Kabir Khan’s workshop atop Kabul Express – Part 2 (Kissing on the sets of Kabul Express !!!)
Kabir Khan’s workshop atop Kabul Express – wanna ride ??? Part 2 (Kissing on the sets of Kabul Express !!!)
Ok everyone, continuing from the previous post here here comes the second part… with more Q&As and few words about Taliban Years and Beyond (TYB). Also, it dispells some of the sterotypes that some of us might be having about Afghans…
Q) Have you made the film keeping in mind any international audience ??? Any market in mind ?? Will it or will it not work in Meerut ??
A) I’m not sure if it will reach everyone. That remains to be seen. I’ve made the film as per my sensibilities. There’s no category when it comes to cinema. If it’s a story well told, it will reach out to a large audience.
Rang De Basanti on paper is a multiplex film. But it has reached out to everyone !!
I don’t classify cinema as multiplex or festival or interiors. I just made the film the way I wanted to make.
We will see how KE does.
You cannot start putting in elements consciously.
EG: Jungle, the film is pretty good. But what is the purpose for the song “Do pyaar karney waale jungle mein” ?? You have bandits searching the hero heroine in a jungle and why do you need a song there ???
It destroyed the film.
Every story has its style. Make the film the way it should be made
There should be no conscious element to cater to
-festival
-crossover NRI
-Meerut
Q) How did you script KE ???
A) Scripting KE was easier (as compared to other doumentaries). It depended a lot on personal experiences. It will be logical if the script is based on personal experiences (KK says – OZ I SEE YOU JUMPING IN DELIGHT AT THIS COMMENT !!!)
Yes I would scale it down and scale it up on ocassions.
EG: There’s this scene when the Mujahadeen meets the Indians (John and Arshad) for the first time when they are dropped from a Helicopter. And the first thing he does when he meets them is ask about Indian Cinema (KK says- either actors or singers I forgot)…
That is based on personal expericences. During the shooting of TYB We (Me and Ranjan) were stuck in Tajakhistan for 14 days. We bribed a Russian helicopter to drop us at in Afghanistan and he literally kicked us out of the chopper
when we reached the destination.
A Mujahideen saw us and when he came to know that We’re Indians, he STARTED SINGING HINDI FILM SONGS !!!
So It’s not really a biographical film, but it is loosely based on personal experiences.
Q) Did you actually take actors from Afghanistan ?? Are there ANY actors in Afghanistan ???
A) Afghanistan had a film industry before the Taliban government banned it (due to fundamentalistic Islamic reasons). The actors then ran away. Post Taliban, they came back.
Now there are attempts to even start film schools in Afghanistan. There are theaters etc.
Khyber(Hazam) – the main Afghan character in the film an Afghan actor. The Taliban had imprisoned him and beaten him up for being an actor !!! He sold his house and bought Kalshnikov rifle and bribed them, and somehow managed to run away to Iran/Iraq in 2001.
Now he has come back of course !!
But let me assure that all the scenes with the Afghans were a joy. Even the small parts were performed by Mujahadeens !! The non actors were taken through workshops. They turned out to be amazingly natural !!!
Q) Did you have any reference point (in terms of other films etc) while making this film ???
A) No. The biggest reference point was my experiences in Afghanistan. Almost every one in the film is inspired by a real character I’ve met during TYB.
Khyber hated the Taliban and he hates Taliban in the film too !!
Actors went through the same feelings and exactly same experiences in the film.
The only reference was “Osama” – the film. It is the first Afhgan film in Afghanistan post Taliban.
TYB was a reference too.
Q) Afghan hospitality or hostility ?? ‘Kissing on cheeks’ ???
A) ‘Kissing on cheeks’ as a demonstration of affection/hospitality is not just in Afghanistan, but also in Central Asia. We got used to it slowly.
JOHN WAS KISSED ALMOST 100 TIMES EACH DAY BY 6FEET TALL BEARDED STRAPPING AFGHANS…. !! They were so hosptable. (KK says- Yikes !!! Wonder what the girls have to comment about that !!)
Q) If you hadn’t got Arshad and John in the film, would you have got the funds ??
A) They believed in the script and their chatracters. They have no role in funding. I spent 10 months trying to convinve producers even after I got John and Arshad.
After that there was a screening of Taliban Years and Beyond.
The only documentary I’ve seen in my life is Micheal Moore’s Farhenhit 9/11. Thjis was a tryst with documentary after a looooooong time. It turns out that a documentary is like you have some images playing .. some scenes being shown and a Voice Over. There were some scenes of fully burkha clad Women being beaten up by fundamentalists, interviews with landmine victims, women, terrorists etc etc … Basically everything that you ever associate with Afghanistan these days.
