Luck, Not by Chance

I am all by myself in a corner room of a seventh floor apartment in Santa Cruz, Mumbai. Inside, I see two walls painted a subdued orange, the other two are white. The paint is peeling in a few places in a very artsy way. On the orange wall, a bookshelf that looks very 70s and very Euro, holds a bunch of encyclopedias, two books on Hindu and Parsi names, a copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, old issues of National Geographic and the book Dateline Kargil. Alongside the books are rows of trophies from the film world. Below the bookshelf is a low table and under it are several spirally bound books. These are scripts. Then there are autographed photographs of Hollywood actors, a CD rack, a bottle of wine, a motorcycle helmet and an old school blazer. This is director Farhan Akhtar’s room but I am not here to meet him.

I am waiting for his creative doppelganger, co-founder of Excel Entertainment, Ritesh Sidhwani, to arrive. This is the man who partnered Farhan when the duo burst into the film world with Dil Chahata Hai. They have since released one box office hit after another. Along the way, they redefined film-making with movies like Rock On!! and Luck By Chance. I am here to learn what works for these two entrepreneurs. My wait is soon over. Ritesh Sidhwani opens the door, apologising for the 15 minute delay. Wearing a pair of torn denims, a striped T-shirt and the names of sons Arav and Nirvaan tattooed on his left arm, the 35-year-old man looks five years younger.

“Farhan and I were in Maneckji Cooper School in Juhu where we met for the very first time when we were probably just 10 years old. From our eighth standard onwards, we have been buddies. After finishing high school, we both decided to attend college in south Mumbai so that we could be the farthest from home; travelling an hour each way by train everyday. I studied commerce, finished college and while I did so, Farhan decided to woo girls instead and took the drop-out path to success. Farhan came from a family in the film-world; I had no understanding of commercial cinema. But somehow it seemed logical that we start a business; that we do it together and it had to be movie-making.

“During the growing up years, I always wanted to know how movies are made. I always bought double-discs so I could watch the extra footage to get a sense of the process. When Farhan wrote the script for Dil Chahata Hai, I could relate to the characters of Akash, Samir and Sid. I told Farhan, ‘let’s make this movie’. We decided to make films the Western way. We had bound scripts in an industry that was used to writing dialogue on the set. Lots of actors said ‘no’ to us. We went to Aamir Khan. He was turning producer with Lagaan. Aamir was willing to go with us. Since then, we have become a full-fledged production house. We now have six directors making three films each.”

“So, how is your view of the business different from others who have been there before you and Farhan?” I ask.
“It is the way I look at my assets. My biggest asset is my film negative and I look at it as a room I can rent. I never sell my movies; I only rent them for a limited time. So I rent my home-video, satellite, Internet or mobile rights for a few years after which they must come back to me. I own the Intellectual Property Rights and one day the assets return to me while my office expenses are still being borne by my current films. It is just the way Steven Spielberg manages his assets. Do you know how much he sold his old inventory rights for? $1.3 billion! That requires a very different way of looking at what you call an asset in your business.”

“What is the greatest input to your asset creation process, Ritesh?”
“It is relationships. We understand relationships beyond the cliché.”

“Tell me about that. How does one build relationships the way you do?”
“First of all, it is about conviction. Relationships and conviction go together. I cannot sell a film to an actor, a technician or to the audience unless I have personal conviction in it. Farhan and I do not make a film unless the story has really touched us; unless we ourselves have deep affinity for it. All relationships are about conviction. And no relationship can thrive without honesty. You have to be honest in every deal. The second tenet of relationship is about opting to work with like-minded people. You simply cannot work with everyone; you cannot make a film for everyone. All relationship is a selective process. The third tenet is about submerging the ‘I’ in the ‘we’. There is never ever a great film made by any one individual, it is always a group of people who collectively must give their best. Finally, you need to be slow. You need to give every relationship time. That includes your relationship with your customer. You simply cannot rush it.”

“And what about the don’ts in building a relationship?” I ask Ritesh.
“Do not follow the money. Never lie to yourself. Do not shut the critical feedback. Be a good listener when people are telling you things. If you listen well, you build great relationships.”
The man’s got to know, I tell myself. It is not just the best directors, actors, technicians and labs in the industry who swear by him and partner Farhan Akhtar. They have been buddies for 23 years; even as schoolboys they never ever came close to parting, as we all have at least once. And importantly enough, he has known his wife Dolly since he was 18 and she was all of sixteen-and-a-half!
At 35, Ritesh and Farhan have achieved what people do in a lifetime in an intense industry such as this.

I want to know what would define his state of self-actualisation 20 years from now.
“We must have our bank of films. But more importantly, we should have helped the industry such that people stand up and say so. People should follow the trends we create. It is so important to look at what trends you create because that is your legacy. It may be the way we make films, the way we market. We should be seen as people who went someplace all by ourselves.”

There are people who are path-makers and most of us are only path-dependent. To Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, setting the standard is so important because they see the larger purpose of enterprise as building a legacy that others may opt to follow someday. That is why the road less travelled beckons the two!