‘PK has a Unique Story, Unlike 3 Idiots’
Mumbai, Dec. 21 (NsNewsWire) ntil about 10 days before the release of 2014’s most-awaited film, director Rajukumar Hirani was still tinkering around with the film. “Until last week, we wanted Aamir (Khan) to change something in the dubbing. I told Abhijat (Joshi, scriptwriter) that scripts never get completed, they get abandoned on the release day. My energies were all focused on the film, but once I saw the final print, I immediately disconnected,” says the 52-year-old, reports the New Indian Express.
It’s been almost five years since Hirani’s last film, 3 Idiots, the mega blockbuster hit theatres. “Some scripts get written very fast and others take their own sweet time. When I look back, 3 Idiots got written very fast while Lage Raho Munnabhai took time. PK took unusually long. We also had a few setbacks while we were writing the film. Abhijat and I always strive to have a unique story. After 100 years of cinema, every idea you think about has been done somewhere in some language. When we found one idea, we thought it was very unique and started working on it. After working on it for almost a year, someone told us that a film was playing in the theatres that sounded similar to our story. He was talking about Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Our hearts sank when we saw the film. Our story was different, but the core idea that you can change person by changing his thought process was the same. They had taken a thriller route,” Hirani explains as the reason of the delay. While PK was completed by the middle of 2014, Hirani decided to wait it out till December before releasing the film.
Before the release of his last three films, Hirani has been plagued with self-doubt. “You battle your own films. Everyone will compare PK with 3 Idiots. You go through trying to figure out which one is your better film and hope that people like this one.” With the exception of his first film Munnabhai MBBS, Hirani’s always thought his previous film was better. “I wasn’t tense at all when MBBS released. I was just happy to have finally made my first film. I wanted to make one film and I had lived my dream. I didn’t even care if people are going to watch it. When I made Lage Raho Munnabhai, I thought MBBS was better.”
His last film 3 Idiots might have gone on to make `200 crore but before it released, Hirani thought “it was a terrible film”. “I thought Lage Raho was such a unique story. In comparison, 3 Idiots seemed like a standard story of three friends. And, now that PK is done, I think 3 Idiots was a better film. Having said that, I am confident of the fact that PK has a unique story, unlike 3 Idiots. People should like it.”
Everyone connected with the film has been unusually tightlipped about the storyline. “PK is a very unique story. There is nothing like PK that’s ever been made in Hindi films before”, is all that Hirani is prepared to say. Like his previous films, Hirani has once again created a character everyone is buzzing about. Aamir’s PK doesn’t blink, loves eating paan, speaks Bhojpuri and walks without moving his arms.
Hirani has already zeroed in on what would be his next release. “We were supposed to start working on another project, but Sanju’s (Sanjay Dutt) story caught my interest. Last year when he was home on a three-month parole, we got talking. When he started telling me his life’s story, we ended up talking for almost eight hours. After that, I went back to his house every day for 25 days with Abhijat. I would edit PK during the day and reach Sanju’s house in the evening and we’d talk till 3 am. There is so much that we don’t know about Sanju’s life. It definitely lends itself to a movie,” Hirani reveals. He has already zeroed in on Ranbir Kapoor to play the troubled superstar.
This biopic means that Munnabhai fans will have to wait longer for the next instalment. “I want to make another Munnabhai, but like PK it’s been tough to zero in on a unique story. Also, we will have to wait for Sanju to come out of jail. I don’t plan to replace either him or Arshad (Warsi).”