Vinay-Radhika On Sanam Teri Kasam: Salman Khan Believed In Us – Exclusive
6 min read
Harshvardhan Rane and Mawra Hocane’s Sanam Teri Kasam’s re-release has been a full-circle moment for not the lead stars but for the director duo Vinay Sapru and Radhika Rao as well. While it didn’t quite find its footing at the box office when it was released initially, the re-release painted a different picture. After nine years, it has finally connected with the audience and the box office collections are soaring high.
In an exclusive conversation with Filmfare, Sapru and Rao reflect on the journey that brought them here, the hurdles they faced with marketing and the love they have received from fans over the years. Excerpts:
Did you anticipate this response from the audience upon the film’s re-release?
Vinay: Yes, we had anticipated this but during the film’s actual release. We realized it would be a blockbuster while we were writing the script because it is based on our traditions and culture. We were sure that the film wouldn’t fail. It is not a surprise that the film is doing well now. It is a surprise that it did not do well back when it was released. I wish the studio had supported it then so that we wouldn’t have waited for 9 years for this to happen.
Why did you choose this time to re-release the film?
Vinay: In these 9 years, there wasn’t a single moment when we were not connected with our audience and the fans of this film. They were following us on social media and constantly asking us to re-release the film. Radhika and I make cinema for the youth and that is our world. We make love stories and what better period than Valentine’s? So Sanam Teri Kasam, the tale of eternal love and Valentine goes very well. That’s the correct period to release it.
What kind of messages are you getting after the re-release?
Radhika: Someone told us that a girl fainted in the theatres while watching the film. A lot of people are also taking their parents to watch the movie. One of them told us that they took their mom to the theatre and told her to ensure that her father did not behave like the on-screen father. There is a scene at the end when Saru is dying and Inder gets up and sleeps next to her. He holds her before she dies and keeps lying next to her even after that which is a Shiv-Sati visual. It was similar to how Shivji mourned the loss of Sati. There is so much that is inspiring people and that’s what they are saying.
Was the film’s failure the fault of the marketers or the audience, too, did not show any support?
Radhika: Marketing failed and there were a lot of ivory tower critics as well.
Vinay: Radhika and I were sure about our story when we started writing it. This love story has no parental conflict, religious differences or anything of that sort. It is from our culture. It is an old story but not in a boring way. The satellite right of this is with Zee TV. They once told me that musicals do not work for them but whenever they play Sanam Teri Kasam, their TRP shoots up. So we said it’s because this is the tale of Shiva and Sati. The father cursing the daughter and her eventual death is right from our Puranic culture.
How did you deal with the marketing failure back then?
Radhika: I was heartbroken. There is no other word. I did not write for 6-8 months. Vinay is generally an optimistic person but I have phases when I am depressed and phases when I am happy. He had to get me out and say ‘let’s write’. He told me, ‘We wrote a good film and one day, on some platform, it will find its audience. We have to move on ahead’. There’s one thing we would have done differently and we want to tell this to anyone who is starting a business or anything. When we wrote this film, we decided that we would not get any writer from outside as we did not want to make it impure. We were so invested that we did not want anyone else. We did everything on our terms from writing to casting and shooting. The only thing which we did not do right was we stopped taking initiative once the film was made. We left it to others to take the film to the audience. We should have taken the initiative at that stage. There were a lot of people who believed in us including Salman Khan. If we had taken care of the endgame ourselves then this film would have achieved what it is achieving today.
Vinay: Himesh ji was the main contributor to the film’s soul. Which is the music of the film. We used to work on it till 3-4 in the morning. The original song Sanam Teri Kasam was done by RD Burman ji. We were creating a song which was going to be pitted against that. Himesh ji came out with the line ‘tu kheech meri photo’ at 2 am and made two singers come and sing. Neeti and Akasha. He was completely devoted to it. And we did not have a title. He gave us the title Sanam Teri Kasam. He had this title registered and gave it free of cost to us. After Sanam Teri Kasam’s failure back in 2016, it wasn’t just one person who suffered. It was Himesh ji, us, Mawra…
Mawra was picked out of more than 200 girls. What was the deciding factor?
Vinay: I read that clip of her where she says that she can cry the best. Yes, she would cry the best and look the best when she’s crying. But she did not know about it being a Shiv-Parvati story. She was just reacting to the story as an actor. The innocence and purity were there in her so we just told her to act well and cry well.
Radhika: Mawra has the purest soul. She is one of the nicest human beings we met, yet. What she shows is what she is. She carries her heart on her sleeve. We wanted a girl who was like a gust of wind. She was also very enchanted with India. She loved Indians and Indian music. She was correct inside and outside. Mawra was such a good girl and a good actress. So we both fell in love with her and that shows on the screen. We called her Mavu the Marvellous.
Regarding your work bond, is there a clash between the male and the female gaze while writing or directing?
Radhika: Vinay is my best buddy, so in the office, I boss over him. At his home, he has the most beautiful daughters, the sweetest wife and Ajji. He is the one man with four women in the house. Vinay doesn’t have any choice but to submit to the female gaze and he very happily does it. So there is no clash.
A long time back we were doing a song, ‘Yaad Piya Ki Ane Lagi’. I said I don’t like a girl who sings lines like ‘Yaad Piya Ki Ane Lagi, Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein’. But Vinay said that he would feel nice if a woman said this to him. So that was our different way of looking at it. He said let’s go with my feeling that it is a great line to tell somebody you love. So I gave in, we did the song and the rest is history.
See Also: Movie review: Sanam Teri Kasam
Vinay Sapru and Radhika Rao open up about the re-release of Sanam Teri Kasam. Continue reading …Read More
