Hmmnn!
We’d heard strange tales of casting couches and Subhash Ghai’s keen
interest in couches. Our antennae went up briefly, too, until we heard the
shocking truth. SG was indeed into couches. But it’s not what the dirty
side of our mind wants to believe, dearies. It’s what Subbi baby really
wants to use — his keenly analytical brain, to play psychoanalyst —
and we all know that involves a couch and lots of talk.
Truly, Mr G has this amazing
knack of ‘sizing up’ (no pun intended, yaar) people within few
minutes of meeting them. And he doesn’t stop at that. He goes deep into
their characters, analyses this and that, and finally comes out with a hilarious
summary.
Sample
this:
The time SG put his Yuvraaj cast of
Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor and Zayed Khan on the couch (thankfully, not together)
his comic psychoanalysis had us in splits. He told us of how when he narrated
the Yuvraaj script to his trimurti lead (Zayed, Anil and Salman), their
reactions were so different, they were akin to a stand-up comedy. Explains SG:
“When I narrated the script to Zayed, he kept looking at my clothes,
slicking his hair and straightening his own shirt. Then he asked me, ‘What
is my style in the film?’ I was amused.”
But then that’s his
focus also, his style, look, projection, etc., says SG. Then he narrated the
script to Anil, who in his usual pensive style kept looking at the script and
leafing through the pages, and then he asked Ghai, “How is my character
going to be shaped? How much justice will he get?” Yeah, this is AK, the
lambi race ka ghoda, the star who will never lose the race. “He wants
perfection in his role and a defined character. He looks for longevity in
career,” smiled SG.
Now
hang on girlies, we’re coming to hottie Sallu next. He was obviously the
most entertaining of ‘em all. Ghai says, “At first he looked like he
wasn’t interested, he kept staring out at a bird on a tree and whistling
at it, while the birdie whistled back. I thought he’d not even heard out
the story. But at the end of the narration he stood up, discussed a few details
— he’d paid attention to every word, and bird; turned to me and said
casually, ‘Let’s start shooting.’ That was a total surprise.
He just seemed distracted, but he’d absorbed every detail. And with Salman
you have to make that heart connect, if you touch that chord...it’s a
Yes!” Howzzat, guys... the story of ‘Three Men and Ghai’.
Well, we’re gonna ask Robert De Niro if he’s interested in making
‘Analyze Them’. With apna Ghai playing ‘doctor, doctor’
of course.