One Of Bollywood’s Ace Producers Sajid Naidiadwala Is Ready To Change Lanes. He Tells Subhash K Jha About His Plans.

It’s been quite a career for you as a producer. Do you think the scenario has changed since your grandfather started your production house?
My grandfather started producing films in 1955. In 2005 we celebrated fifty years of film production. The cherry on the cake was that my Mujhse Shaadi Karogi celebrated a fifty-week run. I feel the main change is in the level of formal education in the film industry.

Though my dad made the best of films he had studied only until Class 8. And his generation wasn’t business savvy at all. He never traveled. He never knew about filmmaking trends in the rest of the world. Nowadays the overseas market is critical.

So you can’t afford to be uninformed. The globe has shrunk and I feel cinema no longer has any borders. As a producer now I can make any kind of films, though I need to exercise that freedom.

What do you mean?
I feel the Nadiadwalas haven’t so far moved far ahead with the times. Today if you see Sanjay Bhansali’s Black you realize any kind of cinema is possible. It’s not just a critical but a commercial hit. I feel the so-called formula film is out.

Our cinema has gone through so many transitions. Film trends have been changing a lot. Though I can’t same the same for myself.

Why not?
I think to be respected enough to make any kind of cinema, a producer has to be a director as well. On the Filmfare Power List I was no.9 this year. But the first 8 were all producer –directors. A producer is no longer just a money-bag.

I joined as a seventh assistant to J.P.Dutta’s Ghulami with my uncle Habib Nadiadwala. …I still don’t feel really prepared to direct. Production is a serious tedious job. We’re now competing with international cinema.

Your success ratio is very high…
My last five films have been all hits. It scares me. What next? I crave for my films to be critically acclaimed as well as being commercially successful. I feel I’m growing. My next production Jaan-e-Man could get me the across-the-board respectability that I want.

You know when I signed David Dhawan for Mujhse Shaadi Karogi he was at his lowest ebb. And he did a good job. When I met Shirish Kunder he was seeing Farah Khan who’s like my sister. We were at Shah Rukh Khan’s place when Shirish narrated a minute-long story. I immediately told him to work on it. He grew with every narration.

By the time Shirish started making Jaan-e-Man for me I was tempted to work with more new directors. Shirish represents the new voice of our cinema. Not having grown up watching old Hindi classics is a blessing for him. He started with a clean slate.

I remember from the time I was a child I watched every Hindi film in a theatre we owned in Malad. We were as frequent there as the usher.

My cousins and I knew every dialogue from every Amitabh and Jeetendra film by heart. That maybe a good thing for me. But it can also harm new filmmakers. Perhaps we at Nadiadwala continued to respect the traditional Hindi film because that’s what we grew up on.

Maybe to change you need to keep yourself free of excessive past influences. But I can’t say I’m not proud of our banner. My grandfather has made films like Taj Mahal (Bina Rai-Pradeep Kumar), Adalat and Haath Ki Safai, Rampur Ka Lakshman, Ghulami …..on to Judwaa which was Salman Khan’s first double role. But we do need to re-invent ourselves seriously.

What future plans?
I’ve a a film with Sajid Khan…a very emotional film. It’s got Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Vidya Balan. And a one-year old baby plays a major part. We’ve got these guys from LA to work on the baby’s expressions. I don’t think such a film has been done before. It’s my step towards progressive cinema.

See, I work alone. I’ve a huge infrastructure to support. Whatever changes I bring will shake up the entire organization. I can’t be recklessly experimental. My dream shouldn’t become my team’s nightmare.

You and Salman Khan share a long-lasting rapport?
In 1994 we teamed up for Jeet. Since then we became close friends. No matter what the media thinks of him, Salman is a very good actor to work with. All my films with him are hits. None of my films with him are delayed.

Akshay and Salman were apparently at loggerheads during your film Jaan-e-Mann?
So I heard. I never saw it. Akshay is my school mate. He worked with me in one of his first films Waqt Hamara Hai where I launched Suneel Shetty. Then we never worked together until Mujhse Shaadi Karogi and Jaan-e-Man, both with Salman.

If they had any problems why would they agree to do the second film together? I don’t know what goes on in their heads, I don’t know. But they were fine on the sets, sharing biryanis and jokes.

Do you have to face star egos?
Fortunately I started my career attending shootings with the biggest stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna in Yaraana and Main Azaad Hoon.

Since then I’ve always worked with stars and paired them in untried combinations, like Akshay and Suneel in Waqt Hamara Hai, Salman and Sunny Deol in Jeet, Rani and Preity in Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega.

So stars have never been a problem. They are my only weakness as a producer. I can’t work without stars. In my fifteen years as a producer, I’ve never faced an ugly star tantrum.

Further plans?
From 1955 to 2006 has been a long journey for us. I feel in the next fifty years our growth would be much faster. I came to film production after trying my hand at other things. I made the right choice. Today we’ve committed organized and corporotized people behind the scenes.

Today I’m so proud when I see Indian films being screened at Leicester Square or Times Square. Or when I come across a CD of my film in one of the best music stores in the US. Today our screenplays are being invited to the Oscars library.

The audience has become more discerning. Quality consciousness is here to stay. I’ve 50-60 scripts to go through. I’ll be working with Mahesh Bhatt’s assistant Sabir Khan. I want new directors with new ideas.

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