Click to play videoFilmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker's What's Your Raashee? starring Priyanka Chopra and Harman Baweja is going to hit the big screen soon. There is a lot of buzz going on about Priyanka's 12 characters and the film's unique storyline. CNN-IBN Entertainment Editor Rajeev Masand caught up with the trio in an exclusive interview. The team of What's Your Raashee? responded to the questions of our viewers and their fans.
Rajeev Masand: Ashutosh, a fan from Ranchi asks, what was the motivation to do a contemporary comedy film after achieving success with your sweeping dramatic films? And what is your way of de-stressing?
Ashutosh Gowariker: In a way, yes. Well, that was the initial plan but when finally when I decided I wanted to do a romantic-comedy film to de-stress, it wasn't a de-stress, it was a stress-on.
Priyanka Chopra: Ashutosh can't do anything simple, it's not possible.
Rajeev Masand: Priyanka, a fan from Navi Mumbai asks, what was the hardest part about playing 12 characters in one film?
Priyanka Chopra: Well, I think the most difficult part was to keep them all real people and not let any one of the characters become a caricature. It's because I'm just one person and I just have that many personality traits. So, to be able to move out of who I am as a personality and shift on to someone else, understanding their upbringing and environment, and to do that for 12 characters was extremely difficult.
Rajeev Masand: Were you paid 12 times as well?
Priyanka Chopra: I wish. I'm overworked and underpaid.
Rajeev Masand: Harman, everyone is talking about the twelve ‘raashees’ (zodiac signs) which Priyanka is representing in the film. What is the raashee of your character, Yogesh Patel?
Harman Baweja: Well coincidentally, Yogesh's and my raashee is Scorpio.
Rajeev Masand: Did that make it easier for you to play the character then?
Harman Baweja: Actually I didn't even know that Yogesh's raashee was Scorpio till I read the full script. So, I can relate a lot to Yogesh Patel, there are a lot of similarities between him and me.
Rajeev Masand: A fan asks the three of you, if you all believe in ‘rashees’, astrology? Do you take it as seriously as the characters in the film?
Ashutosh Gowariker: Well, I look at conveniences. If something is favourable, I'll follow it. But if something is not I won't.
Rajeev Masand: A lot of people are like that.
Priyanka Chopra: Everyone does that. If it's a great horoscope, it's mine and if not it's someone else's.
Harman Baweja: I agree.
Rajeev Masand: Priyanka, a fan asks, who is your favourite character of the 12 ‘rashees’ in the film and why?
Priyanka Chopra: There is a little bit of me in all the characters so I don't have much objectivity when it comes to them because I'm quite close to them. But my favourite is Jankana, who is a Capricorn. It's because she is a 15-year-old girl and it was very difficult for me to play her and make her look real. Playing her was the most challenging. When I walked on to the set in make-up to look like her, a few people didn't recognise me. I felt like I was in disguise. We haven't used any prosthetics in the film, which is why it was even more fantastic.
Rajeev Masand: Ashutosh, a fan from Bangalore asks, can you please cut down on the running time of your films?
Ashutosh Gowariker: I'm so sorry but I will not be able to take care of the fan's request. It's because the stories that I choose need a long screen time. I really feel that when you watch the movie, it's the content that needs to hold you. And if that is not the case even a two-hour film will seem like a five-hour film.
Rajeev Masand: Harman, a fan wants to know if you think What's Your Rashee should have been your debut film?
Harman Baweja: I think I'm proud of what I have done in the past. I think Love Story 2050 is very close to my heart and so is Victory.
Rajeev Masand: Ashutosh, a fan is curious if casting Priyanka in all 12 roles was a smart move or was it to save money?
Ashutosh Gowariker: No, I thought this because if Yogesh Patel is going to choose one girl out of the 12 different raashees, for the audience what will take precedence is the beauty. And I didn't want that to happen if I chose 12 actresses, I wanted the audience to know that ultimately Yogesh Patel was going to get Priyanka Chopra. So once he was assured of that he could sit back and watch the 12 characters and let those characters emerge.
Rajeev Masand: Priyanka, a fan wants to know, what is the strangest astrological prediction you have heard or read about yourself?
