Meghna Gulzar has collaborated with her father Gulzar on all her directorial outings. He has served as the lyricist, right from her debut film Filhaal to critical hits like Talvar, Raazi, Chhapaak and Sam Bahadur. He also penned the song, Sach Ka Daayra, for her latest film, Daayra. However, she has never worked with her mother Rakhee Gulzar, even as an assistant director on a film starring her.
The veteran actor’s last Hindi film appearance was in 2003 in Dil Ka Rishta. She stepped away from Bollywood and stated that she has no plans of returning to it. Now, speaking exclusively to News18, Meghna reveals why she has never directed her mother and quips what will happen if she decides to make her comeback in a film helmed by her.
“I think one of
us will pack up the shoot for the day and leave (laughs). That will happen for sure. She definitely has a very strong personality and that’s where genetics comes in,” she says, while implying where she gets her no-nonsense personality from. According to Meghna, mixing personal and professional equations may not be the best idea.
“If we translate the relationship that we’ve as a mother and a daughter into an actor and a director, she’s going to have to listen to me, by virtue of my designation. And she may not want to all the time. Being my mother can come in the way. When I was younger, I used to fantasise about directing her. Then I got older and became practical (laughs),” she remarks.
Meghna recalls how her mother would reprimand her onscreen children in her films and that reminded her of her own exchanges with her. “I’ve noticed this in her performances… When she’s scolding her sons, which is something that she was doing in all the movies, it’s exactly how she scolds me. So, there’s no performance there,” she says.
“You know that when she’s scolding them, whether it’s Ram Lakhan or Karan Arjun, she has scolded me in exactly the same way. The tone is the same, the pauses are the same, everything is the same. So, yes, if I’ve to direct her, it would be interesting!” Meghna adds. Interestingly, during the promotions of Daayra, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran described Meghna as a ‘taskmaster’.
Kareena also mentioned arriving on set 30 minutes early just to avoid upsetting the director. Prithviraj had revealed that he had the maximum number of creative arguments with Meghna on set and quipped that ‘she won every single argument’. Meghna now tells us that she plans on adopting her father’s approach of rewarding his actors with toffees after a good shot.
“I’m definitely going to do that! I saw how happy they (Kareena and Prithviraj) were and how much they loved the idea! I made a note of it,” she says with a laugh. Reacting to it, Prithviraj jokes, “I can assure you that she’ll buy ten toffees at the beginning of the shoot and would’ve given away two at best by the end of it.”
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