I don't think of negative things in my life: Gauhar Khan

Share your experience of working with Gemma (Atkinson) and Caterina (Murino),  famous as Bond girl.

Oh! the best experience, because they are not only great professionals, they are also amazing human beings. Both are very large hearted individuals, very lovable. Caterina and I became close friends, in fact, we cried a lot while she was leaving India after the promotions.

When you shoot an entire movie in a foreign location, what are the advantages or disadvantages you face?   

The advantage is that you get to complete the movie in a single shoot, because you cannot afford to go back and forth. Although in this film we went three times to Switzerland. The big disadvantage is that just in case if you miss something while shooting, it becomes very difficult to try and match it later. Continuity has to be matched every time. The other disadvantage is that you work load increases. You cannot say 'I'm not going to shoot for more than 8 or 10 hours', you have to make use of the time efficiently, maximise it.

What will you do if you wake up one day to find all your memories missing?

I can't think! I don't think of negative things in my life (laughs). I don't think 'what will I do if I lose my memory', no!, I'm fine, my memory is fine, Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God).

Will you go back to sleep again and try and wake up differently?

Well, I dream a lot, but I only remember the good dreams. So, I see my life in a very good light, rather than thinking of anything negative.
  

After your last film Ishaqzaade, you went back to telly and did a reality show. Was it an easy decision?

I'm not a person who just belongs to one medium. I belong to all mediums. I have done stage, which is 1200 shows of Zangoora (a Bollywood musical), this is my fourth film now...the fifth, I have already shot for. I have done several songs...and I do TV. I am loved on television. So, I'm lucky. I can do whatever I want, the stage doesn't matter. You need to do your work properly, that matters.

You also put away your dancing shoes for this movie. Was it difficult to not break into a jig?

No, not at all! You are playing a character and if the character does not demand you to dance, I'm not going to dance, even tough I'm a great dancer, but that's Gauhar Khan, that's not Kaavya Choudhary (her character in the movie Fever).

Any director you would have loved working with? Can be people who are not there any more.

There are many directors I love. I love Anurag Basu, I love Imtiaz Ali, I love Sriram Raghavan. He is my absolute favourite. I love Sanjay Leela Bhashali. I would love to work with all of them! But it all depends on the opportunity. I didn't know that I'm going to work with multiple National Award winning director Srijit Mukherji, it just happened to be. See, the choices I make, I always believe that somebody somewhere will notice me and say 'accha is ladki main thoda dum hain'. So, that was Srijit Sir, and he saw the potential in me and I'm a part of 'Begum Jaan' (the Hindi adaptation of Mukherji's Tollywood movie Rajkahini). I never dreamt of that!

Are you big on Bengali films? Do you watch them?

I haven't. To be honest, I haven't watched any Bengali film. But, Srijit Sir has promised me that he's going to give me the DVD's of all his films and I'm going to watch them.

So do you plan to be a regular viewer of Bengali movies from now on?

Of course! I will watch them from now on. In fact I saw a lot of songs while we were in Bolpur and all the Bengali channels used to play these amazing songs and I told Srijit Sir, I said, "aap loghon ki budgets toh bade acche hotey hain Bengali films main, like you all are going to all foreign locations and shooting" and he was like "yeah, yeah, it's really grown" and I was like "wow"! Pretty impressed.

Do you get nervy before the release of a film?

I think any person will have a few sleep less nights before the release of his or her film for sure.

How many sleepless nights have you had so far?

Last night I couldn't sleep (laughs), I couldn't sleep.

Do you think the Indian audiences are maturing with each passing year?

Of course! There are more content driven films that are being accepted. Smaller budget films, that might not be promoted in a big way, but if the script is good, the word of mouth increases and the film does well.

If that's what you are saying, how do you justify movies like 'Waiting' not doing so well, while some masala films rake up big bucks?

Well, that is a debate that we can go on and on about... You can't justify that, because eventually it's the audience who's making a film a hit or a flop. So, I think any film in any genre is somewhere got to do with some kind of entertainment. Even if you are trying to give a serious message, people only watch it to be able to give those two hours of their lives to the film. So, it has to worthy of those two hours. That's what matters.

Image by: Souvik Das/IBNS