Ahmed Khan is better known as a choreographer than a director. His directorial debut film, Lakeer, failed to create ripples at the box office, even though it had a big star cast including Sunny Deol, John Abraham, Suniel Shetty and Sohail Khan.
Now, the filmmaker hopes his second attempt Fool n Final -- starring Sunny Deol, Vivek Oberoi, Shahid Kapur, Paresh Rawal and Ayesha Takia -- fares better.
In a candid interview, the director talks to Narendran Singh about the making of the movie.
How did you manage to create 14 fools in your film?
Well, it's not the artists but the subject which is the 'fool' in the film. Though the characters -- Sunny, Vivek, Shahid, Pareshji, Johnny Lever and Chunky Pandey are serious, they settle their scores in a foolish manner. Thus, the title Fool N Final.
The promos of the film include comic strips.
Yes, we had an idea of making the film look as if it's an adaptation of some comic strip. It is a light-hearted film with a comic feel to it. There are a lot of graphics in the film with every character in turning into a comic book figure.
Is Shahid Kapur a good dancer?
Shahid is a choreographer's delight and biggest nightmare. A delight because he is very cool and a nightmare because what takes others ages to learn, Shahid can do it in 25 seconds! (laughs)
You seem to share a great bond with Shahid?
Shahid and I share one thing in common -- we're both scared of flights. It was great fun working with all the stars on the sets. Ayesha was very sweet. She was shooting for Salaam-E-Ishq at the same time. After shooting for that, she would come to our sets and finish her part in one and half hours flat.
How did you manage to rope in Mike Tyson for the film's promotional video?
We needed a special appearance from a celebrity to promote the film without him necessarily being part of it. I asked my producer to speak to Mike Tyson. We shot Tyson's sequences in Las Vegas. If I had taken him in the film, it would have amounted to cheating the audiences, which we never wanted to do. It was fun working with him.
Tell us about the stunts. They look very promising.
All credit goes to Allan Amin, the fight coordinator of the film. Shahid has done some very risky stunts in the film. He is seen riding a cycle from the 16th floor of a building on a huge curtain. He also did his own stunts on top of a wall and on his cycle atop a Hummer car.
Sunny, meanwhile, jumped from a flyover on to a moving trailer. Vivek Oberoi has done some amazing stunts too.
Who is fool n final in the film?
Trust me, I am the biggest fool in the film (laughs).