Mumbai, Mar. 2: Just almost three months into her married life, Bollywood choreographer Farah Khan has had a hectic, four-month-plus schedule of sitting in judgement, in the company of singer Sonu Nigam and music director Anu Malik, over the fate of a bunch of youngsters aspiring to be the ultimate 'Indian Idol'. For all their assessment, the final choice may be tilted by a spate of SMS messages pouring in favour of either Abhijeet Sawant and Amit Sana, on the D-Day, viz., March 5.
For all we know, Farah, with her chubby face may have narrowly missed getting into the moviedom, Maybe she would have ended up doing roles of the Farida Jalal kind by now. No regrets at that. But she is more successful and comfortable as a choreographer. At the 'Indian Idol' shows, while Sonu and Anu very carefully couch their words of advice and assessment to the aspirants with 'aap', 'keejiye' etc., Farah gets away coolly with 'tum', 'karo' and so on. She does it with ease and lan.
Brother Sajid Khan has shown bright sparks of creativity with fun and talk shows, loaded with social and political satire and with strong messages, while Farah has shown her creativity in her own way.
That's the personality Farah Khan is, a prized daughter-in-law of Mangalore. She married the editor of her directorial debut 'Main Hoon Na', Shirish Kunder on December 9, 2004 in her Juhu residence.
They have been acquainted with each other professionally for over four years. They worked closely on 'Main Hoon Na'. But it was not during the making of the movie that love bloomed. It was when they worked on the film's promos that they got together. They got married thrice, on a single day.
The first marriage, a registered one, was at 6 pm, followed by a in South Indian Hindu style at 6-30 and the nikaah ceremony at 7.30pm
Farah wore a Kanjeevaram sari for the Mangalorean wedding and a blue and silver salwar kurta for the nikaah. The outfits were designed by Karan Johar and Seema Khan. Shirish wore a suit designed by Naresh from Masculine.
The reception held at Mumbai's Hyatt Regency was attended by a scores of film personalities.
Farah Khan is familiar to film enthusiasts because she has choreorgraphed many dance sequences in films. But she became a big hit with her maiden directorial venture 'Main Hoon Na'. Earlier, the 'Chaiya Chaiya' number from the movie 'Dil Se' picturized on Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora Khan on a train too made her to be taken notice of.
Besides 'Dil Se', 'Kaho Na Pyaar Hai' in 2000 and 'Koi Mil Gaya' in 2004 won her Filmfare awards. 'That may have inspired her to get into the terrain of direction.
As the name suggests, Shirish Kunder, is an out-and-out Mangalorean. Son of Bhoja and Gitanjali Kunder of Bijai-Mangalore origin, and an old student of Milagres High School, Mangalore, he is an electronic engineer by profession. He worked in Motorola for three years till he finally decided to give it all up to become a film editor.
Earlier, he had edited include 'Ankhen', 'Armaan' and 'Na Tum Jano Na Hum'. But he made a splash with the editing of 'Main Hoon Na'. Now he has got into direction with a movie featuring Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar.
"I was always inclined towards films. While doing engineering, I also directed plays. But I had no contacts in the industry. After a point, my frustration built up and I could not continue [at Motorola] anymore. I quit and decided to give films a shot," he says.
Beginning as an assistatn to Anupam Kher, Shirish also experimented with scripting, editing and assisting in television serials.
"My main aim was always direction. To become a director, I thought one has to be an editor first. An assistant director does everything like coordination and the legwork for the film, but nothing specific," he explains.
He got in touch with the well-known Renu Saluja. "She was editing ' Pardes' then. I asked if I could assist her. When she learnt I did not graduate from the FTII, she refused to take me in," he recalls. Shirish then gave her a copy of a television serial he had edited. After a month, he was a part of her team.
During the production of her husband Sudhir Mishra's film 'Calcutta Mail' Renu had an attack of cancer.Shirish took over the editing independently.
"I did not assist her on any commercial film. But all my films have been commercial. So I had no clue how to edit one (a commercial film) in the beginning. But I have no regret of not undergoing formal training in editing. Those who did, did it the conventional way. I always came up with new ways because I didn't have a reference to anything," he says.
He finds a line of demarcation between editors and operators in the industry.
"We have only operators in the industry," says he."I'll tell you the difference. Renu was an editor. I followed her technique. The director gives me a tape of what has to be edited. I make a cut, then show it to him. If he wants to incorporate something more, we do that. What most people do is they sit with the director and the director tells them what he wants and what he doesn't. This person is simply an operator. I take films only on the condition that I edit on my own. I have made mistakes earlier when the director thought I was an operator. I walked out of those films. That's not editing. Anyone can do that."
