For Yash uncle I was his Bengali tigress Rani Mukerji

For Yash uncle I was his Bengali tigress

    Rani Mukerji, 34, went against her father to fulfill her mother’s wish of wanting her daughter to become an actress. Today, 15 years later, her father is her biggest champion. We met her at her serene house in Juhu, where over a plateful of sandesh, she spoke about Yash Chopra, the similarities between Shah Rukh and Aamir and her unfulfilled wish to work with Rajinikanth. Excerpts:
Yash Chopra has a special place in your life. Do you miss him? Of course, I miss him every day of my life. He was the most healthy man I knew which is what made it even more difficult as it brought a lot of shock and pain. His phone calls were as abrupt as his going away. He would just pick up the phone after reading my interview and say, ‘Arey, you are my Bengali tigress’. He would just see a picture in the paper and call and say, ‘you were looking very good’. I just loved his spirit of eating and the way he enjoyed his food. You knew how passionate a person he was just by the way he ate his food. He loved his paratha and makhan and was always wanting to feed me in all my meals with him. I would always tell him, ‘No uncle, I can’t eat it’. When he passed away, I actually ate paratha and makhan just to feel how he used to feel.
    The warmth that he had for his employees, his actors or any person around him made him a great human being. He touched so many lives that every one had a Yash Chopra story to tell. When I worked with him in Veer-Zaara, I found him to be such a down-to-earth person and realised why he is Yash Chopra. He was only concerned about whether people around him had eaten well. The love that he had for his people translated into people wanting to give him back their best.
Did you miss him on his last film’s premiere? It was one of the most cherished premieres that cannot be replicated. The way Adi did the premiere, creating the theatre for just one night and calling people who were close to Yash uncle and associated with him, was incredible. It was a night which we won’t be able to forget in our lives. We missed him being there, but the fact that we were all together, made us feel he was somewhere there smiling and actually seeing everyone watch his film. Out of the many directors you have worked with, do you have any favourites? Yash Uncle, Sanjay (Leela Bhansali) and Mani Ratnam Sir.
What makes them special? All three of them have their unique styles. When I worked with Yash uncle as an actor in Veer Zaara, I was coming from an era where, for a director, using a monitor was extremely important to see the performance of their actors. But Yash uncle never watched the monitor and he always saw us live and even said ‘action and cut’ himself. He would stand next to the camera watching you live and say cut without asking you to shoot multiple times. He used to go with the basic emotion and had a rawness to his approach, as he believed that if he made you do the shot again and again, you would turn mechanical as an actor. He was always carefree on the sets, most concerned about feeding everyone. I remember in the middle of shooting Mujhse Dosti Karoge he would call Kareena and me and say, 'Come here and eat strawberries and cream'. He always liked his actresses to look full and Indian. I have once seen him eating 30 mangoes at one go. He loved eating his parathas with makhan. Even knowing that my dad had a bypass surgery, he would say 'Ram tu bhi kha le'.
    Bhansali is outstanding and no one shoots films the way he does. He gives a lot of time to his technicians and actors before shooting. He just treats you as a queen and pampers you so much that you want to give your best. He knows how to extract the best out of you. When we were shooting Black, Sanjay would treat me to Rustomji’s ice cream at Churchgate everyday while coming back home. He would always tell me that I should eat whatever I wanted to, because that’s the only way I was happy. He used to tell me that my performance in Black was good only because I ate well. For me it’s customary before every film to go and spend time with Sanjay at his house and eat his mom’s khaana.
    Mani Ratnam Sir is always conscious that his actors are acting. So he keeps telling you to not act and be natural. He makes you unlearn everything when you work with him. We actors get caught in our mannerisms and the way we give a shot and forget to surprise ourselves. With Mani Sir, you get tired of being natural and then, at some point, you give a shot which only later you realise what he has got out of you.
Do you have any favourites amongst your co-stars? Has to be Shah Rukh and Aamir and of course Mr Kamal Haasan and Mr Bachchan. I worked simultaneously with Shah Rukh in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Aamir in Ghulam very early in my career and was impressioned by them. I observed that inspite of being big stars they were particular about each shot of theirs. While Shah Rukh was energetic on the set, Aamir was calm, but both had the same kind of energy in their work. They both gave me so much love and respect as a newcomer that today when I work with new people I give them the same that I got. Their personalities an styles are different, but they are actually similar in their work ethic and their love for the craft. They are also both technically savvy. From Shah Rukh you learn how differently you can enact a casual scene that is far more difficult to do than a dramatic scene. Aamir’s dedication is amazing. As a newcomer, I respected it, but even after being in the industry for 15 years, I still respect it. Mr Bachchan is the most humble legend and with him, you know that there is nothing he cannot do. Mr Kamal Haasan is extremely easy to work with and his command over his craft is aweinspiring. The only regret I have is that I have not worked with Rajinikanth.
It seems that you look up to people much older to you. Does it have something to do with you as a person? I have wisdom of a 60-year-old (laughs). Also it takes a lot for me to respect a person, so when a person has a body of work behind him, it draws my respect.
What are you seeking from your life at this point in time? I just want to be at peace with myself, personally and professionally. I want to lead my life the way I want to without having to worry about what the other person may be thinking. Professionally again, I would like to be able to just do films that I want to without having to explain my reasons to my friends, family and fans.
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Rani Mukerji

Rani Mukerji