R. Balki: "If I Had A Boy, He Would Be Like Arjun Kapoor"

Usually, when journalists interact with celebrities or filmmakers, they are the ones driving the interview in the desired direction, and having mastered these skills, I stepped into R. Balki’s office thinking it would be the same. But with the spunk in his very first answer, I realised that he was a hard nut to crack. By the end of the interaction, the results were clearly drawn. The fish in the pond was me.

- Nawaz Kochra

Making a film requires a lot of conviction and dedication, but to make a good film, one also needs attention to detail. I learnt this when I saw how particular R Balki was with his answers, he exactly knew what to say and how much, and where he would phase out his point. That is a quality good directors possess. With films like Cheeni Kum, Paa, Shamitabh and the latest Ki & Ka to his name, a thought crossed my mind, that like Karan Johar considers Kajol his lucky mascot, was it the same with R Balki and Amitabh Bachchan, since we have the Bachchan presence in all his movies so far? 

He cleared the air saying, “How can I call Amitabh Bachchan my lucky mascot? He is the lucky mascot for the whole film industry. Without him, the Hindi film industry wouldn’t be this today. I’m very fortunate that he said a yes to whatever I asked him to do.”That’s true, R Balki is fortunate. But did the mixed reviews his film Ki & Ka got, irk his bliss? Why did he choosea concept like this? How did he get the idea? Balki had yet another counterpoint ready, “What’s the point in labouring over any film, unless you try and do something different, at least to the best of your ability? So I always try. The concept just came to me when I was staring outside the window.”