‘Idiots always have louder voice’: R Balki

R Balki is undoubtedly one of the most thoughtful and intelligent filmmakers that Bollywood cherishes right now. His films are an outcome of flamboyant storytelling; and that probably is the reason why he is able to narrate even the most difficult principles and philosophies in the simplest possible manner. His previous films ‘Cheeni Kum’, ‘Paa’ & ‘Shamitabh’ cater to three absolutely different aspects of life. Not all of them were box office successes, but those who admire parallel cinema became fond of Balki too

The filmmaker’s latest venture is ‘Ki & Ka’ starring Arjun Kapoor & Kareena Kapoor Khan in leads. It’s a fresh concept where the husband and the wife swap their responsibilities. The wife goes out, works and earns while the husband stays at home and handles household chores. It is a much-needed slap on the preset gender roles that out society swears by.

In a recent interview with Bollywood Bubble, Balki came out absolutely candid about ‘Ki & Ka’, his philosophy in filmmaking and more.

Q. What made you opt for the name ‘Ki & Ka’?

Ans: You know, Hindi is the only language where everything from a bus to a scooter has a gender. Yahan Naukri Ki Jati Hai, Khana Banaya Jata Hai. Naukri is actually feminine. Khana is actually masculine & the funny thing is, we do just the opposite. I found these ‘Ki’ & ‘Ka’ very fascinating in Hindi, though I am very bad in Hindi (laughs).

Q. We never imagined Arjun Kapoor as a ‘house husband’. He has got extremely masculine looks..

Ans: That is the exact reason why I had chosen him. I had this exact idea. I called him, he came, I looked at him and I thought “this is actually the right guy!” When masculine people do very gentle things, it’s not like they are not masculine. They are. Just that they have chosen to act in a certain way. Same goes with Kareena. I am a great fan of hers. She is one of the most feminine people I have seen. Even when she is ambitious or aggressive, she is feminine. In the corporate world, there are so many set perceptions. If a woman is ambitious, she is masculine. I thought, let’s solve these biases for once. Let’s get two people who will never be anything other than masculine or feminine. They’re either so masculine or so feminine. Let them do the opposite roles. Arjun brought an element of gentleness into what he did. He has been so gentle all over the film! Kareena, on the other hand, has never been so carefree before. She has never been so ‘don’t give a damn’ before. And she still brings a lot of heart, because of the way she is. So, it really suited. Finally, it’s a romantic film. There should be two people who you want to like them!

Q. The canvas of the film looks really glamorous. In the past, be it ‘Cheeni Kum’, be it ‘Paa’ or be it ‘Shamitabh’, or even ‘English Vinglish’ which had your contribution, there were certain quirks, certain satires which were understated. But the characters and the canvas, the landscapes, everything was very non-glamorous. This one is such a distinct departure that it almost looks like as if it’s not your film. Was this a conscious shift of effort?

Ans: It looks glamorous because of the way it has been shot. I feel ‘Cheeni Kum’ was far more glamorous. It was shot in England. Half of ‘Paa’ was shot in Cambridge. ‘Ki & Ka’ has been shot on the backdrop of a daily normal house. You still find it glamorous because there are people dancing with high heels (laughs). The film starts with a Punjabi wedding, so I needed a kind of song like that.

Q. What made you think of the story? Also, in the West, the concept of a ‘house husband’ is a pretty common concept these days. A lot of films are being made on the same as well.

Ans: True, a lot of films have been made on house husbands. Like in India, a lot of films have been made on house-wives. The film is not just about a house husband. It’s about how we human beings typecast people by saying ‘men do these’ or ‘women do these’. If we interchanged the roles, would the problem be any different? Would the love be any different? Would the angle be any different? The great thing is not about Arjun being a house husband or Kareena being a corporate wife. That happens so many times. The question is, what happens after that? That’s a story. In most cases, there are two people who have fallen in love and decided to marry. We stop there. But what after that? How does life progress? How do you handle the issues with the role you define for yourself? That’s where the story is.

Q. We see a lot of trains; in the movie stills, and even in a sequence where Arjun and Kareena have sat to eat and there’s a train on the table which serves the food. Any significance of the train?

Ans: Huge significance! I am a train freak. I always wanted to make a house like that. I tried to convince Gauri (Filmmaker Gauri Shinde, Balki’s wife) about it. She almost threw me out! So I thought let’s make it in the set if I can’t make it in the house. No one can question that. She is not allowed in the sets! I did whatever I wanted to. I had a great art director who fabricated the whole train and the whole mechanism for me.

Q. You’ve a fascination of bringing yesteryear actors in your films. ‘Shamitabh’ had Rekha. ‘Ki & Ka’ will be featuring Swaroop Sampat. Any specific reason behind this?

Ans: Like your generation has started with Shah Rukh Khan, we started with Amitabh Bachchan. Therefore, for us, they can’t really be yesteryear actors. Speaking about Rekha, who is not fascinated by her? Everyone is. Speaking of Swaroop Sampat, she is a phenomenal actress. She introduced television to us. She decided to take a break. She has a mad sense of comic timing which I required in the film. When I met her & Paresh (Swarup Sampat happens to be the wife of actor Paresh Rawal), I told Paresh, “for once, I don’t want you. I want her”. They were quite surprised, they thought I was joking. I told Swaroop, “I seriously want you to do this. Please come and do this”. Sh teaches a lot. She took a break from teaching and acted. I am glad she did. Because she is exactly the mischievous type that I needed.

Q. This is the first time that the music of your film has gone to assorted people. Something about that?

Ans. Ilayaraja gave me the idea. There are a lot of Punjabi music. There are moods and incidents. It’s a genre altogether. He told me, “Instead of recreating the whole thing, why don’t you create it there? I’ll do the theme song”. I said, “alright. Let’s get a music producer.”. I went to Bhushan Kumar. I told them to make the music. I said, “I am not going to to dictate who is going to be the music director. You bring whoever you want. Come to me with the music, I’ll approve.”. This is a fantastic way of working. Bhushan has got access to a lot of talents. I met Meet brothers, I met Kumar, I met Mithoon.I had also brought Ilayaraja on board. So together it was a fantastic job.

In today’s films, whenever we look at the film’s title card, whoever does the songs is the music director. Right across the world, Celine Dion is not the music director of Titanic. A music director is the one who does music for the film! We should change the perception towards music directors, otherwise music for films won’t have any importance anymore. I think Ilayaraja is the only music director who has done the background music of all his 1000 films. Here also, Ilayaraja is the music director because he has done the music for the film. Songs have been composed by others. The industry needs to move on. It needs to accept that a music director is the one who has done music for the film.

Q. Was Kareena Kapoor your first choice for the film?

Ans: It was actually a choice that happened. Somebody who knew that I had cast Arjun, sent pictures of Arjun & Kareena together. I am not on onTwitter, thus they sent the photos to Gauri, saying “Plz ask Balki sir to cast them. They look fantastic together”. I didn’t even see the photos, I laughed. Later, the page was lying open on her bedside and I suddenly looked at them. And damn! The next day I met Arjun and talked to him about it. Then I spoke to Kareena & she loved it. That’s how we got her on board.

Q. You have worked on ad films before. Is there something you’ve learnt from ad films that help you in making films now?

Ans: I think, anybody who comes to the film industry will bring experiences from any walks of life. Because it’s that kind of an art where there’s a certain kind of imagination and craft you work on.

Q. Specifically, does it help you budgeting the film?

Ans: Not really. I am an advertising person, not an ad film maker. And I always give a damn to budgets. I am supposed to be in the charge of business of my agency but I have never taken charge of their business. If they left it only to me, they would be bankrupt by now (laughs). But! Being in any field teaches you discipline and communication.