Priyanka Chopra: I read it when I was 17, it was predicted that I'm going to get married. So, my mother really freaked out. But I told her not to believe it.
Rajeev Masand: Harman, a fan asks, that now after a fairly thorough study of women in all sun signs can you say you understand women?
Harman Baweja: No way. I think if Linda Goodman was a man even she wouldn't have understood women. It will take a lifetime.
Rajeev Masand: Ashutosh, fans want to know, why is it that Hindi films are made with English titles?
Ashutosh Gowariker: Sometimes the script determines it. You might not find the right equivalent to the English phrase that you want to use. I could have named this film in Hindi but if I had done that it would have immediately sounded like not funky would have sounded more serious. However, the English title and a Hindi word gives it a zing. It's also the first time I'm using an English title.
Rajeev Masand: Priyanka, a fan wants to know, if you would marry someone if their sun sign was incompatible with yours?
Priyanka Chopra: Yes, I would. If I was in love with someone, their sunsign wouldn't matter to me.
Rajeev Masand: Ashutosh, a fan is curious to know if it was hard to work without AR Rahman this time?
Ashutosh Gowariker: Though it wasn't hard, it was heart-breaking. I'd gotten accustomed to working with Rahman and be with him and be part of the process of creating music. I was not expected to do a film so quick after Jodhaa Akbar. So when I went back to him and requested for 13 songs in two months, it was a daunting task for him as he had already committed to several projects. So with great heartache we decided to part on this one. Having said that I'm very glad that my search brought me to Sohail Sen. He's created the tracks we required keeping the raashees in mind. So, I hope the audience like it.
Rajeev Masand: Priyanka, a fan asks, how do you feel watching yourself on screen months or even years after shooting for that scene or film?
Priyanka Chopra: It's really strange when that happens because you are looking different and talking different. And now I would do those scenes differently. What I usually do is I don't watch it because what is done is done. It's strange because the person I see in the mirror is not the same person I'm on screen. You see it as the story and character but yet there is no sense of objectivity because it's you.
Rajeev Masand: What about films which are like old blasts from the past?
Priyanka Chopra: I don't watch them but I hope the audience does.
Rajeev Masand: What is the quality that makes films enduring and why is it that Lagaan isn't even dated today?
Ashutosh Gowariker: Certain emotions and issues are universal. They transcend through time, boundaries and everything. Though, you can't plan that it's a path, which you want to take. Sometimes you succeed in doing that and sometimes you don't. When you do succeed it's overwhelming.
Rajeev Masand: Harman, a fan wants to know if sunsign compatibility is important for you when you decide to get married?
Harman Baweja: Not particularly. If there is a great bind and if the families approve I wouldn't go into that. I'm a Sikh by birth so we don't even match kundalis (horoscopes). We just find a Sunday when the whole family is free and go and get married.
Ashutosh Gowariker: If you have an option of love you don't think about the other factors. But personally the knowledge of raashees is helping me understand my closest friends today.
Priyanka Chopra: Before this film I refused to believe that the entire world can be classified between 12 kinds of people. But now after the knowledge of raashees I can say that people with a particular sunsign have inherent similarities. It's uncanny. It's strange but true.
Rajeev Masand: Ashutosh, a fan asks why are you always so serious?
Harman Baweja: I would like to answer that. That is a conception, which is purely based on the cinema that precedes him. But he's funnier than Priyanka and I put together. What's Your Raashee? is a reflection of his personality because he's a really fun person to be with. He has a great sense of humour.
Rajeev Masand: Does this film then come close to what your mood is generally Ashutosh?
Ashutosh Gowariker: This is my true self. This is me.
Rajeev Masand: Ashutosh, lots of fans want to know about the incident at the IIFA awards 2009. Was that your idea of a joke or do you always speak what you feel.
Ashutosh Gowariker: I would always speak what I feel and this time it was in jest. It was a combination.
Rajeev Masand: Priyanka and Harman, tell us one thing about Ashutosh Gowarikar that no one knows?
Priyanka Chopra: It's that he is really funny. It's one thing people don't know about him.
Harman Baweja: It's true.
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