Farah Khan/SRK rift updated

 Here is what SRK had to say about the whole thing.. in Feb '10 issue of Cineblitz:

FARAH KHAN1 YEAR AFTER BREAKING TIES WITH SHAH RUKH KHAN

(Guide: BEFORE YOU READ THIS, FOR THE FULL PICTURE DO READ BETWEEN THE LINES)

Undoubtedly, there’s change in the air in every which way.

The nameplate once read Farah and Shirish. Now it reads: Czar, Anya, Diva before the original two.

Farah Khan, the 2000 updated version of Manmohan Desai, has this fondness for terrace apartments. This one looks like a playpen right now – as boisterous, as blissful as one.

Farah promises herself that she must go and see Sanjay Dutt’s babies, they’re still in an incubator. Sanju has recorded a funny five-line narrative at the beginning of Farah’s latest film Tees Maar Khan. And Anil Kapoor has put in a cameo, dancing at the Oscars with the Slumdog children.

“Shirish had no ego about it. He said, ‘I’ve worked on it for two years. But nobody wants to make it with me. If you go even with a newspaper cutting, they will say ‘yes’ without bothering to read it’”

Tees Maar Khan – Farah’s third film as director. Will it be a hat-trick for commercial cinema’s first outstandingly successful woman director? Tees Maar Khan is also Farah’s first step outside Shah Rukh’s comforting Red Chillies protection.

Husband Shirish Kunder and she had to set up their own home banner Three’s Company to make this film. Shirish – in the credits as editor of Farah’s films – turned director with Jaan-e-Maan, a failure. Farah explains how they divided Tees Maar Khan between them: “The story, screenplay and dialogue are his, Shirish had worked on it for two years, his brother Ashmit collaborated with him on the dialogues.

When I got the script, I could’ve started shooting from the next week itself, it was that complete with dialogues and camera suggestions, like a tight Hollywood script. Although I lent my name to the company to set it up, he handled the entire production. We had to set up an office, get an EP, accounts crew, office staff, do a recce. Shirish did all of it.

“I have always been cost-efficient as a choreographer or director even when I would do films or songs for Red Chillies or Dharma Productions or Ramesh Taurani. On our film, Shirish told me to shut up and ask for what I wanted. I never worried about any of these things which is why we were able to complete the entire movie in just 58 days. It went like clockwork. Left to me, I would have gone over-budget on just the casting while Shirish was clear. ‘You are a big director and they want to be in your movie, so let me deal with them’.

He’s been really efficient in keeping it within the budget we had. At the same time it is a big-looking movie. I wanted a train, we got one built for something like `1 crore, we made artificial tracks, a full train that looks real. I wanted it all in that valley in Malshet. I wanted an aeroplane and didn’t want to shoot in one, so we got one made. Whatever I wanted, I got.

“Of course I got it all with Shah Rukh too. But with Red Chillies I had to control the cost. I was like the producer while Shah Rukh would go, spend karo, spend karo!

“I have shot the film, Shirish is doing the editing, the background score and the title track. He had already done it when he was supposed to direct the film. I really liked the theme track he had composed which comes at various points. I was upfront with Vishal-Shekhar about it and they were very sweet about it. So actually Shirish has done more for Tees Maar Khan than I have. I have only gone out and executed his script.”

Then why didn’t he simply direct it himself? (Read between the lines)

“Sometimes I feel it has nothing to do with the script. Shirish had no ego about it. We sat down and he said, ‘This script has been lying here for years, I’ve worked on it for two years. You know it is a fab script, a commercial hit film. But nobody wants to make it with me.

If you go even with a newspaper cutting, they will say ‘yes’ without bothering to read it’. We were very pragmatic and decided that instead of just sitting and crying over it, I will direct it. He said, ‘I will produce it since nobody else seems to be interested in producing our movies’. It’s not like I went out (of Red Chillies) to some other producer. I did it because it was for our production house.

“It was not an action I took on my own, it was a reaction to generally what was happening. I did what was the right thing for me, for my husband and my family”

“Now we are rolling. In January 2011, Shirish will make his film Joker, by the end of next year I will make another. We’ve had so much fun producing it ourselves, we’ve also realised that it’s not really rocket science.

It will only get better and easier. By producing our own movie we’ve also realised the kind of money we can make (on the table itself). And the company is called Three’s Company which is for our babies.”

Tees Maar Khan has been co-produced with Akshay Kumar’s Hari Om production unit. A joint venture so compatible that Joker too will be with Akshay as the leading man and co-producer.

All of which clearly indicate that her sparkling debut  association with Shah Rukh is finito. Farah shrugs, “The only Khan I rely on is Farah Khan, I am Tees Maar Khan!”

A 3-minute theatrical trailer is ready and will be screened with Golmaal 3and Action Replayy. “When we got our first censor certificate for our trailer, we were so excited. Shirish said, ‘I’m going to print it and put it up on the wall’!”

Let’s move deeper into her striking out on her own, leaving the security umbrella provided by Shah Rukh Khan and his Red Chillies for her first two films as director. The grapevine says that when her husband was kept on hold forever and needed to get going as a filmmaker, Farah had to take a tough decision – of moving out of comfort zone.

Now that they have produced Tees Maar Khan on their own, will Farah ever go back to SRK?

“By producing our own movie we’ve also realised the kind of money we can make. It’s a great feeling to know that your IPR (Intellectual Property Rights), is for your kids”

“It makes sense now to make movies only for Three’s Company. It’ll be a bit of a demotion if I go back to directing a film for someone else. Unless it’s for Steven Spielberg or James Cameron.

We’ve set up a good production house, hopefully Tees Maar Khan will also do very well and people will want to work with us. It’s also a great feeling to know that your IPR (Intellectual Property Rights), whatever you are working for, is for your kids. As a mother somewhere that has changed me.

“But my leaving Red Chillies happened by default, it was not planned. I spent sleepless nights wondering how to break it to Shah Rukh. What was I going to say to him? Last year this time I was definitely not getting any sleep.

“I was also having sleepless nights over, ‘Should I, shouldn’t I? What am I doing?’ But I was not insecure. As I said, producing a film is not rocket science. My sleepless nights were only about how to break it to Shah Rukh, he’d been my friend for years.

“I finally did what my conscience told me to. I think I did what was the right thing to do. It was not an action I took on my own, it was a reaction to generally what was happening. I did what was the right thing for me, for my husband and my family. I could’ve happily stayed and not rocked the boat, and everything would have been hunky-dory. But I had to do what was right.”

How did Shah Rukh take it?

“When I met him, he was very good about it. I’m sure he must’ve been shocked by what I had decided but he handled it very well. He said, whatever Red Chillies can do, we will. I will always pray for your film. I remember the date: it was November 17, 2009.”

“It’ll be a bit of a demotion if I go back to directing a film for someone else. Unless it’s for Steven Spielberg or James Cameron”

How much has changed since that day?

“A lot. We’ve met only once after that at Bobby Chawla’s (room at the hospital).”

Was it a difficult decision to take? Did it help to have Akshay by your side when you no longer had SRK?

“Most definitely, it was absolutely important to have a big actor with you. When it is your first production, it helps that your main star is your co-producer. And Akshay is the most professional actor in town.

He will come on time, he will do what it takes. I have pushed him to the extent where he has waited while I finished the work of junior actors before him. He never once had any ego problem. So it was definitely a huge asset to have Akshay with us. Also to do the deals and get the best terms for the movie.

“In Red Chillies, I was never involved with the deal making. Here too, Shirish and Akshay did it all. But I was kept in the loop.

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