Women think Sexy Sam is very, very sexy. Comment.
Well, that is what he was supposed to be as per the script. I find it improbable, but if there are some women who find Sam to be very, very sexy then it’s the triumph of a design conceived by Karan.
Did you have any reservations about playing the naughty Sam?
Not at all!
How did you prepare for the role?
I didn’t, Karan did. He hired me to portray on screen his preparation. It was his story, his concept and his execution. He guided me through it quite deftly, I might say.
Did you have any reservations about Sam turning into an “old pervert?�
Once I am on board a project, I do not fear its concept or its execution. I only fear my own incapability. If you have seen the film, and I trust that you have, you will appreciate the fact that all these wonderful adjectives that you or others like you, devise, to articulate a character, do not fall into the creative process of the director’s mind. Perverts would think of perversion. And Karan is most certainly not a pervert.
Is Amitabh jealous of Sam? He seems to have everything, including a beta like Abhishek.
The most common mistake that invariably all questionnaires envelope, is when they seek parallels between reel and real. Cinema is a world of make-believe.
Characters involved in the screenplay and the story of such a world are fantasticated and hopefully, interesting props. Finding an equation between the two worlds is unfair. But even if it was not, and you were seeking a response, I would not tell.
The best compliment you got for the role? And from whom?
I couldn’t possibly divulge. It’s too personal. Telling you would send it across the world.
One thing Sam could teach Amitabh and vice versa?
This question and some of the others that follow are all falling in the realm of what I have expressed earlier. Equations! But if you were to push me for an answer, I would immodestly say, that I would not require coaching classes from Sam. And why on earth would I share my wiles with others!
Considering this is a very different character from the ones you’ve played before, did you discuss it with Jaya or Abhishek?
Jaya and Abhishek had access to the script much before I did. Karan is family and he discusses his work with Jaya as an elder.
She was not too keen that I do this film and expressed her reservations to me. I went ahead and did it because, a) it’s Karan Johar and Dharma productions, for God’s sake! b) I would never have had the heart to defuse Karan’s enthusiasm as he narrated the character to me.
Were you embarrassed mouthing any of the dialogues?
No. They did not invite embarrassment.
Name one friend Amitabh has, who he shares a bond with, like Sam and ‘Chandigarh’.
You’re getting really presumptuous, aren’t you!
Which older man would you be — the one from KANK or the one from Nishabd?
This is a premise perhaps premature… let Nishabd be out, then we can talk about it.
Do you believe that people should separate, rather than live in an unhappy marriage?
My beliefs are guided by my own personal will. It’s codes and conduct cannot be generalised for public consumption. The story chosen in the film raises points perhaps, for after-viewing debate. And this really could become very long-winded and inconclusive.
The director chose a topic that perhaps dwelt in his mind along the lines of the question you ask. He put it across to the world, draped it in three hours of story telling. It is his take. Marriages, happy or otherwise, can each have their respective situations and motives.
I know what my take is. Through KANK, you now know what the director’s perceived take is. They could both be right. They could both be wrong. Or, one could be right and the other wrong. This is life…baby! Funny things happen here.
Some critics have not found your flamboyant role acceptable. Would criticism prevent you from doing other such roles?
I note with great sincerity my faults, as would I imagine, other creative artists. And at the end of the day we would want to reach a stage where both the audiences and the critics would express satisfaction. Bold roles? What is that? Specify! Poor boy falling in love with rich girl and battling all social norms to win and marry her… Bold? An ordinary dock worker striving to find his own space, dignity and right by taking on an existing, powerful and unconstitutional adversary… Bold?
An honest and law-abiding police officer, challenging, fighting and destroying single-handed a corrupt system, nurtured by equally corrupt politicians… Bold? A father-in-law propagating and succeeding in giving a new life to his own widowed daughter-in-law through remarriage… Bold? What is bold?
Do you ever feel trapped in a staid image? In Hollywood, actors over 55 are redefining sexiness.
How odd! You started by acknowledging my sexiness and flamboyance in KANK and the appreciation it was getting from members of the superior sex. You now talk of ‘feeling trapped in a staid image’.
Perhaps your ‘superiority’ got the better of you! Just kidding! But, truly, there is no image. It is not boring, and certainly not staid.
There is more variety now than ever before in my career. I am pleased and fortunate. And, for the love of everything that is divine and sane, do not make the West a referral for all things bright and beautiful in our part of the world. They are okay, we are okay! They can do without us. We can do better without them!
Would you do a film where you and Abhishek/Hrithik/Shah Rukh would be competing against each other romantically?
Great idea! Would you please tell Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Yash Chopra, Karan Johar or Ram Gopal Varma about this? And don’t forget to recommend me.
Seriously though, there has been an effort by a prominent director to make a project, where an ageing Ashoka the Great marries a much younger girl, and where his own son from an earlier marriage gets romantically involved with a younger-than -him, step mother.
The writer had researched extensive historical facts on this.
Your favourite pin-up girl?
Why would I want to put up a poster on my wall? If ever there was one, and there were to be an inclination, I would rather make an effort to go and meet her directly.
Also, the fact that there hasn’t been one has saved a great deal of space on my walls, which I might add are somewhat happily crowded with photographs of my granddaughter, grandson and my daughter. And let me tell you, they would give any of the top models a run for their money!
If a beautiful woman at a party commented on your sexiness, what would you say?
“I think we need to sit down!�
