Mumbai, Sep 25 (PTI) Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt has fond memories of his early collaboration with Shah Rukh Khan and Manoj Bajpayee, calling them rare talents who brought unique energy to the set.
Bhatt directed
SRK in “Chaahat” (1996) and “Duplicate” (1998), while he collaborated with Bajpayee on “Tamanna” and “Dastak”.
“Shah Rukh is a rare bird. He is an actor who is inexhaustible. He’s one actor on the set you can say, ‘Do it once again’. And he never gets tired. He has that abundant energy that will dazzle you and he genuinely has a king’s heart,” Bhatt told PTI in an interview.
“I’m the only person who’s made two flops with Shah Rukh in his heyday. But irrespective of the box office, his relationship with me only got warmer and deeper. He has a gaze towards life, which is beyond the box office because movies are a part of our lives, they’re not our entire life,” he said.
Khan most recently won his career’s first best actor National Film Award for his film “Jawan”.
Bhatt also praised Bajpayee’s evolution as an artist over the years, and said more recently he was struck by his performance in “The Family Man”.
“Manoj always wanted to be much more than what was being offered to him and I laid my eyes on him in ‘Swabhiman’. Then he made his foray with me in ‘Tamanna’…” A few years ago, I saw ‘The Family Man’, and I called him up and said, ‘Oh my god, you’ve dazzled me’. I thought he was capable of only this much. But seldom do actors evolve and outshine their own best work. It was so heartening to see him do that,” Bhatt recalled.
As a director, Bhatt who has nurtured several newcomers in the industry, from Anupam Kher to Emraan Hashmi, daughter Pooja Bhatt, Malllika Sherawat, and Sushmita Sen, said he takes pride in each of their unique contributions.
The filmmaker called Sherawat an “exceptional” woman with a desire to carve out her own path in the film industry. She played the lead role in the 2004 film “Murder”, produced by Bhatt.
“I’ve never seen a girl who said, ‘I was not the best-looking, I’m not the most talented but I wanted it the most’, that was applied to Marilyn Monroe and that was Mallika, and the thirst she had is enviable,” Bhatt said.
Hashmi, who made his debut with “Footpath” and went on to star in many of Bhatt’s productions, turned out to be a great success and Bhatt is happy about that.
“He started with an unsure footing, but he is a very bright kid and he understands much more about acting than what we allow him to do because we don’t have the depth and bandwidth to touch the range that he’s capable of. Emraan is another great success story, I’m very proud of.” He also praised Kher’s ability to surrender completely to his role in “Saaransh”, Sushmita, who debuted with “Dastak” for carving her own identity and daughter Puja Bhatt for proving herself as an actor with films like “Daddy”, “Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin”, “Sadak”, and the critically acclaimed “Zakhm.” Bhatt is now looking forward to the release of his musical-romance film, “Tu Meri Poori Kahani”, where he has taken on the role of creator. Produced by Ajay Murdia, and presented by Murdia, Vikram Bhatt, the film will release on September 26. PTI KKP BK BK
