Thaindian News

October 13, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): A few weeks back, when Karan Johar was summoned by Shah Rukh Khan for the London shoot of his most ambitious film till date, ‘Ra. 1′, the superstar took a smart step. He let the news go from him only rather than it reaching down to media through ’sources’. Tweets floated around and it was announced to the world that Shah Rukh had made a special request to Karan to direct a few scenes for ‘Ra. 1′.

On his part, Shah Rukh did pre-empt the entire turn of events and promptly announced that Karan’s arrival in London for the shooting of ‘Ra. 1′ was nothing more than just a good luck charm. In any case, Bollywood is known for its superstitions and when a film is rumoured to be carrying a price tag of 175 crores, it is but natural to have all the good luck charm to come in handy.

“This is the reason why even though many felt that (director) Anubhav (Sinha) may have been heartbroken due to someone else stepping in and calling the shots, despite for a short duration, the fact is that Karan’s visit actually turned out to be short and sweet. Eventually qualifying as a friendly gesture more than anything else, it did lead to a few reading between the words but none of it mapped to the kind of scale that would have led to any widespread controversy”, comments an observer who has been closely following the turn of events.

Since Karan has been a close friend and associate for over a decade and a half now and has contributed to some of his biggest hits like ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’ and now ‘My Name Is Khan’ with him, it was imperative that he was there alongside him when ‘Ra. 1′ is being filmed. On his part, Karan doesn’t deny the fact that he did eventually direct a brief portion of the film.

“There was nothing to hide about it though. All Shah Rukh wanted me to do was to can a couple of shots for good luck charm. It wasn’t as if he asked Anubhav to sit aside and gave me the entire control instead. It doesn’t work that way”, says Karan who rightly believes that it is hardly an incident that deserves much attention.

Well, one tends to believe that Anubhav Sinha feels so as well. With sci-fi flick ‘Robot’ already turning on the heat, there is far more emphasis which is expected to be made on ‘Ra. 1′ now. Also starring Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal, ‘Ra. 1′ is expected to release in Summer 2011.

– Joginder Tuteja / Sampurn Wire