It’s been 15 years since Farah Khan penned a love letter to Bollywood with Om Shanti Om, and the director is proud of the film’s journey. But there is one thing which disturbs her some days, which is that the dialogues of the Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone starrer didn’t get the credit they deserved.
“My only thing is that Om Shanti Om should have won every award for its dialogues, but that didn’t happen. And it just shows how idiotic these awards are. Because all the dialogues from the film have become cult,” Farah tells us while looking back at the making of the story which came with reincarnation twist in a filmy way.
The 57-year-old continues, “People use the dialogues from the film in everyday life, be ‘Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost’ or ‘Itni Shiddat’ or ‘Ek chutki sindoor’. These are some iconic dialogues. It didn’t win a single award for dialogues. Mayur Puri should have won every award. But that doesn’t matter today. Even Sholay didn’t win an award for dialogues”.
The film is special for Farah for many reasons. It was the launch vehicle for Deepika Padukone, she conceived her kids during the making of the film, the film won the clash war with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya, with the filmmaker crediting the movie for starting the six-pack-ab chapter in Shah Rukh’s career.
“I still feel like we just made it last year. It doesn’t feel like 15 years have gone by because our memories are so fresh. We had such a blast making a movie,” says the filmmaker, adding, “One of the most important memories was that it was Deepika’s launch where she was completely raw and new. Now, she is so confident, so poised and in command, whereas at that time she was like a lost lamb”.
Looking back, Farah narrates an incident, sharing, “When we were filming Dard-E-Disco, I used to throw up whenever he used to remove his shirt, and he was like you can’t be doing this every time. It was the first time when Shah Rukh had a six-pack, before that he was never known for his body. Now, in Pathaan, it seems he has 12 packs. He really inspires me. There’s no one like him”.
So and one of the most challenging part, you know, you talk about fond memories, but you know, there are also some challenges that you face. Now, what was the most challenging part when you look back at the movie?
Making the film was an easy task for Farah, but escaping preconceived notions about the plot she was exploring was tricky.
“Everybody used to tell me reincarnation movies don’t, barring Karan Arjun, and movies about movies don’t do well. And we had both the aspects. There were people questioning me for casting a new girl, and said ‘It’s a big film, take a top actor’. However, I was very sure that this movie was going to be entertaining. We had so many cameos, and all seemed organic instead of forced,” says the Happy New Year maker.
Apart from the story, music and box office numbers, the film is remembered for bringing lots of stars from the tinsel town together for cameos, be it Salman Khan, Rekha, Dharmendra, Tabu or Shilpa Shetty. And Farah says pulling off such a coup is tough today.
“Every day, we had four or five people coming and nobody wanted to go back. Everyone stayed back for the other person shot and used to hang out. That kind of era I don’t know whether it can ever come back. That was when Bollywood was one. Everybody just came out of love. I don’t know if that can happen again,” she says.
Here, the director admits that she would have been on cloud nine if Aamir Khan also agreed to feature in a special section. ‘It would have been nice if Aamir would have come, but it’s fine. Maybe we’ll save that for another day,” she ends with a hope.