Thursday 10 January 2013

Cutting Chai with Bhawana Somaaya - Day 9


Rock on Farhan
9. 1.2013, Mumbai

Today is Farhan Akhtar’s birthday. I have known Farhan since he was literally knee high, very funny and brimming with ideas. Then he had two passions. He loved food and he loved films. For a while Farhan enrolled in a college but soon got bored and dropped out. For a year or so Farhan did nothing except stay home and watch films.

His mother Honey Irani has often said that watching her young son lie all day in bed before TV worried her and she feared that he would do nothing constructive in life. She pleaded with her daughter Zoya to find her brother a job and Zoya put Farhan on to  AD Guru Adi Pocha.

It is said that Adi Pocha was vastly impressed with Farhan and predicted a great future for his protégée.  He told Shabana Azmi that Farhan has the making of a writer, director, actor and also a musician. ‘The conflict will be in making up his mind for a specific field and giving it single minded attention.’

Nobody believed Pocha at that time but a few years later Farhan surprised his parents with his debut script. His school friend Ritesh Sidhwani and he had decided to set up a production company. The result was Dil Chahta Hai and the rest is history.

Rock On launched Farhan as an actor and a musician and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobbara as a reciting poet.  Life seemed like a celebration but the best was still to come.

Rakesh Omprakash Mehra offered Farhan a role of a lifetime Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. The film is releasing this year and the promos on air very promising.

It has been barely a decade since Farhan began his journey in cinema and he has achieved so much already.  Farhan has proved what his guru had predicted – an all rounder and what is further flattering is that the creative process involved no conflicts.

Bhawana Somaaya/ www.bhawanasomaaya.com

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