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Because B H A I was getting so restless for Ranbir news, I thought he should get a special dedication in addition to the usual one

Big Bachchan on RK

Abhishek did his first day for ‘PAA’ today. Had another star visitor on set, Ranbir Kapoor. He later sent me a sweet and affectionate sms, which was most endearing. Talking about my look in the film. He has shaped up so well in his career so far and with such ease and rapidity. Cannot imagine he was assisting Sanjay Leela Bhansali as an AD on ‘Black’. His tutoring and training on Ayesha the little girl that played Rani’s younger portion, paid such dividends for the little artist. He and Sonam Kapoor were assistants on the set together. And now look at them. Big stars in their own right. Feels so wonderful to watch how this generation grows and accomplishes itself.

Imran Khan on RK

Good morning all! The Filmfare awards have come and gone, and the whole show went off very well. Admit it, you guys were really surprised that I hosted, weren’t you. Well, so was I. It all started back in December, when the offer was made to RK and me. We both thought it sounded like fun, but we decided right then and there that we couldn’t make fun of anyone. We’re too new in the industry to crack jokes about anyone else. Then it kind of went on the backburner, because I was busy shooting DB, and our man RK was caught up with APKGK (that’s Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani. I like the abbreviation, it’s fun to type, and more fun to say. APKGK. APKGK.) We had a bunch of creative meetings, which I assume is where those ‘joint production house, Shimit Amin and Imtiaz Ali’ stories came from. However, other than thinking up a bunch of jokes, nothing really concrete came out of those meetings.

Fast forward to my returning from Bangkok (Suphan Buri, for those of you who were paying attention) and RK returning from Turkey. (which, incidentally, is also fun to say. RK in Turkey.) Awards night was about two weeks away, and we had nothing. Naturally, we panicked, and went into overdrive. Sat and brainstormed from morning to night, and started hammering stuff out with Kiran, who has been writing the Filmfare shows for years. I also asked Vir Das and his team of comedy writers to help us out, and they wrote a bunch of sketches for us, including the ‘Future of the industry’, ‘My mike’, ‘Suri/Ghajini’ and the ‘Guest appearances’ gag. Really hilarious stuff, so thanks Vir.

Once the script was mostly done, we started rehearsals in Yashraj. The set is built and ready from a few days in advance, so everyone can do technical rehearsals. Get used to the stage, where to enter and exit from, where the cameras are placed, etc. Once again, grueling days. We’d start early, and go till the middle of the night. I should mention, this was the first time I got to interact with RK on a professional level, and the guy really impressed me. He works so hard and so sincerely, you’d think he was a struggling actor. He never seemed to get tired, even when he had been shooting for his film all day, and came to start rehearsals at 10pm, which went on till 2 or 3am. I had a blast working with him, and I think we both pushed each other to be better, and do more than we thought we could. Now we just have to find a film to do together…