"I've missed television so much! Of course I continued my countdown show Ikke Pe Ikka On Zee...It's like Dilawale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at Maratha Mandir. But now after Heyy Babyy I'm hosting two film-based shows on two different channels. I'm also doing live events and judging a dance show. I've missed television, and how!"
As for the rumours about his next....
"I'm not making a sequel to Heyy Babby, rest assured," Sajid Khan is amused. "When I saw the announcement on television, I said, ok....this is what I am doing. In fact while we were shooting for Heyy Babyy in Australia, the idea of a sequel had come up. I said the film will work big time. But I knew I wouldn't want to do a sequel."
Right now Sajid is on a different track. "I want to make an actioner next. I've lived with this idea for very long. In fact this is the film I wanted to make first. But then the Heyy Babyy idea came up. I've been writing sequences for it in my head. And now I've to make it.
It's a very very big film and requires a gigantic budget. Maybe I'm getting too ambitious. But I want to make a spectacular actioner, budget being no constraint. But I've a generous producer Sajid Nadiadwala."
Sajid says the treatement of any genre would be sensible though larger-than-life. "I treated even the supernatural scene in Heyy Babyy (when Fardeen prays and a beam of light falls on the ill baby) sensibly. This is 2007.
What used to work for Subhash Ghai and which I used to love, won't work for today's audience. That kind of treatment would be considered tacky. Even the actioner I make will have an element of comedy. Because that's what people will expect from me. It would again qualify as a blockbuster."
Sajid is sure he wants to make it big. "I wouldn't want to make a film that I can be happy watching on
television. With due respect I wouldn't pay 400 rupees to watch Bheja Fry in a theatre.My films have to treat spectacle with dignity. You've to take cinematic liberties. The minute the heroes start singing a song realism is thrown out of the window. Everyone from James Cameron to Sajid Khan takes cinematic liberties."
Belying the belief that second films are far tougher than the first, Sajid says his next will be easier. "I'm a far more mature director now. And I can afford to take it easy for a while. I'll start the film when I'm ready. The only thing I need to do right now is lose all the weight that I gained. So I'm concentrating on losing weight and on fitting on the small screen."
