Walking in the director’s shoes: Divya Khosla Kumar

She is confident about the remake of Karz and believes that ‘The audience will see Himesh as an actor in ‘Karzzz’”.   

After appearing in Ad Films for Reliance and Dermicool, she has led a sort of a fairy tale life in a way, her break in Bollywood came in the form of the multi starrer 'Ab Tumhare Hawaale Watan Saathiyon' in 2004 where she was paired opposite Akshay Kumar & Bobby Deol. Then she got married to T-Series head honcho Bhushan Kumar and it was pack up as far as acting is concerned. After having trained herself in cinematography, editing and direction for 2 years, Divya has come back wearing the director’s shoes and now she calls the shots.

The creative brain behind T-series spoke exclusively about Karzzz, T-series and direction to Vishal Verma.

V: How is your fairy tale life going?
D: Life is not always a fairy tale, I have said “life has been fairy tale for me” but that was the time of my marriage and for any girl marriage is a great moment and a new beginning.
Right now I am doing the balancing act. Learning, concentrating on my work.

V: How much are you confident about Karzzz?
D : Karzzz is the remake of Subash Ghai’s 1980 blockbuster Karz, we are very much confident by the way Karzzz is shaping up, apart from the having a good strong script, we have also tried to give the film the ‘in’ look by making it in a grand scale. The original was based in Ooty, and in the remake we have shot in the remote locales of S.A ( Johennesburg),  in Jordan ( a place yet to be explored by film makers), large sets  and of course an all together different Himesh and his music.

V: Remakes are always compared with the original; Shah Rukh was compared with Amitabh for the Don remake. Himesh will also be compared with Rishi for Karzzz? How will he live up to it? What is your say?
D: Well, that is up to the audience to decide whether Himesh had lived up to it when the film releases on the first week of October this year.  As far as I am concerned, we have taken special care of Himesh & given him proper training & he had shown a vast improvement from his debut ‘Aap Kaa Surroor….’
Himesh dons a casual look in the film & will not be in long jackets & hat - the get up in which he had normally appears before public.
We have made every possible effort & hope that the audience will see Himesh as an actor in ‘Karzzz’.

V: Original Karz is remembered for its music, Subash Ghai’s storytelling and Rishi Kapoor and recently SRK introduced Karz to today’s generation but in a rather spoofy way? On what lines is your ‘Karzzz’?
D: No it’s not a spoof. We have maintained the original script but the dialogues & sequences had been changed accordingly. For example the car sequence will be replaced by helicopter. The 80’s ‘Karz’ will be paid by the 2008 remake which will have the ‘in’ look & special effects as the extra bonus.

V: Something about Kajra Re?
D: It is currently in the pre production stage. We have recorded all the songs & the shooting will commence from mid of April. It’s an emotional story with an added pinch of love. We have signed Amrita Singh, Ashutosh Rana, the girl opposite Himesh is yet to be finalized.

V: Do you feel Shweta is getting sidelined in the promotion of ‘Karzzz’.
D: No. We are promoting Shweta. It’s her debut and she is paired with Himesh.
But right now, we are concentrating on Himesh as he is the hero, the music –director & the singer in the film. We have also signed a three film contract with Himesh. We have planned our moves and are going step by step.

V: Does the acting bud haunt’s you?
D:  No. I derive immense creative satisfaction in directing & also I am involved with the cinematography & editing, so it doesn’t come to my mind & doesn’t haunt me.

V: Suppose you get an offer from the top bollywood banner to direct but with a condition that you will also have to act? What will you do?
D: Well, to direct oneself requires lots of experience & it’s not an easy job, it’s quite tough. At present I am not in the stage to direct my own self.

V: Maybe later when you attain that position.
D: I would rather prefer directing my own production rather than doing it for some one and act.

V: Any plans of a feature film as a director?
D:  There are few ideas floating in my mind. The day I am convinced with the scripting details, I will launch it on the floor.

V:  Why traditional music is not much promoted by T-series?
D: I agree that traditional music is not promoted in the way it should be promoted because in the end we have to look at the profitability and sadly traditional music does not yield rich dividends as compared to the other forms of music.
But every now and then, we do promote devotional themes & regional themes based on festivals.                       

V: T –series sees any competition.
D: Lots of Music Companies have come up but we hold the top position. But this doesn’t stop you from working & excelling yourself. We work to better ourselves.

V: Any plan to start an FM radio channel like your contemporaries.
D: No. we are so much occupied with the music and movie production business.

V: Your vision for T – series.
D: It’s the future of entertainment in India. I have made an ad film which mentions about the different things in entertainment that T-series offers apart from music and movies like home theatre system, appliances.

V: Your mantra for success and happiness
D: Work hard and Think positive.