Recently, Govinda came to your show, Zee Comedy Show. How did the shoot go?
It was so much fun! We danced to Kisi disco mein jaaye… He came for the shoot on time and was ready before I got hyper. I have known Govinda for over four decades. When we meet, we talk about my grandmother, his mother, my dad, his sister (Padma). She was my neighbour when I used to live in Nehru Nagar Society. Govinda used to come to my place then and dance with my troupe. Everybody feels Hrithik and Shah Rukh Khan are fabulous dancers, but for me Govinda is the number one dancer. He is a delight to watch. I cannot choreograph the way he dances. We have never worked together, not because I didn’t want to work with him, but because I thought that I was not good enough to choreograph Govinda. In fact, he choreographed Shah Rukh and his section for the song Deewangi from Om Shanti Om, because I simply could not.
You are one of the few directors to complete film shoots much ahead of time…
I have realised maybe that’s not good because people then give me more work to do (laughs). They don’t let me relax. But on a serious note, I have always been like this. When I used to choreograph songs, they would call me the ‘producer’s choreographer’. If you are organised and need a hundred dancers, I will call them for one day and complete all their shots as I have done before. I don’t like wasting someone else’s money. Also, I always feel that I spend money where it shows. I like to be prepared before my shoots, of course, after Sonu’s music video I almost had a nervous breakdown because it was extremely hot in Chandigarh one day and poured buckets the next day, so we had to go back again.
You have helped a lot of people during the pandemic too. Tell us about it.
I don’t like talking about it. Few know about what I do and let’s keep it that way. I will have to do some things on social media for fundraisers for charity, but the rest I like to keep private. In fact, I think my daughter Anya has done so much for the animals during the pandemic. She goes every day to feed stray cats and dogs and asked for bags of cat food as her birthday gift. She has also raised funds to feed the strays sketching pets and selling their portraits to their owners.
