Rohit Shetty might be one of the most sought-after directors in the country and the highest paid, but he still manages to make time for things he enjoys. And being the son of a stuntman, he loves to host the TV show Khatron Ke Khiladi! We caught up with the director to talk about his second season of KKK and his next few films. Read on for excerpts...
Taking over the reins of hosting from Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra, you managed to take the show further..
(Cuts in) I was really scared! Priyanka and Akshay had done it and they are huge superstars. I am a director, all said and done. You cannot compare me with them because they have a superior fan following which I cannot even think of competing with. The show was not doing well. So we started working on the format and we realised why it was not as interesting. So we changed it. Previously, there were 13 people trying the same stunts. So after a point, it was becoming tiring and lethargic for the audience to watch the same thing 13 times. When we changed the format, it was difficult initially because it meant doing three different stunts in a day. Then, we thought of bringing in humour, a little bit of reality and a little bit of characterization. The last season was not just big for me but for the contestants. A lot of known people came in the last season. We had Gauahar, Kushal and this season we have Ashish, Sana, Chang and that packaging has worked.
What are the new things you have incorporated this season?
We have a team which does the research on what worked last season. So we definitely have all of it and we have devised some new stunts. There would be more stunts this season because we don't want things to be monotonous. This time, we will have more reptiles on the show because I personally feel kids love these. And that was something I wanted.
Have you ever taken a stunt from the show and placed it in your film?
No, not really. We have taken stunts from the movie into the show but not vice versa. I will explain why. In a movie there is a story involved and we cannot film a particular sequence if it doesnt fit in with that. Also, the length of the sequence is bigger. Yahaan stunts mein gadbad hona hi hai because here, it is about competition, about who's performing well and who's not! So I don't think you can implement them in films. There will be an episode where the contestants will try out Bollywood stunts. We will have the car stunts from my films, then there will be the Dhoom 3 stunt which Chang and Sana will perform — the one where Aamir was seen walking down a building.
Fusing your staple dose of action with entertainment was always your agenda..
Because who is watching the show? The audience! They love entertainment and that is why my films work so well. Whether you make people laugh or you scare them, the audience reaction is very important. There are a lot of saas bahu serials which we may not like but there are doing well because there are audiences who are watching it everyday because it connects with them.
You were scripting for your next film when you were shooting for KKK. Did you take your script team with you?
Yes, at times the team travels with me. So once I am done with the shoot, we sit and discuss the ideas. This happens as I am working back-to-back. So once I finish my film, I get into doing KKK and at the same time, I am finishing the pre-production of my next film. Last year, March 1, I came back from Khatron... and March 12, I started shooting for Singham Returns. My team is actually planning for my films when I am not there.
Has your film with SRK also been planned similar way?
Yes, but it happened way before Singham... People don't get to know that because nobody knows where I am going, what I am doing. I don't go out much. Our planning goes on for two years in advance. So what I am doing with Shah Rukh, we started that almost three years ago on a script level.
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