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Will you send me an angel?

Sitting pretty Kunal Kohli takes the plunge as producer

Kunal Kohli was relieved when this interviewer commented on how different his latest release “Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic” is from his last film “Fanaa”. “I am glad it was you rather than me,” Kunal said with a laugh. “Everyone says their film is different. But ‘Thoda…’ is really very different from ‘Fanaa’, which was very different from ‘Hum Tum’, which in turn was different from my first feature ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’.”

Be that as it may, Kunal has repeated his leads from “Hum Tum”, Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee in “Thoda”. “I might have repeated my lead actors but not the role. It is a completely different role.”

Kunal has been singularly lucky in the casting department whether it was the dream cast of Mr. Perfection Aamir Khan and India’s sweetheart Kajol in Fanaa or casting hotties Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor in “Mujhse Dosti…”

“Yes, I have been lucky with casting,” Kunal admits. “Rani was the only choice for this role too. My casting has always been totally dictated by the role.”

Ask him what the movie is about and Kunal says: “It is about a man who gets love, an angel who cannot love and four children who need love.” That is a whole lot of love!

Kunal is quick to say: ‘“Thoda…’ is not a sugary sweet film. It is a feel-good film with a message. It is about finding the goodness within yourself. When I started to think about my next project, I realised that nowadays filmmakers are not making films for children. I think the last film for children was ‘Kkrish’. I would describe ‘Thoda…’ as a film for children as well as for the child inside every adult.”

So what’s with the angel? “I think an angel is the need of the hour. An angel is a metaphor for the subtle things in life that we are missing thanks to our hectic lives and schedules.”

Kunal firmly debunks any comments that angels are a western concept. “I don’t think so. We are more attuned to myth and magic. The angel here does not have wings and the rest of it.”

The film has the regulation candy floss look and feel. Styling has been done by couturier to the stars, Manish Malhotra. “Since Rani’s character appears in only one costume through out the movie, my brief to Manish was to create an iconic look.”

Kunal is equally pleased with the work of his music directors Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy and lyricist, Prasoon Joshi. “The music is wonderful and the lyrics are sheer poetry.”

While “Thoda…” is Kunal’s fourth film, it is his first film for his production house, Kunal Kohli Productions. Talking about going solo, Kunal says, “The film is financed by Yash Raj Films. So it is like still being under the YRF umbrella. We are getting all the shade and it has been a great experience.” On adding the producer hat to other hats of writing and direction, Kunal says: “I have an efficient production team to take care of things. I am a director first, but one does not shy away from responsibility either.”

“Thoda” opened to mixed reactions last week and as Kunal philosophically commented: “The attempt was made. Success, however, is not in our hands.”

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