Talking Pictures

RAJEEV MASAND

The Fine Art Of Saying Nothing

LAST week, while interviewing a reasonably prominent actress, I was stopped midway to be asked why I wasn’t taping the conversation. ‘‘Because I’m comfortable taking notes,’’ I replied in all honesty. ‘‘But surely you can’t take down every word of what I’m saying,’’ she said. ‘‘Well no, but I get pretty much what you’re trying to say,’’ I explained.

Clearly, she didn’t quite buy my explanation. Almost immediately, she slowed down her pace of speaking, and made it a point to regularly peep into my little notepad, perhaps checking to ensure that I’d got down most of the stuff she was saying.

Once home, I referred to my notes and began writing out the interview in its entirety. And, just like I expected, I discovered I had nothing to crow about. Like most interviews with Bollywood beauties, this one too had turned out to be another PR exercise for her forthcoming film, with those mandatory I-wish-I-had-more-time-to-spend-with-my-family or I’m-really-trying-to-cut-down-on-my-work kind of quotes. It was amusing then to remember how she’d virtually fallen out of her chair when I told her I didn’t need to take down her answers in long-hand, and that I could take down key words and elaborate on them later.

Believe me—and forgive me all you wonderful ladies whose many hours I’ve taken asking sometimes silly questions—the ladies give you the most boring copies. With the exception of actresses like Manisha Koirala and Sushmita Sen, none of them take even a moment to think before they rattle off a reply. Most answers are rehearsed, others plain lies. Karisma Kapoor may be Heroine No 1 but she’s an interviewer’s nightmare. So are Urmila Matondkar, Raveena Tandon, Shilpa Shetty, Rani Mukherji, Sonali Bendre and so many others. It’s always the usual babble on how this role’s so much different from what they’ve done before, or how this director tapped their hidden potential, or what a pleasure this co-star was to work with, and most often, how they really want to be taken more seriously as performers (if only they could figure out that such interviews don’t do the trick, just some hard work and a little determination does).

Salman Khan is another actor who won’t allow you to tape him. ‘‘Put that off,’’ he said, pointing to my recorder, the first time I interviewed him at Film City some years ago. I never dared to ask him why.

Having put this into perspective then, I feel a little offended that an actress looked at me suspiciously while I was taking notes, perhaps concerned that I wouldn’t be able to convey exactly what she was trying to say. Worse still, perhaps worried that I’d put words into her mouth. Not that this doesn’t happen— Twinkle Khanna was telling me recently about a five-page interview of hers in a gossip magazine that she’d never given. Aishwarya Rai has been complaining that there are dozens of her interviews on various sites that she’s never given (she can’t do interviews with websites since she’s in the process of setting up her own exclusive site).

And then, you have others who prefer not to be taped at all. I remember the time I first met Sunny Deol at Mehboob Studios for a film that eventually got shelved. The Ghayal actor seemed a little surprised to see me settle into my chair with my dictaphone, all ready to capture our interview.

‘‘Could you please not use that?’’ he asked very politely. ‘‘But why?’’ I enquired, a little surprised myself. ‘‘I don’t like talking into a machine. I find it very impersonal,’’ he replied. That was the end of that. I never took a tape recorder along when I was scheduled to meet Sunny in the future.

Salman Khan is another actor who won’t allow you to tape him. ‘‘Put that off,’’ he said, pointing to my recorder, the first time I interviewed him at Film City some years ago. I never dared to ask him why. I just figured it would save both of us a lot of trouble if I did as he asked without any questions. Every time I met Salman after that, I went with a single question per page, so there was enough space to scribble out his replies.

As for those actors who I simply couldn’t interview without my recorder, it would have to be the two King Khans: Aamir and Shah Rukh. Both immensely intelligent and articulate, an interview simply never seems like an interview when sitting across a table from them. More like a conversation, to be honest. So much listening, in fact, that you need a recorder to tape all the wonderful bits. There’s another breed which insists on taking a look at your interview before it appears in print. Normally, I’d never consent, but in the case of this evergreen lady star who’s so grudging with interviews, I agreed to send her a copy of her own quotes. I specified that she’d only be getting a transcribed copy of her quotes, not a copy of my interview as a whole. As luck would have it, the lady cut out some of her best lines and insisted that I not incorporate these into the interview. I’ve never gone back to interview her since.