Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s second directorial venture Rang De Basanti, which released in 2006, is a cult classic. However, the filmmaker reveals that he was quite stressed when it was about to release, and he was not sure about its climax. “I could not sleep properly because I felt that the ending was not right. Aamir (Khan) was also getting married at that time, and AR Rahman was making the music in Chennai, and I was shuttling between all that. My wife Bharathi and I were very busy back then. So it was my little daughter Bhairavi who went and represented us at the wedding because Aamir felt it was not good that we were disturbed,” he shares.
Not only was the film a huge success at the box office, but it has also ended up becoming a modern cult classic. “It is 16 years now. It feels good. If your child is growing up, it does. When you look back now, you feel happy that you have done this work. Whether the film works or not at the box office is irrelevant. The biggest learning is that it gives you permission to fail. Your success is because of your failures,” explains Rakeysh.
He recently released his book called The Stranger in the Mirror. Incidentally, Rakeysh’s first film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpayee and Raveena Tandon was called Aks, which means mirror. The book is basically his autobiography. The foreword in his book has been given by Rahman, and Aamir has given the afterword. “It generally tracks my journey from childhood till today with all my films. Unlike normal autobiographies, this one has many narrators – Rahman, Aamir, Amitabh, Sonam (Kapoor), Waheeda Rehmanji, Atul (Kulkarni), Raveena and others. It is about their experiences of working in the movies with me and my life journey so far,” Rakeysh says.
He is now awaiting the response to his book from the people. “I have got compliments from people I know, from my colleagues and friends. Mr Narayana Murthy has written a testimonial too. Amish Tripathi and Shekhar Kapur have also liked it, but the chapters about my family are the closest to me. Now I want to know what the other readers have liked and not liked. The latter is more important,” he adds.
His last release Toofaan, starring Farhan Akhtar released on an OTT platform earlier this year to a good response. So, what story is he planning now? “I wake up every morning and ask myself the same question,” Rakeysh concludes.
