lot of films for Filmistan and once they became soughtafter they went ahead and bought Filmalaya Thats when the onset of FIlmalaya happened Kajols grandfather is S MukerjiSo Kajols grandfather is your grandfathers brotherCorrectHow is filmmaker Ayan Mukerji relatedKajols father Shomu Mukerji and Ayans father Dev Mukerji are brothers So if youve seen Ek Bar Mooskura Do 1972 mdash that song hums it Tu hamari thi jaan se pyari thi mdash that actor Debu Mukerji is Ayans dad His older brother is Joy Mukerji So its Joy Debu and Shomu mdash Shomu is Kajols dad Because my father was so intimately involved everybody feels my dad was Debu kaka and Shomu kakas brother Actually they are cousins So Kajol and Ayan are first cousins and Im the second cousin mdash to make things clearFrom my mothers end her youngest sister was an actress in Bengal So for her acting didnt seem like a farfetched idea But my dad was like Why would my daughter be an actressThe live audience is all ears as Mukerji talks about films and more PicsNimesh Dave You did work in your dads film thoughYes Again to make things clear Biyer Phool in Bengali directed by Ram Mukerji is not my first film Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat is They both released on the same day But I shot for Raja Kihellip firstThen Ghulam 1998 happened Kuch Kuch Hota Hai followedGhulam with Aamir KKHH with SRK which was your first film with SalmanHello Brother 1999 Im sure you must not have given it a good reviewLoved itDont say that Not good for your reputation I had a lot of fun shooting for Hello Brother and working with the Khan family so full of love is one of the greatest memories And everyone was shocked that the film didnt do well The conclusion that everybody draws after 24 years is probably that they shouldnt have killed Salman in the film they should have killed Arbaaz insteadThats really meanNo I think Arbaaz will also agree I hope so Coming back to working with the Khans what I actually observed working with especially Aamir and Shah Rukh because they were the first people I interacted with after my first film is that they were so on top of everything their dedication sincerity always on time on the set working on the takes ensuring every shot is perfect I had no idea what a successful personactor was supposed to be like And that kind of made me choose a working path where I also believe that every film you do should seem like it is your last This learning process for me started with Shah Rukh AamirYour school as it were since you didnt even have the time to finish your acting course before your first filmI actually just observe people It gets embarrassing sometimes when a person catches me staring at them And thats my job My husband finds it irritating when we go outSo you can place a person for all the memorable roles youve done for instance the girl in Mani Ratnams Yuva 2004Of course There were so many of my househelps who I observed They would chat with my mother about their alcoholic husbands beating them up Id noticed their body language the way they talked their conversationsMukerji gives a gift hamper to the winner of the Sit With Hitlist contestThat train scene in Yuva is iconic seemed like a lived experienceThats what happens with me certain things just get stuck in my head and when prepping for a character they just come back to me For me body language is truly important It differentiates your character from previous ones mdash the way I walk talk I try to change that in every film I dont know how many people notice it But Javed uncle Javed Akhtar always tells me I am the only actor he knows who can really make good use of hands Often actors dont know what to do with their handsAnd you are quite different in each of your films Apparently the role that changed your approach to performance was Kamal Hasans Hey RamI went to Chennai to shoot for Hey Ram At the time I was doing glamorous roles in films in Mumbai It was expected out of me to look good all the time put makeup wear fiveinch heels because you cant have a short heroine My first day of shoot for Hey Ram was the closest I came to a Hollywood kind of setup mdash makeup room had pictures of haircontinuity A bell would ring at 6 am to start shoot We were to report at 5 am There was a callsheet given which was unheard of back then with every minute slottedSo I get ready the way I thought I am supposed to I walk in to the set find Kamalji and cinematographer K V Anand standing Kamalji looks at me says What have you done to your face Im like What Is there something on my face He asked me why had I put makeup on and told me to go wash my face I was shocked first and then thought he was joking ragging me on the first day I also had a flight back in the evening to shoot Kaali Nagin song for Mann I just dabbed my makeup reduced my lipstick came back He was like No I told you to wash your face This time I washed my face completely and he went I can see my Aparna her character now Then he called the makeup artist to put on a bindi he himself put some kajal and he said Leave the rest to the cameraman he will do his job When I mentioned I wasnt tall he said Im not tall either You have to be tall with your achievements and insisted on me wearing flat chappals Then of course I carried on that tradition in films that I could In Saathiya In Black I remember Sanjay Leela Bhansali told me You are playing a blind person I need your eyes to be dead We have to give you black lenses so your eyes dont emote at all I remember