'I Am Feeling The Pressure'

Five years have rolled by since his last film 3 Idiots hit the theatres. SpotboyE.com caught up with the man who hasn't gone wrong so far. Excerpts from an interview:

Vidhu Vinod Chopra (co-producer of PK) says you know the pulse of the audience... 

No one knows the pulse of the audience. Every director succeeds and fails. 

But all your films to date (Munnabhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai, 3 Idiots)  have been super hits. It's surprising but you look distinctly nervous...

Look, I haven’t had a flop yet. Expectations are high. So yeah, I am feeling the pressure.

Who will take the blame if, God forbid, PK doesn't do well?

I wont blame anybody else except myself.

The promos of PK have drawn mixed reactions...

There are two ways to draw attention; either create curiosity or give away everything. We chose to go with the first.

Correct me if I am wrong but you rewrote PK from start after writing a large part of it for 18 months....

You are not wrong. One of our initial drafts had striking similarities with Inception. When Abhijat (Joshi, PKs co-writer) and I saw the movie, we couldnt move from our seats because a years work had gone down the drain. If we had decided to overlook Inception, we would have been accused of stealing even though we hadnt. For, while they were shooting we were writing (pauses). So yeah, we scrapped whatever we had written and wrote afresh.

Is Aamir playing God/ alien/ mentally challenged/ drunkard?

Hes one of these for sure. Theres a hint in one of the songs (smiles).

When will Sanjay Dutt see the film?

We are missing him. We were planning a screening for him in jail but the authorities didnt allow. However, we will definitely invite his family at the first screening.

Your next is a biopic on Sanjay...

Its an idea I got after talking to him over 25 days when he was out on parole when Manyata (Sanjays wife) was ill. He told me so much about himself that I had enough fodder for a movie.

Are you going to all out on his life which has been full of ups and downs?

Hmmm... At this point of time, I really dont know which phase of his life well skip and which phase of his life well focus on.

Will Ranbir use prosthetics to look like Sanjay?

How much resemblance did Ben Kingsley have to Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi? Once youre engrossed in a film, you dont care much for the look.

Back to PK. How was Sanjay on the last day of the shoot?

He was in his own zone. He shot his last portion just two days before he went to jail. He had tears in his eyes, his skin was sagging and wrinkled. We had to cover it with make-up and glasses. He shot his part like a professional, but it wasn't easy.

Seems, Aamir goes by the name PK in the film. Anushka is called Jagat Janani. Why do you tend to name your characters with quirky names?

Come on! Funky names are fun. I find it boring to name people as Raj/ Rahul/ Vijay.