Zero’s director Aanand L. Rai speaks to Guardian 20 about his experience of working with Shah Rukh Khan, his love for filmmaking and his middle-class upbringing.
Q. What does it take for a director to execute a movie like Zeroand work with the biggest Hindi film stars, like Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif?
A. A lot of will and a strong reason. I always say that a director should have a very strong reason to make a film otherwise he or she should not. I knew from the first day that a film like Zero will be a tough journey and I knew that I needed to have a very happy state of mind throughout this journey. And just not me, everyone who was involved in the project needed to have that happy state, else it creates pressure. It is not just a technically tough film but an emotionally tough film, too. You feel a lot of responsibility when you deal with characters like these. You have to be extra careful. I knew that this film was going to be a long journey and it would exhaust me to a point that I won’t be able to recognise if I am happy or sad. It is like getting your daughter married.
Q. So is it just the exhaustion you feel now?
A. I have just delivered the film. So there is a vacuum. I feel this every time I complete a film—chali gayi [it has gone]. Now it is for my audience to enjoy, relish or judge. These days are very emotional days for me, I feel very sad… Every time I complete a film, I feel that it is the last film that I am doing. I feel so empty that I think there is nothing in me till the next six months before something starts to grow again. At the end of the day, I know that there will be a story but right now if you ask me what I want to do next, I would say that I don’t want to tell any story.
Q. Were you the same kind of director to Shah Rukh, in terms of the creative process and your expectations from an actor, as you have been to the other actors you have worked with in the past?
A. Actually, yes. Nothing changed for me because even when I started I never took myself very seriously. I took my stories very seriously. I enjoy conversations with my actors. I always say that conversation is my direction. The only thing I told myself while working with Anushka, Katrina and Khan Sahab [Shah Rukh] is that I will be honest to them and will speak everything that comes to my mind and heart, and it will be a mutual process. That’s my process—to fall in love and make people fall in love. Zerowas made in the same way. We all were in love with each other, with the film, with the idea and all I looked forward to was that everyone should have a secure state of mind. It is not us, it is the story. And we all are contributors… Nothing changed for me thanks to Khan Sahab for keeping it so comfortable. He is such a big star, such a big human, even a stance could have made me uncomfortable but there was no such stance. In fact, I always say that it is brilliant to have a teacher and a student in the same person. He is such a well-read, educated man and there was so much to learn from him. But at the same time, he is such a brilliant student, he is ready to learn and very obediently he delivers whatever you ask him to. So that was a big lesson for me.
Q. What else did you learn from working with Shah Rukh?
A. With time you learn to be unconditional. There are a lot of things that are unconditional with him. He is so passionate as a person and always manages to look at the bigger picture. And it is very tough to have something like this in an actor because they are very close to being called selfish. But with Khan Sahab I think he starts living your dream with you, he starts completing your dream for you and I think it is not about him as an actor but it is about him as a person. It is very difficult to fall in love with somebody else’s dream. He actually defines being unconditional to me and it has been my biggest learning from him.
Q. At what point do you start sketching your characters?
A. I don’t know. It is such an organic process for me. For Himanshu [writer of Zero] it can be different, it is his journey. If you ask me as a director, I keep it very organic, I keep on talking whatever comes to my heart and I try to feel it. I always say that whatever you are feeling will have a reflection. So I start feeling my film. This is why I say Zerois not a film, it is a complete feeling. If you ask me the craft behind it, I don’t know. If you ask me the process, of course, there is a process, but it is so organic. I can’t point out Step 1, Step 2, Step 3. But when you end the process and you analyse, there are chapters, there are steps, but right now I would say that it is not a body, it is a soul.
Q. Most of your films have an earthiness and the characters emanate a sense of groundedness. Is Zerothat relatable too?
A. Yes. And what I got from it is that it is just an extension of the movies that I have made till now. I have not done this to make it look new or make it look different. It is still what I am as a director or as a person. I have just extended, it is just an extension of me, where I have taken a small flight. A small flight where I know I can land again.
Q. You left engineering to pursue filmmaking. Was there ever a fear of failure?
A. Engineering still gave me what I wanted. It taught me discipline, patience and to stand in tough times. But I realised that it is not me because even if I complete it, I won’t be able to do anything with it. I knew that I am ready to tell stories. And there was no fear of failure. Mera fear wala meter kharab hai [I don’t register fear]… Very early on in my life, I understood one thing, that fear will stop me from creating things. It wasn’t that I have been fearless from the very beginning, I used to be scared of so many things but as a storyteller, I have grown more fearless with every story, chapter and every movie. It’s like an addiction.
Q. You seem to be an emotional person. So as a producer, what do you look for in a script? Is it the emotional impact a script would have, or do you think more about the commercial viability of it?
A. I look at the emotions. I have never calculated the commercial viability. This is the reason why I have been able to do a little more than what others have done in terms of the number of projects. I go with my gut feeling. I don’t think I have been able to make a lot of money from my films but that’s fine. Maybe what goes in my favour is that I am still a middle-class boy who requires very little to live. I can still travel in DTC buses. I have been born and brought up near Greater Kailash, in Sadiq Nagar. I can still go back and live there. It’s like I feel that I have nothing to lose. I am the son of a teacher and I am making films. That in itself is an achievement. Above that, if it is a successful film, it becomes a bonus. So life is actually easier for me, I don’t have to take care of any legacy. It all started here with a story and it will just end with a story. It is as simple as that. I just have to think about the stories.