Releasing in 2014, Yaariyan starring Himansh Kohli, Rakul Preet Singh, Evelyn Sharma and Nicole Faria, was Divya Khosla‘s debut film as a director. Talking with Subhash K Jha, she looks back at the making of the hit film.
You made your directorial debut with Yaariyan eleven years ago?
Gosh, how time flies! Yaariyan was my debut film as a director and it holds a special place in my heart and for the casting, I did not hire a casting director but conducted auditions myself all over the world and believe me it was not easy.
I am sure. First film, new faces?
It was very difficult because I was not getting the right faces and it took me almost one and a half year to do the casting because there were so many newcomers in it and I was getting auditions from London of actors, models from US, Canada, all over India, everywhere in all the cities and that’s why when finally the casting finished we had artists from all over. They were from different, different places.
You finally landed on Himansh Kohli, Rakul Preet Singh, Nicole Faria and Evelyn Sharma?
Yes, actors of diverse ilk… so that it was a very beautiful union. After I finished casting them they were very raw, so I had to get them to the place where they were in character. They definitely looked the characters but they were not in character.
What next?
I did workshops with them for the longest time, like one and a half year including the casting and the workshops and by the end of the workshops they were the characters when I took them on set and then I conducted the shooting in one go. I first shot in Cape Town that was for two weeks and then I came back and then we went to Darjeeling.
Did the locations choose themselves?
Even for the locations I did a huge amount of hunt to get the right places and there were such scenic locations in India which was so virgin, so untouched in Sikkim and north of Sikkim, Darjeeling .
Quite a Bharat Darshan for you?
It was beautiful for me to discover such beauty, such places in my own country. I was like a strict teacher with them because they were so new and raw and they did not know the value of being ushered into a film so much at that time.
Were you pleased with the response when the film opened?
Then of course the response to the film was so extraordinary. I mean there were lines outside the theatres and people were going in groups and groups and I remember my mother calling me from Delhi and telling she’s not been getting tickets since three days, because every day the college students would arrive and I think the college kids made the film so big and huge and it’s a very special film because for me because it was my vision and it was my debut as a director and I of course did not expect that it would get such a response.
Your best memory of Yaariyan post release?
I remember when I was shooting my next film after that in Ladakh in a place where which was completely secluded, a young girl came to me. She must have been 16-17 and she said that she had seen the film fifty six times . I was so blown. She was like, ‘My father keeps scolding me and I have to literally hide and see it but I’ve seen it like 56 times till now’. So that was the kind of response I got.
It must have been overwhelming at that young age?
I was very young at that time and I was just getting into direction and I had not assisted any director. I had just entered the industry. I had acted in a movie Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon. Then I did music videos for a little bit time and then it was my film so I was myself very new and I had not since trained under any director, it was I had all the learning that had happened was fully self-learning and fully through the music videos that I had done all the practical knowledge that I had gained and the technical knowledge I had gained through the direction of the music videos that I had done. I would always remain thankful to God to my audience for giving such a fabulous response to Yaariyan and it’s still talked about 11 years later and thank you so much. I also wanted to add that generally when a film is successful of this level either the director is very accomplished, he’s a very top filmmaker with newcomers, new actors or the actors are you know like especially with new actors but here I was myself a newcomer stepping into this industry so to me also it gave, it put me on a place where people started knowing who Divya Khosla was so I would always remain thankful to Yaariyan for what it gave me as a director.
It gave you a name and power beyond being Mrs Bhushan Kumar?
It gave me my position in the industry. After being such a huge success in the theatres, the film also became a blockbuster on the satellite after it released so it was the music, the film, everybody everything became a huge huge success and till today the songs are played and whenever there’s any party the Yaariyan songs are played.
