by Subhash K Jha

Q: Congrats, your production house has another success.
A: Yes Salaam Namaste is big. Specially overseas it's one of the biggest ever..simply mindblowing. In India too it's a big hit, though not as big as our Bunty Aur Babli. But Salaam Namaste went into an unconventional theme. If you make a film on a live-in relationship you are taking a risk and have to be ready for any eventuality.

Q: Salaam Namaste raised quite a few eyebrows.
A: Yes it has generated a lot of controversy. How long can we continue to make the same kind of films? Civilization is moving forward so rapidly it's very difficult for our cinema to keep up with the times.

We've six independent directors—Kunal Kohli, Siddharth Anand, Shaad Ali, Arjun Sablok, Sanjay Gadhvi and Shimit Amin-- making films for us.

They bring with them their own individual sensibilities and ideologies. I don't tell directors how to make films. They bring their scripts. If we like them we produce them. We've to let them make films the way they want to while Adi and I make the cinema we believe in .

Q: Yashraj Films's success ratio in recent times is unparalleled.
A: A success is so rare these days. The days of silver and golden jubilees are over. If a film does well in Mumbai, Delhi and overseas, the producer feels successful and happy.

If we make more money than what we invest in a film it's a success. How we do it and by tapping which channel of production we never know. We've now started two new productions Dhoom 2 and Fanaah.

The first has Aishwarya and Hrithik together and the second has Aamir and Kajol for the first time. We've almost completed Arjun Sablok's Neal & Nickie which we'll be releasing in December. After that Yashraj Films will be releasing Rakesh Roshan's Krissh, in some centres, and Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna.

Q: Is it true that a contract was made whereby Aishwarya Rai was asked to wear a bikini for Dhoom 2?
A: (laughs) This is the first time I'm hearing about this. But yes, Aishwarya did offer to work on herself. Every artiste wants to look his or her best on screen. What's wrong with that? She asked for a few months for some physical training. She starts shooting for Dhoom 2 as soon as Hrithik comes back from the shooting of Krissh.

What Aishwarya has to wear has been told to her from beforehand. When we signed Esha Deol for Dhoom we were conscious that she was Hema Malini's daughter. Aditya worked out Esha's look. And we showed the look to Hemaji and Esha. They were taken into confidence. And look at what Dhoom did to Esha!

Q: How important is marketing for a movie?
A: Very important. But you can't sell a product that the audience doesn't want. Out of the 150-200 films being released per year the audience chooses to go to theatres for 10. You've to make sure you bring the audiences in to see those 10 films through promotion and marketing.

Word-of-mouth publicity is a myth. The only recent film that ran by this method was my elder brother B.R. Chopra's Baghban. It was such a brilliant subject. My brother lived with the idea for twenty years.

Q: You recently turned a year older.
A: Mentally I feel younger and younger every year. I feel I'm at the most 36 years old, not just as a filmmaker but as a humanbeing.