just wearing those lenses scrubbing my face with tomatoes in the morning because it gives you that freshnessDoes itYes chalo tamatar kharido sab log Laughs But like I said I was confident about not wearing any makeup Thank god Mani sir didnt have to tell me to wash my face I already knew itSince you brought up Black Ranbir Kapoor asked us to check with you if you remember the first time you faced the camera with himYes He was assistant director on that film We were in Simla We didnt have Mr Bachchans Amitabh Bachchan dates so we started without him We were shooting the films first scene where Nandana Sen and I are driving home I open the car door I can sense Mr Bachchan by the fountain and I take him in Since we didnt have him we had the great Ranbir Kapoor wearing the cap and his costume sitting near the fountain After that I just jumped on him threw him off the fountain he was on the ground Laughs When you see the making of Black youll only see me dancing or making Sanjay laugh all the way until he says Action He was also having funYoud be chilling on set and when the camera rolled youd become that person It was an intense roleBut I always leave the intensity for the camera With me it has always been all about spontaneityYou basically trust your instinctsYes and I also do my homework well Like I work mentally on a role or a script Everything is in my head For Hichki for the first time I was playing a character with tourette syndrome So of course Siddharth Malhotra director Maneesh Sharma producer and my husband were all worriedIt can go either way rightNot that they doubted me but we didnt have a point of reference If you are playing a cop we have seen hundreds of them so you know things you will not do otherwise itll look like a copy or do it similarly but better With Hichki no actor had ever performed it earlier apart from Johnny bhai Johnny Lever in Chori Chori Chupke Chupke Thats how I remember someone having a tick on screen So they asked me if I could show how I would tick but I said no Because thats my process I do it when I shootWhy would you not show it to themBecause it would not come to me When the camera rolls I suddenly become that character I cant explain in words but thats who I am as an actor Also for me clothes play a really important role I need to wear the clothes to become the character It gives me an incentive to become that part All the designers get fed up with me by the end of a film because I need to get even a simple salwar kameez jeans or Tshirt rightDid you meet people with Tourette syndromeThe parents of the kids who have this syndrome arent really open to sending them for such things For them their childs comfort is rightly of utmost importance So it was difficult to get somebody to come forward We did manage with a boy who came with his parents but apparently he was a huge fan of mine so for the two hours he sat with me he didnt tick even once He wanted to be at his best And then I spoke to Brad Cohen author of Front Of The Class and it kind of opened my mind to how a person who has lived with this syndrome is from childhood onwards I also got emotional content for my character from him because the film was inspired by his lifeDid you go through a similar process while you were doing four films a year back in the dayNo because the films I was doing then didnt really require my character to get into such details But thanks to Hey Ram Yuva and Saathiya I got a chance to explore how you can give a character a distinct voice and individuality At the same time me in Hum Tum will be different from Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna Though I am wearing clothes from abroad Im still dressed differently its not the same There are tiny differences in all charactersWhat have you taken back from your charactersFrom Black I learnt the most mdash about how to be selfreliant independent and not take life for granted It also taught me how to be humble and be thankful for everything we have in terms of our vision or that we can hear talk The other problems in life are really smallWhat about your character in KANKNever marry for any other reason but love And that really helped me as a single person That was the time when I would obviously get married and think of a family and that was a strong message that came out from the filmTo you personallyKaran Johar kept talking about it He said this is why so many divorces happen because people are marrying for wrong reasons mdash to have children as their biological clock is ticking or for companionship at old age But you should marry only for love when the excitement of everything moves away what will actually keep the couple together is loveFrom the guys perspective it was really hard to understand Abhishek Bachchans character What was wrong with him he seemed perfectly fineWe asked Karan the same thing And Abhishek and I had just delivered Bunty Aur Babli The audience really loved our pairing A lot of them who saw KANK questioned why I was leaving him in the film and going for Shah Rukh Karans explanation was the dynamics Maya my character shared with Rishi Abhisheks character was maternal in a way she was his mother He is a bit childish She is not really in love with him She loves him but there is a difference My character actually gets married because she was brought up by Mr Bachchans character in the film she is indebted to him and cant say no At that point in time she feels that this is love because she is best friends with Rishi and he loves her to