Fourth time lucky?
SUBHASH JHA
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Ekta Kapoor has hit gold with her latest `Kya Kool Hain Hum!'
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HIT PRODUCER : Ekta Kapoor
"Sometimes I feel 60 years old," says TV tycoon Ekta Kapoor who turned 30 on June 7. "Between casting and scripting I had no time to take even the birthday calls, let alone celebrate. Sometimes when I look at my dad's worried face - `Iss lakdi ka kya hoga?' - I wonder if it is worth it. I've no time for friends, no time to develop relationships anywhere except in my soaps where, as you must have noticed, the family trees are getting really entangled." That's Ekta for you. Utterly into her world and yet able to see the lighter side of success ... even of the staggering variety that she has attained.
Film production
The one blind spot in her reputation as India's youngest female tycoon was film production. `Kya Kool Hain Hum' has taken care of that. "After three duds as a producer (`Kyunkii Main Jhooth Nahin Bolta,' `Kuchh To Hai' and `Krishna Cottage'), I finally have a hit on my hands, never mind a raunchy hit, as I'm constantly reminded. I'm not ashamed or apologetic about `Kya Kool...' It was always meant to be a sex comedy. Audiences couldn't have gone to it thinking it was a mythological [film]."
Now Ekta really warms up to the topic. "And how come we giggle and chuckle at the off-colour humour in `American Pie,' but faint in horror at the same in a Hindi film?"
Speaking of horror, Ekta isn't giving up that genre. "My mom looks at me with horror each time I mention making another horror film. But I love horror films. I love Ram Gopal Varma's cinema. That's what I'd like to make. But for now I've decided to make two films. One will be a romantic comedy with my brother Tusshar and a new girl in the lead. We'll launch a nation-wide star hunt for the new girl in collaboration with a TV channel."
Lucky Tusshar. Behen ho to aisi. "Yeah I love my Tusky," Ekta gets as mushy as one of the ladies in her soap. "In fact I postponed my birthday party by a week for my brother who is out of the country... And by the way, I've thought of the ideal return gift for him... a sequel to `Kya Kool Hain Hum!' Ha ha."
No that isn't a joke. Tusshar gets to team up with Riteish again for a sequel. "I had to do it!" protests the TV-turned-film-magnate. "They were clamouring for it. Tusshar and Riteish have become such a hit pair. They've been offered four films together." That's more than the hit pair of the season, Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra, is doing. Ekta chuckles at the thought.
"I guess a sequel was inevitable. Sangeeth Sivan will direct again. And let me assure you, this time the script will be absolutely original." Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one before. `Kya Kool Hai Hum' was ripped off from Robert Benigni's `The Monster.'
"So you caught us out. What to do, Bhai? There is so little originality left in our films. I think my soaps are more original than the films being made these days."
Speaking of her soaps, a new star has been born on one of them. "My new soap for Sony `Kaisa Yeh Pyar Hai' has given a new lease of life to Iqbal Khan. When he came to me he had already done a few feature films and was hesitant to do a soap. Look at what TV has done for him!" quips Ekta.
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