Three years after the hugely successful Heyy Babyy, director Sajid Khan returns with another comedy, Housefull. Joining Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh (who also starred in Sajid's debut film) in Sajid's new caper are Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Arjun Rampal, Jiah Khan Boman Irani, Randhir Kapoor and Chunkey Pandey. Sajid is very confident Housefull will screen to full houses. He tells Patcy N why. Excerpts: How did you get the idea of Housefull?
While we were celebrating the success of Heyy Babby and deciding what our next film should be, Milap Javeri --my screenplay writer on Heyy Babyy -- shared something that had happened to him. On the last day of college, he proposed to his girlfriend with a ring. She not only returned it; she also broke up with him before driving off on another boy's bike.
Milap was in love with her for two years. His heart broke when she rejected him. He started crying. The ring fell from his hand, he slipped on the ring and fell himself. His pant tore and a dog bit him. All this happened to him in the space of just five minutes.
I started laughing; I could easily imagine Akshay enacting such a scene. Milap said, 'Kaminey mere saath itni badi tragedy hui hai aur tu has raha hai (You rascal, such a big tragedy happened in my life and you are laughing)'. But I thought the whole incident was very funny; in real life, you sometimes find humour in pathos. It was a sorrowful event -- what happened with him was wrong but it was funny.
From that incident, we started developing the characters and a story -- what if Akshay is the world's biggest panvati (person plagued with ill-luck) and nothing in his life is ever good. Though he is a good man, everything bad happens to him. It took us 18-20 months to write the story and screenplay. Your first film Heyy Babyy was inspired from Three Men And A Baby and Rob-B-Hood
[Sarcastically] Have you seen Three Men and a Baby? What happened in that movie? Main chor hoon. Maine zindagi bhar sirf choriyaan ki hai (I'm a thief. All my life I have done nothing but steal). I have no original thought. I only plagiarise. I rob all the stories from world cinema. I rob stories and make films.
Whatever I am today is because I have robbed from others and made my name. Heyy Babby, the whole movie, was a copy. In fact, Housefull is also lifted from 50 movies -- that is what you are trying to say and this is what you wanted to hear, right [laughs]? [Sarcastically] Rediff par dekhiya aaj Sajid Khan ka khulasa. Yeh openly admit kar rahe ki inhone chori ki hai (Sajid Khan exposed on rediff. He openly admits he has plagiarised). This is what you wanted to hear, right?
I give an open challenge to anyone, anywhere in the world. Take the DVDs of Heyy Babyy and Three Men and a Baby and Rob-B-Hood -- which I have not seen till date because I am not a Jackie Chan fan, I stopped being his fan since the 80s because his cinema kept on going down and compare them.
Show me even one scene that is copied ditto -- like Mahesh Bhattsaab did in his films and Sanjay Gupta did in his movies -- shot-by-shot. If you show me even one scene, I will never make a film again. The scene diaper scene in Rob-B-Hood
There is a diaper scene in Three Men and a Baby? No in Rob-B-Hood, I said... I have not seen Rob-B-Hood till date. In which year was Rob-B-Hood released? Rob-B-Hood was released in October or November 2007 and, even if we think it was June, Heyy Babby released on August 24, 2007.
My whole making of the film is documented. I shot the diaper scene in February 2007 so did I enter Jackie Chan's brain in Hong Kong and copy the scene (Bo Bui Gai Wak, also known as Rob-B-Hood, released on September 28, 2006).
I want to ask you a question. Which is the greatest Hindi film ever made? Sholay, Mughal-E-Azam Sholay. Right. Have you seen Magnificent Seven? Have you seen Seven Samurai? Have you seen Once Upon A time In The West?
Even if we think that one of your favourite film is Munnabhai MBBS, have you see Patch Adams [laughs]? Let me tell you a truth. We grew up on cinema. That doesn't mean you copy the thoughts in your head. The English that you speak has been taught to you by somebody in school. Does that mean you are copying that person? No, right?
I have not seen Rob-B-Hood till date. Even if I have, I am not stupid. My name is Sajid Khan. Main doosre logo ka bhanda fodta hoon television par (I reveal other people's secrets on television). Am I so stupid that I will copy a scene from some other film? I made television programmes for four years and showed how others copied. What is lacking today in most people is what is taking our nation down -- common sense.
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