Jackky in 'Ajab Gazabb Love' is like Salman of 'Maine Pyar kiya': Sanjay Gadhvi

New Delhi: ‘Ajab Gazabb Love’ is going to face a tough competition at the box office as it is releasing with Prakash Jha’s ‘Chakravyuh’ and Shamin Desai’s ‘Rush’ on October 24. However the director of ‘Ajab Gazabb Love, Sanjay Gadhvi, is quite confident about his film. He talks about his film, the creative process of filmmaking and the changes in his life after coming out of the Yash Raj camp.

Q: Is ‘Ajab Gazabb Love’ a regular love story?

A: The basic thing is that a director looks for a story where a boy meets a girl, they fall in love, and then something happens and they get separated only to meet in the end. This is the standard formula, but you are constantly in search of a new angle in it, this is what Karan Johar, Imtiaz Ali, Aditya Chopra and others are doing. So, I also spotted an angle in the story that Vashu Ji narrated to me.

Sanjay Gadhvi talks about \'Ajab Gazabb Love\' and the changes in his life after coming out of the Yash Raj banner.

There is a boy from a super-rich family. He falls in love with a girl who doesn’t like rich people, then he decides to present himself as a poor guy. The problem starts when the girl wants to meet his family. The boy’s family’s only reference to poor people is films, now he says that I have a blind mother, father works in a mill, drunkard brother etc and now the family has to be the same. However, nobody knows about the reality of the girl’s family.

Q: From ‘Tere Liye’ to ‘Ajab Gazabb Love’, your career seems to be following the right trajectory.

A: (Smiles) Recently, I was looking back at my career graph and I realised that I have done very different films. ‘Tere Liye’ was about teenagers and their growing up years, ‘Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai’ was like ‘DDLJ’, made for Uday Chopra, ‘Dhoom’ was an action film, ‘Dhoom 2’ was an action love story, ‘Kidnap’ was a serious drama, and now ‘Ajab Gazabb Love’, so I am satisfied. I think the person who I have worked under Anant Balani, he was very good at creating emotional scenes, so I think I focus on the portrayal of the characters.

Q: Do you give instructions to your actors to look super fit? Bipasha, Aishwarya, Hrithik, Uday, all have fabulous bodies.

A: Even when ‘Kidnap’ released, Minissha was looked upon as a hot chic. Her image of the girl next door was changed, even in ‘Ajab Gazabb Love’ all I said Jackky that we are going to shoot a song on a yacht where you might need to remove your shirt. An actor needs a small push from the director and he came up with such a body.

Q: What did you spot in Jackky Bhagnani before casting him in ‘AGL’?

A: I watched ‘FALTU’ very carefully and realised that he is certain earnestness in his real self. His eyes are very mischievous, he is like how Salman was in 'Maine Pyar Kiya'.

Q: And why Nidhi Subbaiah?

A: We wanted to take Arjun Rampal, Arshad Warsi, Kirron Kher and Darshan Jariwala and a star heroine could have made it difficult in terms of dates, so we wanted someone new.

Q: How is life outside the Yash Raj banner?

A: It’s not difficult; it’s just that my contract was over so I had to move on. I don’t want to be safe and secure all the time, life at Yash Raj was very smooth. Once the script is locked, you just need to shoot but I wanted a little uncertainty.

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