Mumbai, October 27 (). Kunal Kohli, the ‘Romance King’ of Bollywood, the director of four superhits produced by Yash Raj Films, the director of the Filmfare Award winning ‘Hum Tum’, and the creative genius who brought fantasy films like ‘Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic’ from his production house, Kunal Kohli was born on 28 October 1970.
His mother, Yash Kohli, was a big fan of Shashi Kapoor, so he was named after Shashi Kapoor’s son Kunal. Before starting his career in the TV industry, Kunal Kohli had directed more than 20 music videos. These also include songs of singers like Alisha Chinai and Balli Sagoo.
After this, he made his debut in the TV industry as a director with the serial ‘Trikon’. Then he made his Bollywood debut with Yash Raj Films in 2002 with ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’, which featured stars like Hrithik Roshan, Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor.
Although the film was a flop in India, it was a hit overseas. ‘Hum Tum’ released in 2004 gave him national recognition. The romantic comedy starring Karan (Saif Ali Khan) and Rhea (Rani Mukherjee) not only created a stir at the box office, but also won Kunal the Filmfare Best Director Award.
That too by defeating Yash Chopra’s ‘Veer-Zaara’. In their 2006 film ‘Fanaa’, the pairing of Aamir Khan and Kajol showed a new dimension of thriller romance, which was a superhit in both India and abroad.
Kunal Kohli directed four films for Yash Chopra, including ‘Teri Meri Kahaani’. In 2008, he started his own production company Kunal Kohli Productions, whose first film was ‘Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic’. Also entered South cinema with ‘Next Anti’. Kunal, who has tried his hand in acting, writing and production, is still known for presenting romantic stories in a new style.
There are many such films in the history of Bollywood which challenged the thinking of their time and became successful at the box office. The film ‘Hum Tum’ directed by Kunal Kohli is one such film. Today it is considered one of the most influential romantic-comedy films of Indian cinema, and is even mentioned in film critic Shubhra Gupta’s book ’50 Films that Changed Bollywood’.
But the success story of this film was not easy. This is an incident where director Kunal Kohli not only had to win the world’s trust in his story, but he also had to face huge doubts from his mentor and veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra.
In the early 2000s, Yash Raj Films (YRF) was known for producing lavish love stories and big-budget multi-starrer films. When Kunal Kohli approached Yash Chopra with the script of ‘Hum Tum’, the kind of simple and western-style romantic comedy he proposed was completely different from YRF’s traditional formula.
Kohli has told in many interviews that Yash ji had made fun of his previous film ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’ (which did not do well at the box office) and said that ‘Hum Tum’ looks like ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ in front of that film. This joke reflected Yash Chopra’s deep doubts about how a ‘just talk’ film would fare without any major action or drama.
The biggest proof of Yash Chopra’s doubts was the film’s budget. He gave Kohli a small budget of only Rs 7.5 crore to make the film. It was much less than the big films of YRF at that time like ‘Dhoom’ or ‘Veer-Zaara’.
Yash Chopra had also put a condition in front of Kunal Kohli, “If the film is not good, I will not give my name on it as a producer.”
In this small budget, Kunal Kohli had to shoot outdoors with the lead pair (Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee) in places like Amsterdam and Delhi, which was a big challenge. Saif Ali Khan had also expressed his initial uneasiness as he felt that the director himself was skeptical about casting him.
Kunal Kohli’s hard work and Saif-Rani’s chemistry proved this doubt wrong. When the film was ready and Yash Chopra saw the final cut, his perspective completely changed. Yash ji immediately went to Kunal Kohli and hugged him and said “You were right, I was wrong. This is a beautiful film, and I will proudly put my name on it.”
‘Hum Tum’ was a hit, earning more than four times its small budget. In the same year, Kunal Kohli received the Filmfare Award for Best Director for the film ‘Hum Tum’. Incidentally, his mentor Yash Chopra was also nominated in this category for his blockbuster film ‘Veer-Zaara’.
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JP/ABM
