Director Dharmesh Darshan delves into the captivating behind-the-scenes of filming the iconic kissing sequence between Karisma Kapoor and Aamir Khan in 'Raja Hindustani.' Join us for an enlightening conversation with the director as he offers unique insights into the creation of this unforgettable moment.
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00:00 How much was the presence of Aamir Khan, how much did that contribute to the success etc?
00:10 Tremendously, just like he disturbed Mela, he helped create Raja Hai Doost Dhani, so
00:17 I will be honest here, just like your sari black and white, no greys or bold, the beautiful
00:23 one you are wearing. Aamir was my childhood friend again, we both live in Pali Hill, members
00:34 of Time Pass gang, another friend of mine Keval, who was a connect, and Aamir was also
00:42 in Bombay Scottish, from where I am, same age, and though I didn't do luthiery with
00:50 him, when I met him and he was as keen as I was to work with him, and I have this huge
00:57 star called Sunny Deol behind me, Aamir was big but had not reached heartland of India
01:03 by then, in spite of 10 years, much respect to him, which he became with time, Shah Rukh
01:11 had come recently, he had become Salman, for some reason Aamir had not gone, he was more
01:15 elitist, select, Mumbai city, Delhi city, Bangalore city, so I told him you are Naseer
01:23 Hussain's son, grandson, and your father made nephew, sorry, and your father made Karwa,
01:33 so you have no business ignoring, Karwa ran from China to Chandigarh to, you know what
01:39 I am saying, I reminded him, Yadav ki bara, churali and all, so Aamir come on man, I am
01:46 also wanting to do that, but I asked him one thing, and I give him credit that he answered
01:52 me for that, you know I can be very soft but very forthright, when I met him for the film,
01:58 Murani said let's both of you make a film, and Bunty Surma who passed away, I must take
02:03 his name, he was also, Karim Ali and Bunty Surma, he passed away very sadly, I am still
02:10 very good friends with his wife Neelam, beautiful Julia Roberts, and when they fixed a meeting,
02:20 I said meeting producer fix karenge, chahe I am dos ki now, so I told him Aamir, how
02:27 many directors will be there in this film, he looked at me like that, I said because
02:32 I believe people say, but I am concerned, it may not, people don't necessarily the
02:36 right thing, everyone has their own experience, so he said, Davas of course, Dharmesh, there
02:42 will be one director, I have learnt that a film is made by a director's instinct, he
02:50 said that, he said that, he said that, he taught me that further, he defined what I
02:54 had not been able to elucidate, and he also said, but will you allow me to participate,
03:02 but of course I said that's why I am working with Aamir Khan, interfere you will not, I
03:08 will take the heroine I want to take, I will take the song I want to take, I will take
03:13 the Archana Puran Singh Navneet Nishan I want to take, I will shoot the kissing scene I
03:19 want to shoot.
03:20 Was that already in the script?
03:23 It was narrated with short division to Karishma Kapoor and Aamir Khan, with short division,
03:30 because it was a long, it's a ten minute sequence, it's not a kiss, it's a kissing sequence,
03:35 first they come running under the tree, very passage to India E.M.
03:39 Foster, they go to Malabar caves, now someone will say where E.M.
03:44 Foster and where Raja Hindustani, but that's the brilliance of Hindi cinema if you have
03:48 done homework, E.M.
03:50 Foster's book and David Lean's version of Passage to India, and it was very inspiring
04:00 for me to fit that into a popular film, so I changed Malabar caves into Ooty's tree,
04:06 it was a location called School Mantra, okay, it's a eight minute sequence, nine minute,
04:12 ten minute sequence, "Kitna Pyara Tujhe", finishes the sermon, "Tu hai pagal, tu hai
04:19 jogar, tu hai dil barjani", she says, "Sabse pyara mera yaara, Raja Hindustani", and they
04:27 go, suddenly there's a storm, you know when nature will something, what is human, they
04:33 go running up the hill to this tree to take shade, this whole sequence, suddenly a storm
04:40 comes, they have no awareness of their sexuality, they are both of a certain image, they are
04:47 virtually very innocent, and suddenly she becomes aware, of him as a male, he was always
04:59 fascinated with her, so it's a very tricky sequence in Hindi cinema in a family film
05:04 where a girl is discovering her sexuality, please understand, and it's not in your face,
05:11 then she calls him, she can't resist him, and it breaks into a kiss, and then she wakes
05:18 up suddenly, and then she wants to run away from her lack of inhibition, she's so comfortable
05:26 being in an inhibition, and then she runs down, and there's hordes of sheep, and the
05:34 trees are moving, that's the sequence, so that's why it took time, you know, with the
05:40 storms, it was freezingly cold, minus 2 degrees, in 3 days we shot, in Ooty, and the actors
05:48 were so cooperative, and these are quality actors, are you getting what I'm saying, Amir
05:54 Khan, Karisma Kapoor, W V Rao the cameraman, you know, and the challenge with me was to
06:01 keep them warm, because they can't get typhoid in one day, you know, because they are human
06:06 and they are soaked, so between shots, because it's got some 100 cuts the sequence, you know,
06:11 so I used to serve them brandy, which warms you up, now they were having so much brandy
06:17 that they had no control, and I can't have, I'm also getting wet with them, standing right
06:22 with them, so they don't feel, but I can't have the brandy, so I can be ill that day,
06:28 and whether Slobo's shot separate or Amir's shot separate, so I, and what I was so proud
06:33 of Bharti was we kept the kissing sequence so long for the censors, and they gave us
06:40 voluntary, they passed the whole thing, we had to submit voluntary cuts.