"Many of my films have not worked. One comes to know in the first [shooting] schedule whether the film will work or not. If it doesn't work, I usually warn the director. But if they insist on it, I just pass on the film to my assistants to edit, and take my cheque! It's really a waste of time! Most people don't realise that they're making a bad film," he admits.
"I did some good editing in Calcutta Mail and Na Tum Jaano Na Hum. But the films didn't work because of a bad script. If the film don't work, it's called a bad film. Initially, you feel bad about it. Then you get used to it," he smiles.
He does not hesitate to disclose the trade secrets from the making of 'Main Hoon Na'. "Remember the fist fight in the climax between Shah Rukh Khan and Suniel Shetty? Shah Rukh wanted to do this differently and went through many Hollywood films. He is very technically inclined, so I had this idea," Shirish explains.
"If you see the scene carefully, there is no single shot of Shah Rukh actually hitting Suniel. We've done it like a flicker effect. We've taken shots of Shah Rukh's face first, then his fist, and then the fist landing on Suniel's cheek. So it gives the illusion of a fight, whereas they are not actually hitting each other."
Shirish further says: "In the action sequence at the beginning of the film, there is a shot where Suniel shoots Naseeruddin Shah. There is a lot of noise in the background as the others are shooting at each other. But when Suniel's bullet touches Naseer, I put off all the sound. Then I turned on music, that of a female vocalist. There's an emotional bit where Shah Rukh looks at his father dying. The music heightens the drama. But in the background, everyone is still fighting. Then Shah Rukh sees Suniel running away and starts chasing him. That's when the noise of the bullets comes back, and we get back to reality," he adds.
Speaking further on his way of working, he says: "I tried a new idea for the promos and after that, other films like Lakshya and Hum Tum started copying us! What we did is, we gave a story hook to the audience. Usually, the makers put the best shots of the film in the promos and show it to the audience. But the audience really has no clue what the story is. I could have done that. A few shots of Shah Rukh Khan would sell a film. But I wanted to try something different. So we showed Shah Rukh looking like a geek going to school. So to the audience, it looks like a budha [an old man] is going to school. Then we changed gears. In the second set of promos, we show him as an army officer on a mission. This makes the audience get involved in the story."
Farah speaks about Shrish
Shirish and I met on the sets of Main Hoon Na and believe me it, wasn't love at first sight. In fact, throughout the making of the film we spoke just about four times and that too, on the technical aspects of the film. Honestly speaking, I never really mingled with him. But when he was busy making the promos of the film, I got to know him better. Slowly, I became interested in his approach to work, and finally by the time the film was over, we were madly in love with each other. At that time my mind was a bit open as the film was complete and I had less to worry about.
From being lovers to partners, life has changed immensely for us. But the very fact that we are now married has still not sunk in because I still see him as my boyfriend. I feel what makes us tick is the fact that we allow each other space to grow and make decisions ourselves. Marriage has matured me a lot and I have now become domesticated. At the end of the day's work, I really feel like returning home and getting pampered by Shirish. He has made a name after the success of Main Hoon Na, and I hope that soon he'll be able to carve a niche for himself as a director. Though I pull his leg that my film will be a hit and not his, I honestly hope that his work is accepted by the audience at large.
Shirish on Farah
When I was in school, I was enamoured by Juhi Chawla. Later, this changed to a fascination with Farah when I saw her dance sequences in Dil Se. I had a crush on her but never really got any opportunity to interact with her. Thus, when I got a chance to work with her as a film editor, I was more than pleased to do it. I even charged 25 per cent less because it was her film. During the making of the film, we hardly talked and our interactions were limited to discussions on editing. When the film got over, Farah threw a cast and crew party at her place. It was there that I got drunk and proposed to her. It came as a shock to her but in the end she agreed. We didn't tell anybody in the unit that we planned to get married soon.
Now that we are married, we feel more responsible towards each other. Since both of us are busy with our own projects, we hardly spend time at home. Ever since we've come back from our honeymoon, our schedules have gone haywire. Farah is concentrating on her next project for which I am doing the screenplay. I am also ready with my film, which she is choreographing. We brainstorm a lot and discuss each and every aspect of our work. Both of us are workaholics and at home too, we talk only about films.
What I like about her is that she is very focused and hardworking. But it's very hard to convince her. She won't agree until she sees a reason to something. In terms of work, I am very artistically inclined whereas Farah has a more practical approach. Apart from films, she's now busy doing up our new house at Versova. As a wife, Farah has made me realise a lot of things about myself. I love her ability to make people laugh as she is a very fun-loving person. She also has a fine eye for details and is a perfectionist.
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