death She has an OCD issue over cleanliness After she falls in love with Shah Rukh her house is pretty shabby because somewhere shes found her comfort We always hear about couples getting divorced but think they were so good together why did they separate They may be great people individually but arent meant for each otherAlso ReadSit with Hitlist Indias finest actor Tabu speaks about being an insider in BollywoodYou got back on a film set for Hichki after a gap of two and years Apparently you were crying on your way to workThat also had a lot to do with my daughterYou were missing her alreadyThere are certain fears that a firsttime mother goes through so many different emotions attack you which you arent even aware of I dont know if its a hormonal jumpup in the system or the fact theres someone completely dependent on you for everything Or so we think As parents we overthink as if we are the only people who have given birth On that particular day I was just thinking if I have taken the right decision with coming back to films so soon Not that I was doubting my call just wondering if it was too early for me Adira was just 14 months oldDoes Adira mean anything in particular Its obviously a combination of Aditya and RaniIt also means noble powerful strong star So there are lot of meanings in different languages I got lucky actually because I wasnt really looking at combining the two names But then I checked and wow it was a bonus laughsYou know there is a stereotype for Bengali moms rightIts not a sterotype Its a fact Lets not waste time analysing the situation Bengali mothers are Bengali mothers thats all I can say Laughs They are like tigresses For them everything is about protecting their cub Its never about cub ko chhod do jungle mein They would be like nahin hum saath jayege We will be there at every single step My brother is around 45 now but my mother treats him like he was just born yesterday so you can imagine But I think that is our speciality And Ill always be around AdiraAlso ReadSit with Hitlist Aamir Khan decoded in an exclusive interview with middayFeel sorry for her already Poor girl has no idea whats going to happen to herLaughs She in for a shocker I can see a lot of my husband in her though For her no means no and yes means yesDoes she have a distinctive voice like yoursNo she has a sweet voiceThe reason I ask you about voice is because filmmakers used to dub over your voice initiallyNot initial films For Raja Ki Ayegi Baraat I dubbed myself In Ghulam Aamir Mukesh Bhatt and Vikram Bhatt felt that probably I didnt have the shrill nice and beautiful voice that heroines used to in those days Aamir had a conversation with me he said You are a fan of Sridevi and her voice was dubbed for so many of her films so its okay We should do anything for the betterment of the film For him it is all about the team Nobody is bigger than the film At the time I thought he made sense and I agreed Being a newcomer I didnt have a choice but it was gracious of them to inform me Ghulam and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai were being shot simultaneously We were shooting the KKHH teaser I was to start dubbing for it and Karan asked I believe your voice is being dubbed by someone else in Ghulam why I told him that they thought my voice was not good He asked me whether I had dubbed for my first film He asked me if I had any issues with dubbing at all He told me to dub for KKHH Karan took that decision and that sort of changed everything for me KKHH was such a popular film Everyone saw it There was acceptance for my voiceAnd they appreciated the fact that your voice was different in a very nice wayYes I guess I remember Aamir calling me after watching KKHH saying Babes I think we made a huge mistake by dubbing your voice And your voice is really good For me that was a really amazing moment since I respect him so much The fact that he called and said that they had made a mistake was a big thing for me as a newcomerWere going to round off this conversation with the beginning of your life I hear you had been misplaced right after birthCan you imagine someone took me away I was so cuteHow did that happenIt was really dramatic Ayans dad was also there My mum had delivered me and she was in the room in the hospital Ayans father Debu kaka was visiting my mom The nurse got the baby and kept her next to my mother for feeding She was talking to my uncle looked at the child and said This is not my baby My uncle told her she had gone mad She said her child had light eyes They called the nurse who insisted that the baby she had brought in was the correct one They checked the tag and it was wrong Then mom started howling shouting Mera bachcha kaha hai And the whole melodrama began My mom and uncle went to all the rooms to look for me I was found in the last room which had a Sardar family That person actually had eight girls I was the ninth one over there My mom went Woh mera baccha hai And they said Nahi aap aise kaise bol rahe ho Yeh humara baccha hai They checked out the tag records and everything and finally I was returned to my motherOtherwise you would be in a Dil Bole Hadippa family which by the way is one of the most loved films in GermanyYes I would have been Diljeet Kaur or someone laughs But I finally got married to a Punjabi So it was destiny I guessAlso ReadRani Mukerji Ill keep making these comebacks soonerTranscribed by Sonil Dedhia and Sonia LullaCatch up on all the 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