When I started writing, somebody asked me “Do you like the story?”. I said, “yes”. “Do you like the screenplay?”. “Yes”. “Do you like the dialogues?”. “Yes”. But I found this very surprising. How does one write without writing dialogues? When Woody Allen writes, he doesn’t just write the scenes and someone else doesn’t insert the dialogues. He writes as if  people are talking. How would it progress then? I never understood this because In advertising, you write just scripts.

The discipline that it teaches you when you write yourself is that, you write what you want to shoot, and not extra footage. I don’t need to break down shots, because I know it in the film. My script will never start with ‘close up to’ and end with a ‘cut to’. It’s like a description. When you read it, you know exactly how many days do you want to shoot.

Q. Amitabh Bachchan always comes in your films…

Ans: I was sitting here after making ‘Shamitabh’ when I thought I had made the greatest film in the world but it was not actually so. Some people cursed me, some people loved it, some people said ‘it’s a cult film. It’ll be celebrated even after you are gone”. So many motivating things! However, only Amit ji & Jaya ji kept calling me and telling me “You will not take more than a year to write the next film”. I told them, “of course, after this, I’ll never write another film”. But they kept calling and messaging me for six days. It got nothing  to do with casting them, they just wanted me to write, I don’t know why. Jaya ji was very clear that I shouldn’t get into any genre of intellectualisation or philosophization or into how bad people are and how great I am! Two people are forcing me like this, what to do? I started writing!

Amit ji & Jaya ji are in the film not because they pushed me to do this film. They are the centre of the film. They are playing cameo going by how the industry defines a cameo. For ten days, you call it a cameo. For ten days, you call it a special appearance. Twenty days, you say they’re in the film. But they’re very much in the film. You’ll understand when you watch the film.

Q. Do you anticipate that your film might not be accepted by the people in a very positive manner?

Ans: I think the ‘people’ will take it positively! If there are some other specimen, I don’t know. We might have the highest poverty level, but we also have the highest ‘no sense of humour’ level. I think it is slightly improving. If you look at it that way, it’s a light film full of fun.

Q. For Arjun Kapoor, this was probably a brave decision to play such a character. Was Arjun a bit hesitant in the beginning?

Ans: I don’t know why is it brave. If the young people think it’s brave, then we don’t have much to say.  You’re brave only when you are scared and you still do it. It’s not brave when you’re sure and you do it. Arjun jumped at it! The problem is, young ones think that the rest of the country is stupid, whereas the rest of the country is actually like them. Just that, a few idiots are there who always have the louder voice.

Q. Anything about Arjun’s tasks in the film where he excelled more than a woman?

Ans: Arjun never pretended like a woman. He did things like a man would. When a chef cooks in the kitchen, he doesn’t act like a house-wife. He is a chef. Arjun never did those funny things to behave like a woman, neither did Kareena do those funny things to behave like a man.

Q. Which one do you think is more challenging? Making a home or going out and working?

Ans: Certainly, home. I always had deep respect for my mom without expressing it. All the efforts that they put remain unacknowledged and that’s the worst insult to a woman. You’re a mother means you should do this. They’re always taken for granted. You are sitting at home. So you’ve to earn your food. How do you earn your food? By cooking and cleaning .Nobody recognises that this mentality is the biggest insult to women. She is not managing the house for you, She is sharing responsibilities of a life with you. She is doing the half in life so that you can do the other half in life. But then you start thinking ” I earn all the money. What is she contributing?”

Remember how we treat our maids? Try doing their work for a day. If your boss doesn’t give you a promotion, you’ll quit your job and start looking for another. Because there’s no appreciation. Imagine women having to stick to a family without being given any motivation!

In an age where filmmaking means a cut-throat commercial competition, there are still artists who would not only stick to their own principles but would also put their artistic capabilities into use to uphold those principles. R Balki is certainly one of those; gentle, yet firm artists. 

‘Ki & Ka’ hits the screens on 1st of April, 2o16. We wish the team all the luck!

Ranjini Maitra

Journalist. Writer. Reader. Enthu cutlet. Mood-swing machine. Day dreamer. Sandwiched between ‘live life fully’ and ‘lose some weight’. Mantra of life: Love and love more.