The director duo on production plans, Hollywood muses and yes, the most shocking thriller of the year...

Excerpts from the Interview:
 
A decade ago when you first started experimenting with edge-of-the-seat thrillers like Khiladi and Baazigar their novelty values attracted people in droves. But in the years since the genre has lost some of its appeal thanks primarily to a string of Hollywood-inspired, C-grade thrillers. In the present scenario how good a chance does Naqaab stand?

Abbas: Naqaab is unlike any thriller you’ve seen before. It has suspense, thrills and romance too. In fact, the film starts out like a love triangle. There’s this girl who’s in love with a rich guy. Then, another guy enters her life. Here the story takes an unexpected twist with the veils lifting off each character.

Mustan: We were the first to pioneer the trend and though today several other makers are experimenting with thrillers we are still pretty confident of Naqaab. A good film always runs...

How did the fascination for thrillers begin?

Mustan (With a smile):As children we would watch a lot of films. Vijay Anand’s Teesri Manzil was a favourite. Socials dragged but thrillers like Teesri Manzil were full of surprises. You were never bored. Every minute you expected something unexpected to happen.

So that’s why you have rarely strayed beyond the genre?

Abbas:We made a social too, Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, and it was well appreciated. Then there was Taarzan—The Wonder Car. (Smiling) We’ve become a favourite with children since the film was screened on Zee. It got really high TRPs. But you’re right, for the most part we’ve focussed on thrillers. That’s what people expect from Abbas-Mustan. But even within the genre we have always tried to do something different.

Today Abbas and Mustan have become synonymous with each other. Was there ever a time when you worked independent of each other?

Abbas:Both of us wanted to be directors. I started out independently. Then, a Gujarati producer suggested we direct a film for him jointly. Since we are brothers it was no problem at all. Ever since, for the last 20 years, we’ve been working together.

Mustan:We’ve made 14-15 films and today are as much friends as we as are brothers.

Has there never been any difference of opinion?

Abbas:We do have differences but solve them before we go on the sets. We’ve always believed in doing our homework prior to the shooting so that in front of our actors we can present a united front.

Mustan:Yeah, you’ll never hear complaints about us from any of our producers. All of them, be it Subhash Ghai, Venus or Tips have repeated us.
 
That’s right. You have another film with Tips coming up soon.

Abbas:Yeah, Race. It’s one of our most ambitious films. We’ve never worked with so many stars before. Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Sameera Reddy.... Its been shot in Dubai and South Africa.

Akshaye seems to be quite a favourite with you.

Mustan: Akshaye, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Shilpa (Shetty), Preity (Zinta), Bobby (Deol), Bipasha (Basu), Priyanka (Chopra), even Akshay Kumar may be established stars today but we got to know them when they were still newcomers. They started out with us.

Abbas: We’ve always believed in introducing new faces. And to our good fortune, several of our discoveries have gone on to become big names. We have a new girl,Urvashi Sharma, in Naqaab too, who shows a lot of promise.

Isn’t it time you called in a few favours. You could rope in some of these top-rated stars for sequels gives that post-scripts are in and a Khiladi or an Aitraaz would lend itself to a Part II?

Abbas: We are in talks with Shah Rukh Khan for a thriller. The film is in the scripting stage. Once the script is ready we will take a call. The subject has to suit Shah Rukh. But yes, sequels of both Baazigar and Khiladi would be interesting.

You’ve entered into an exclusive four-film deal with Eros.

Mustan: I wouldn’t call it an exclusive deal. On the distribution front Eros Entertainment has tied up with K Sera Sera and so has all the right to the films we will be directing for K Sera Sera.

So you are still available to outside producers?

Mustan: Of course. Right now we’re busy with the promotion of Naqaab along with the post-production of Race and Mr. Fraud. Simultaneously, we’re working on a couple of scripts. Once, we’re finished with Race and Mr. Fraud we will shoot another film for Subhash Ghai. Then there’s our home productions that should go on floors early next year.

Would the home production be the Tamil version of the Marathi hit Dombivali Fast?

Abbas:The Tamil version of Dombivali Fast is complete. That will be our first home production. We will be releasing it next month.

Why did you zero in on Dombivali Fast?

Abbas: It is a subject that revolves around the common man and his day-to-day problems. In Marathi the subject was not area-centric, which is why we have bought all the language rights. We’re interested in making it in Tamil, Hindi, Bengali...

Mustan: We went for the premiere of Dombivali Fast. We liked the film and bought the rights.There are so many subjects that interest us. How many films we can make in a year will depend on how many good directors we can tap.

Mr Fraud was launched with a lot of fanfare but little has been heard of it since. What’s the states quo on the film?

Abbas (Defensively):Mr Fraud is 70 per cent complete. It stars Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan. Unfortunately, one of the schedules fell through. Then, Sanjay got busy with his court case. Getting combination dates from such busy stars is not easy. The producer is working on it and once we get the dates we’ll wrap up the film.

Do you watch a lot of Hollywood hits?

Mustan (Cautiously): We’ve watched a few. Alfred Hitchcock is a favourite. His Psycho is a classic. Sometimes our writers suggest a film to us.

Many of your films like Baazigar and Daraar have their muse in Hollywood hits. And some like Aitraaz and Ajnabee are so Americanised in their choice of subject and even their look that one got the feeling that one was watching an angrezi rather than a desi film. Perhaps that’s why they appealed only to a niche audience.

Abbas: We draw our inspiration from what we see and by that I don’t just mean someone else’s but real life. Johnybhai (Johny Lever) has been a regular in most of our films and many of his characters have been modelled on real-life personalities.

Mustan: Yeah, the absent-minded servant of Baazigar or the South Indian guy of Khiladi were people we’d actually met.

Abbas: Nobody is original, except God.