06:46 You cut it yourself?
06:47 Yeah, that we cut it, we don't want it so long, we thought that we cut it.
06:50 Because you thought they are going to cut it, the censors will cut it.
06:53 Therefore you shot more than you required.
06:54 I shot more, I kept more than you required.
06:58 And then ultimately you kept more.
06:59 I kept more also, that they will pass, they will cut something, you know.
07:05 Imagine a U certificate film, without any strings.
07:08 But isn't this true that for the censor board screening, Amir was also present?
07:14 Definitely.
07:15 And that he was also, you know, partaking, convincing.
07:16 He believed in the film, convincing.
07:17 To convince the board.
07:18 No, he didn't convince, he took the compliment, they didn't need any convincing.
07:23 They called us after the screening to compliment us.
07:29 So there are times where I believe Raj Kapoor used to convince and you get convinced with
07:33 his belief in itself.
07:34 They didn't need convincing.
07:37 Instead they complimented, this is very beautifully done, I give them the credit.
07:42 How ahead were they?
07:44 And it's nice and it's traditional and it's liberated, to which I said Indians are very
07:49 liberated people.
07:50 But you do have this obsession for kissing scenes, no?
07:53 You had it in Lutere also.
07:55 And Mela, with Trinket and Amir, but not in Dhadkan, not in Begapa.
08:03 Exception.
08:04 Very quiet.
08:05 See, I am Bharati, I have no problem with people snogging, smooching, kissing, lip kissing.
08:13 I don't believe in moral policing in that matter.
08:16 It's much better than negativity.
08:19 It's better than violence, roads, rash driving, India has the highest rate.
08:23 What's there in a kiss man?
08:25 And she had no problem, she had never done a kissing scene before.
08:29 Never.
08:30 She was totally, I told her these cuts, this kiss, this, and when you go back into the
08:34 house the kiss is rougher.
08:36 When you look back you over dramatize things.
08:38 She said every cut the way you say.
08:40 I say I am making her a complete white churidar kurta with a sarwar kameez, there's not this
08:45 much skin show, the background is not like sexy.
08:48 That's music, you know.
08:50 I said it's a beautiful sequence.
08:53 She said you don't have to tell me so much.
08:55 Instead she said this.
08:56 Then I called Babita ji inside and narrated that sequence because she was a very young
09:01 girl.
09:02 So the mother can influence, you know what I mean to say.
09:05 And she had a good image also.
09:08 Lolo was not a very noisy girl.
09:10 She could come across loud or you know, but she was by nature, she by nature is a soft
09:16 girl, vulnerable.
09:17 A good daughter, a good mother.
09:20 Nice girl.
09:21 So you mentioned it to Babita ji and got an okay from her.
09:28 Completely.
09:29 Babita ji sat through the three days of the shoot.
09:32 And I didn't simply send your mother from here and all.
09:36 That's rare.
09:38 I said let her sit.
09:39 Oh, you're not doing anything wrong.
09:42 And then sitting you, and the entire thing, and actually producers have to recover the
09:46 thing.
09:47 They wanted to make a poster of the smooch.
09:49 I didn't allow it.
09:50 I said no, she'll salute like that and Aamir will do that dance movement.
09:54 Today that thing is there in WhatsApp, you know, that movement, if you see, of a dance
09:59 movement, what do you call that symbol, you know.
10:03 And that is the poster of Raja Hindustani.
10:05 He's just doing that, you know.
10:07 So a combination.
10:08 So it's not like you made it crassly commercial by cashing in on it.
10:13 No, no, it's a turning point.
10:15 And in the film, in the theater, I was aghast.
10:17 I thought the film has failed because there's total silence and I watched it all over the
10:21 country.
10:22 It's not just Bombay, not a city.
10:23 It's the city came at Pardesi Jaana Nahi, which comes after that when Pratibha entered
10:29 with her, you know, kamar and all that.
10:31 I use Pratibha differently again, as a dancer, gypsy, you know, superb actress.
10:39 I like the way you're singing.
10:40 Please sing.
10:41 I remember that.
10:48 Thank you.
10:53 (upbeat music)