Last week we were flown to Ramoji Rao Film City (Hyderabad) from Mumbai to be on the sets of Rohit Shetty’s much talked about film Dilwale. Shah Rukh Khan wanted film journalists to see the process of filmmaking, which I feel is a great exercise for young journalists who have never been on a film set but have to report day in and day out on films.
Between 1999 to 2003 I used to visit the Ramoji Rao Film City very often, this was the time when actors like Kareena Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Tusshar Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani had just joined the industry and stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty were very active and regulars at Ramoji Rao. Film producers used to fly us down for not one, but several schedules of their film. Journalists used to not just watch the shoot but wine and dine with the cast and crew. Way before the mobile and social media age, personal contact was the only way for actors to be in touch with the media and vice versa.
After International studios came to India and started buying films from producers and releasing them, producers realized it wasn’t necessary to take the media all the way and spend money on this mode of publicity, as they would have made their profits before the release of the film having sold it off to a studio. And if they really wanted to do it, Mumbai’s Film City was much more affordable. But if you ask me, it was fun to travel and bond with actors and filmmakers on a set.
We all know that Shah Rukh Khan is passionate about cinema, why else would he fly about 100 odd journos form all India over a span of four days and entertain them while the shoot of his film is still on?
We meet SRK on location for Dilwale, the set was a church where the climax of the film was being shot. On the day I visited, we were about 20 of us and he warmly greeted everyone and revealed that he had a surprise planned for us. We were then taken to another set close by, which was a beautiful Goan villa on a busy Goan street with shops and houses. This we learnt was Shah Rukh and Varun’s house in the film and the backyard has a garage with some amazing modified cars. The interiors of the house were done tastefully as well.
Soon the cast, Shah Rukh Khan, Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Johnny Lever, Varun Sharma, Sanjay Mishra and director Rohit Shetty reached and we were then taken to a room, which was probably one of the actor’s bedrooms in the film. SRK took the mic and said he would like us to watch some portions of Dilwale. In my career of 16 years in film journalism, filmmakers have never shown me such a long chunk of their upcoming film. Twenty minutes of songs, some fantastic action scenes and some funny moments were screened, all this way while the film is scheduled to release in December.
It’s surprising because journalists are the last ones to get to watch the rough cut of a film. Unless the filmmaker is your friend and then too you have to cross your heart, take an oath and say you won’t talk about it to anyone. Forget the footage of a film, producer’s usually guard every photograph as if it’s a formula of a nuclear bomb, which could explode if it reaches the media.
What SRK and Rohit Shetty have done definitely comes from a lot of confidence in their film and faith in the media.
I wanted you to watch this, it was important for me that you come on the set and see us shoot. There are so many young journalists who should watch how films are made and then talk about it. Journalists are opinion makers, it’s a job of huge responsibility.
Shah Rukh Khan
The team held a screening of the footage for the distributors too, way in advance, which is again not the trend Bollywood follows.
Rohit is very clear, we make films for our partners, for the audience and for you people. For example, Sony Music is our partner so every time we shoot a song, we show it to them. We ask them if they like it and then move on. In the past 25 years, I have seen that producers don’t show anything, no posters, no movie stills… but our partners are the ones putting in the money so we should show it to them to reassure them that it’s being used in the right way.
Shah Rukh Khan
Now about what I saw. Trust me Dilwale has all of it, it has what Rohit Shetty specializes in, this time he blows up fancy foreign cars since they shot abroad. I feel, cars would now be scared of Rohit Shetty! The magical chemistry of Shah Rukh and Kajol and the songs shot at breathtaking locations look nothing less than stunning. The film gets its youthful look thanks to the two talented youngsters Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon who share sparkling chemistry.
Post this the team had dinner with us followed by a good conversation with Shah Rukh Khan about cinema, media and social media. Wish I could write all of it! And since SRK made us a part of Dilwale, it was time for family photo!
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