Bollywood film Happy New Year has a massive star cast — Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan among them — but by the end of filming, there was one more, Khan said at the premiere of the film yesterday: Dubai itself.
“Dubai is the new hub of the world. This is not my second home. It’s my home.”
“We were so emotionally connected to it,” said a visibly emotional Farah Khan, the film’s director, at the press conference at Atlantis, where the film was partly shot and had its first screening. “At first there were six characters but at the end there were seven: Dubai.”
Dabbing away tears, she then hailed her hero. “Shah Rukh is my muse. It’s not about the six packs and the eight packs. On days when he wasn’t required, he was there for moral support.”
The pair have previously found success with 2007’s Om Shanti Om.
In September last year, the talents behind the colourful film were hard at work in Dubai filming some of Happy New Year ’s most important scenes, including its climax. Stars such as Shah Rukh and Padukone were spotted at the Dubai Rink at The Dubai Mall shooting portions that required them to dance and emote.
Those emotions were on full display at the press conference, with Padukone also tearing up. With the star-studded premiere last night, the Happy New Year “circle is complete now”, said Shah Rukh.
“It was a very emotional moment for me. I want to thank the Dubai Film Commission and everybody in Dubai.”
In the spirit of the season — Happy New Year is India’s big Diwali release — the actor talked about giving.
“Just to clarify: I am not one of the richest actors in the world. But I want to be an actor who is rich in giving and spreading happiness.”
It was also about sharing — the limelight, that is. The film is unusual in that it’s an ensemble of many of Bollywood’s shining lights.
“I don’t understand scripts much. Sometimes the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. It’s not about who plays a bigger part but the joy is we were able to immerse in this film selflessly,” said Shah Rukh. “There was zero conflict on sets,” added Farah.
Padukone, who’s on a roll at the box-office with hits such as Finding Fanny and Cocktail, is the only female character in a cast that includes Boman Irani, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah and Jackie Shroff.
“This film has been one of the most memorable films I have done. The boys made it a point to include me in their video games — such a guy thing.”
Director Khan, who’s known to crack the proverbial whip to bring out the best in actors and has the pulse on what Bollywood fans are looking for in an entertaining film, wasn’t impressed with comparisons between Happy New Year, a heist musical, and Hollywood’s Oceans 11.
Happy New Year, produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s production house Red Chillies Entertainment, is a tale of six underdogs who participate in a dance competition in Dubai. But behind their loser exteriors, they are armed with a plan to pull off the “greatest diamond heist ever”.
Happy New Year goes on general release on October 23.