After the taliban regime collapsed, there were scenes of normalcy and ‘recreational activites’ like a horse game called Burkshi (which apparently is also shot in KE), cock fights, people getting their photographs clicked, women slowly doing away with the burkha, girls schools being reopened, women going back to their jobs, cinema theaters being reopened etc.
(AND YES .. THEY ARE BIG TIME HINDI CINEMA FANS. THE MOVIE BEING SHOWN THERE WAS AN OUTDATED FEROZ KHAN FILM – YALGAAR… AND IT WAS RUNNING TO FULL HOUSES. YALGAAR IS SHOLAY IN AFGHANISTAN. HECK ANY FILM IS SHOLAY IN AFGHANISTAN!! PASSION FOR CINEMA IN AFGHANISTAAN !! WOW
Ok the last comments are not to be taken seriously if any afghan is reading this article. No fatwas please !!! )
Anyways, after the film ended, Kabir came back on stage and there was another round of Q&As.
to be concluded in part 3 :-)
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Karthik:
Coming weekend you are going on the sets of No smoking along with Manjeet.
please check John Abraham’s cheeks if they have not become baron and still fertile enough to grow beard even after 100 afgani powerfull kisses on a daily basis.:)
I would rather let the new female writers of PFC do that !!!
Wow .. can’t imagine 100 kisses … not even by women … let alone bearded afghans !!!
really looking forward to the movie’s release.. thanks boss.
god! karthik, are you getting anything out of writing about the film?! :-?
this is the best ever publicity it could get =d>
btw, when is it releasin?
- it’s interesting to note how Kabir still had problems in getting finance for the movie even after John and Arshad Warsi were onboard. Anurag faced similar problems for No Smoking in spite of John being onboard too. And I’m no doubt very glad that Kabul Express sticks to Kabir Khan’s personal experiences and does not wander away to jhatkas, matkas and latkas of 50 people doing PT exercises in Switzerland. I believe quite a few “realistic” movies made in the past would have had the desired had not the dances and mind boggling sequences added to the movies because of pressure from distributors and financers… Here’s wishing Kabir Khan the best!
Another intersting quote came from Aditya Chopra where he picked Kabul Express because he wanted to “walk out of his comfort zone”… I hope he takes many more such walks… it’s so clear to see how many hassles of Kabir Khan just evaporated once Yash Raj took over the production of the movie.
- Tushar, please don’t put any corrupt ideas in Kartik’s brain as it is, I already owe him half a container of beer and alcohol for what he has done so far… I hope he does not see your comment or he will want me to attach a 20 dollar bill with each of those beer bottles. :-”
right said Oz. many a films need that kinda backing to get goin. i hope YRF ‘runs’ or ‘jogs’ instead of mere walks. its high time they should.
i strongly suspect though they would resist the temptation of puttin a KAAL kinda campaign n even an item number for TV promo might be in store..:(
but i must say its a tough terrain, commercial cinema meetin personal satisfaction, tight rope would be an understatement.
arshad warsi n john r rightly tryin to make it possible(no smoking,water,sehar, waisa bhi hota hai)
and regardin karthik, do u still have any doubts if his mind is not corrupt enuff?!!
:-j:-j
and if u r gettin lil more generous with the booze, do send me my share too! [-o<
altman is dead.I am in complete shock.
I am very attached to his movies.
God..i really feel so lonely.where will people go
after they die?
somone talk something.
Its difficult to comprehend how much film lovers lost today.
I am not showing off.today is really a bad day.
i got to get drunk.fuck.
- TD, I read the news an hour ago… Robert Altman on imdb -
http://imdb.com/name/nm0000265/
The man was 81 years old. It’s a miracle he survived this long after a heart transplant. One who is born has to die. May he rest in peace.
Oz,what people lost today is this example of a director who said fuck off to the studio system and still made great films for 50 yrs.
Actors kill to work in his films.He is one of the greatest actors directors.
He is the ultimate rebel in the history of american movies. Mcabe and Mrsmiller. I preserve that tape like a swiss account.
Kartik..good to read your post..good effort..told you will be reading.
kabul express has finally come up with a video feat john n arshad croonin n swayin to the beats of ‘kabul fiza’.
instead of being an item number which i anticipated, the song is pretty cool, and done without commercializin the film too much.
m checking out the soundtrack, its pretty cool.
finally listenin to somethin other than guru for a change