Hurman’s Rashee changed with What’s Your Rashee

What’s Your Rashee, which opened on screens yesterday, saw a good response from the audiences. Hurman Baweja the lead actor in the movie has received appreciation for his role in the movie. “The audiences are liking him and girls are messaging him complimenting for his role,” said a source.

The movie has received a very good opening in places like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata etc. In Pune Esquare theatre, the 9 am show was houseful and they had to add another show at 10am, which also went houseful. Most of the theatres are planning to add more shows due to public demand.

A source said, “Priyanka is playing 12 different roles in the movie, but the way Hurman has acted; he has completely overshadowed Priyanka. Hurman is the perfect take away home guy in this movie.”

Despite flops, I never lost confidence in Hurman Baweja: Gowariker

When “Love Story 2050″ tanked at the box office, not many in Bollywood were willing to put their money on Hurman Baweja. But Ashutosh Gowariker, who had already signed him on for “What’s Your Raashee?”, continued to show his trust in the youngster.

“Even before the release of ‘Love Story 2050′, Sunita (Gowariker’s wife and co-producer of ‘What’s Your Raashee?’) and I did ask each other if the fate of Hurman’s debut flick would make any difference to our decision? The answer was ‘No’,” Gowariker said.

“Why just ‘Love Story 2050′, we were prepared even if ‘Victory’ (Hurman’s second film) wouldn’t have worked,” the filmmaker said.

Gowariker began shooting for the film even as things didn’t look bright for “Victory”.

“It’s unfortunate that ‘Victory’ didn’t work, but its success or failure was never going to make any difference to our venture,” he added.

Support also came from Ronnie Screwvala, whose UTV Motion Pictures has co-produced the film with Ashutosh Gowariker Productions.

“Ronnie was always there behind the film and Hurman. He too strongly feels that even if a couple of movies didn’t work for Hurman, he was always going to be someone who would go on to stay for a long time.

“Meanwhile, we commenced the shoot for ‘What’s Your Raashee?’ and never looked back,” the director said.

With his latest film, Gowariker has moved from making historical “Jodhaa Akbar”, a period film like “Lagaan”, and a socially relevant film in “Swades” to something much lighter and contemporary.

The film also stars Priyanka Chopra, who plays the role of 12 girls who meet bride-hunting NRI Yogesh Patel (Hurman).

With two back-to-back flops, “What’s Your Raashee?” is actually being looked as a sort of re-launch for Hurman. Did that put any extra burden on Gowariker and his team?

“See, I am like a horse who wears blinkers and stays on a path defined for him. Regardless of what happens on a Friday and regardless of what people have to say, Hurman as well as I had to just stay true to our path and follow a certain vision. I worked on him only as much as it was required to get the characterisation right…that’s about it,” he said.

Hurman’s knowledge about cinema, courtesy his formal education on filmmaking from Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, helped as well.

“That’s right. I remember my early interaction with Hurman when his ‘Love Story 2050′ was yet to be released. I learnt that he had spent a lot of time studying cinema in New York. Being the son of an established filmmaker (Harry Baweja), he could have afforded to take it easy and dreamt of being an overnight star. Still, he did everything to earn the craft and be skilful,” Gowariker said.

There were a couple of other things that impressed Gowariker enough to rope in Hurman as his leading man even after working with established actors like Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan.

“On seeing the rushes of ‘Love Story 2050′, I was immediately attracted to Hurman’s innocence and endearing quality. Moreover, his passion and dedication for acting and performing showed. All of this contributed to me being completely convinced with the fact that he was just right for ‘What’s Your Raashee?’. And once that decision was taken, I never ever lost confidence in him,” he said.

Comparing me to Rahman not fair: Sohail Sen

After teaming up with music maestro A.R. Rahman in hits like “Lagaan” and “Jodhaa Akbar”, director Ashutosh Gowariker has roped in budding composer Sohail Sen for “What’s Your Raashee?” and the young musician says drawing comparisons between him and the Oscar-winning genius wouldn’t be fair.

“I never had in mind that I will be compared to Rahman. That shouldn’t happen at all. He has been in the industry for so long and I’m just a beginner; so any comparison with him would not be fair,” Sen, who has composed 13 tracks for “What’s Your Raashee?”, said.

“I’m a great fan of Rahman. I have been listening to his music over the years and he is just like an idol for me. He is an encyclopaedia of music,” Sen added.

The 25-year-old has got music in legacy from his father Sameer Sen, a well-known name in the field of music in Hindi films, but says creating songs for the Priyanka Chopra, Hurman Baweja-starrer was not a cakewalk.

“Creating 13 different songs, each for one particular zodiac sign, was a difficult task. We had to maintain distinctiveness. Initially I was nervous. But when Ashutosh-ji and Javed (Akhtar)-saab briefed me and we started working on them, it became better.

“But we did our homework too before starting on the work. We worked on the album for more than one and a half years,” said Sen, who had earlier composed music for the 2008 movie “Sirf”.

Asked which was the most difficult number to create, he said: “‘Chehra jo dekhe hain’ was the most difficult song. We had themes for every song, but in this song we had to collaborate and merge every theme… it was a big task, but we managed,” said Sen, who has also lent his voice to a few songs in the album.

“What’s Your Raashee?” is about a young man who is told to find his dreamgirl within 10 days to save his family from utter ruin. He meets two girls from each sun sign every day so that he will get 12 chances to fall in love, three days to make his final decision and tie the knot on the 10th day.

Priyanka plays 12 different characters, depicting the 12 zodiac signs in the movie set to release Sep 25.

Most films have four-five songs these days — won’t it be a minus point to have 13 songs in the film?

“I don’t think that having 13 songs in one album in a time like today will be a minus point because every song is essential for the film. The songs and the script go hand-in-hand.

“I don’t think the audience will have a problem. As far as I am concerned, it was a plus point for me since I got a chance to showcase my talent and create music in so many different genres in one album itself,” said Sen.

So do you consider this a landmark film for yourself?

“Absolutely. It was a dream to work with a filmmaker like Ashutosh Gowariker,” Sen said.