Anurag Basu sets rumors to rest

As the release date of Kites inches closer rumors are flying fast and hard that Anurag Basu had huge fights with Rakesh Roshan and Hrithik Roshan, over creative differences. There were talks also of how the relationship between Anurag and Kangana Ranaut, his blue-eyed girl has changed…which is supposedly the reason for her 'short' role in Kites.

The director gives his version behind all these stories.

Hrithik threw tantrums before you:
Not at all. I never felt like I was working with a superstar. He never threw tantrums or behaved like a snob. I had a great rapport with him. You know, to be honest I myself had heard that Hrithik is a die-hard professional and gets finicky about the minute of details. So I just told him, Hrithik just trust me. From that day on Hrithik never came up to the monitor to see the shots at all! Then one fine day he came up to me and asked- Anurag can I see the monitor I want to check out my dance moves. I said – yeah sure why are you taking my permission. To this Hrithik replied with a confused expression – I thought you were the one who told me to trust you and leave it at that. To this I laughed out loud and and said, yes, exactly, I just want you to trust me. But that doesn't mean you can't see yourself in the monitor …you don't need to take my permission for that, you can check out your moves anytime you want to!

Kangana is not much in the promos because your relationship with her has gone sour.
Kangana Ranaut has always been a part of my movies. She's very comfortable with me to keep mum and be miffed about certain things. Anything, she'd come straight away and clarify it with me. When she came to know I'm working with the Roshans for a new film she said- Hey are you making a new film Anurag. Am I in it? I said Kangana the requirement is of a Spanish speaking girl. She would be the lead. She was like is there any role at all of an Indian girl. I replied yes but it's a cameo. She said – Common now, put my name for guest appearance, I'm doing it. So you see her role is a cameo role and the promotions have to give an impression of just that. If she would get more footage in the promotional videos then it would give out the impression that the story is a love triangle which it's not.

You were insecure working with Rakesh Roshan:
In fact, for me, it was an honor to get to work with such an experienced film maker. When I worked alone, there were certain moments of self-doubt, where I questioned myself have I done this thing in a good way? Could it have been better? But here, during the scripting stage, many of my ideas were questioned not just by Rakesh ji but also by Duggu (Hrithik).This is where, yes, I think, there were arguments, loud ones at times, but not fights. But it was good because when I had convinced them my point of view and they understood, it just made my idea all the more valid. And all the arguments made the script's creativity more viable. It was a nice feeling to move away from a dictator kind of filmmaking to a democratic kind of film making (laughs).

Reporter and Author: Susan Jose