How Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Hum Tum’ changed the rom-com game 20 years ago

Old news. The refrain is that romantic comedies are dying, the definition of a Hindi film hero is changing and gaining a more testosterone-y image. But we forget, these things keep evolving with the times. If today someone casts a group of skilled actors in a tightly but wittily written romantic movie, we might be forced to change our opinion about rom-coms. Maybe something a Hum Tum 2.0 could achieve.

INTRODUCING THE ‘MULTIPLEX HERO’

For now though, it doesn’t look like the gentle, slightly wild and goofy (sometimes problematic) Hindi movie hero is making a comeback. But there was a time when they ruled both the big screen and the hearts of their fans. And many of those ‘multiplex heroes’, the predictable but fun rom-coms of the early and mid-noughties, owe their debt to the 2004 release, Hum Tum, which is turning 20 on May 28.

Directed and co-written by Kunal Kohli and featuring a bevy of stars — Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji, Kirron Kher, Rishi Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan and Jimmy Sheirgill — Hum Tum was an interesting version of the classic American rom-com, When Harry Met Sally, albeit set in modern India.

Of course, it had the age-old strangers-turned-enemies-turned-friends-turned-lovers trope, but what mattered was how it treated that idea.

Filmmaker Kunal Kohli said that more than the Meg Ryan film, he was inspired by Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.

“Of course, Hum Tum was inspired. But it was inspired more by Annie Hall, directed by Woody Allen (than by When Harry Met Sally). In fact, we had approached the studio to officially buy the rights of When Harry Met Sally, and we had sent them the script of Hum Tum. They got back to us and said that it is not even an adaptation,” Kohli told IndiaToday.in.

The writer-director said that more than the plot, Hum Tum’s genre was ‘inspired’ by the Woody Allen feature.

“Hum Tum is a light-hearted film, but things said lightly don’t necessarily lack depth. Hum Tum has stood the test of time,” stated Kunal Kohli.

Kohli is right. Hum Tum does stand the test of time as it made ‘normal’ a lot of otherwise taboo things in Hindi cinema. Be it on-screen kissing, or the fact that the hero and heroine have a one-night stand and don’t end up getting married immediately.

Besides the introduction of the soft, wild and sensitive male lead aka ‘the multiplex hero’, another novel idea introduced by the film was how it incorporated two animated figures as the ‘sutradhaars’ (narrators) of the film.

DIRECTOR KUNAL KOHLI ON ‘HUM TUM’S’ LEGACY

Speaking about Hum Tum’s legacy and relevance, Kunal Kohli said, “I have been stopped by women at airports, restaurants after making this film. They have always connected with one big thought in the film, which happens after Rani’s Riya sleeps with Saif’s Karan. He tells her they should get married, and she rejects the idea by saying that she will only marry for the sake of love, and not because she slept with someone once.”

What also helped Hum Tum’s case greatly was its pitch-perfect cast.

Talking about Hum Tum, lead star Saif Ali Khan had earlier said that producer Aditya Chopra was keen on marketing a new kind of hero, ‘a multiplex hero,’ who is more liberated in his thoughts, ideas and actions and appeals specifically to the educated, urban audience.

Recalling a conversation which was relayed to him by Karan Johar, Saif told Film Companion, “Adi (Aditya) Chopra called Karan and asked him what my role was like in Kal Ho Naa Ho, and Karan said ‘he is doing great’. So Adi said he wanted to reinvent the idea of a hero, and introduce this ‘multiplex hero’. So, Hum Tum was exactly that. It was an interesting film for its time.”

In the same interview, Saif said that since it was his first film where he was a solo lead, he learned that the leading man of the movie had a lot of responsibilities besides just acting. “I was working around the same time in Kal Ho Naa Ho with Shah Rukh Khan, and I got an idea what a male lead had to do in a movie, that little extra thing. You have to be supportive of production, you kind of have to shoulder the film. Both on and off-screen.”

“Hum Tum was me getting a little more comfortable with films and acting, and being oneself on the camera,” Saif added.

As it turned out, things worked wonderfully well for Saif and the team as Hum Tum became the actor’s first solo hit in his decade-old career. Said to be made on a budget of Rs 8.5 crore, Hum Tum grossed over Rs 42 crore at the domestic box office, an impressive number then.

PUTTING TOGETHER THE CAST OF ‘HUM TUM’

Had it not been for Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji, Hum Tum would have been a different film altogether.

Speaking about the casting choice, director Kunal Kohli told IndiaToday.in, “Rani was our first and obvious choice, the way she connects to the audience from cities to small towns is everything. It was a no-brainer. No one comes even close to her. Saif’s casting was a journey. We went through other actors first.”

Kunal Kohli and Saif’s relationship admittedly saw a few hiccups before the eventual smooth-sailing.

“Saif and I didn’t get along initially. Because Saif thought Adi and Yash (Chopra) ji would be on the sets. One day, I sat him down and told him that it is not about you or me, let us make a film out of this. And this is your one big chance to be a solo hero,” revealed Kohli.

A film works because every department of filmmaking comes together and sings the same tune, well, almost.

COMPOSER LALIT PANDIT ON FILM’S VERSATILE ALBUM

Music also played a significant part in making Hum Tum more appealing and creating a buzz in the market. Be it the conversational song, ‘Ladki Kyon?’ or the romantic ballad ‘Hum Tum’, or the sassy ‘Gore Gore’, the soundtrack was as versatile as its lead players, thereby appealing to a wide variety of listeners.

Speaking about the album, composer Lalit Pandit of the Jatin-Lalit duo told IndiaToday.in, “We had done films with Aditya Chopra before. He (Chopra) said this time it is different, we don’t have an SRK film or a Salman Khan movie. We have Saif Ali Khan, and Saif didn’t have a single solo hit at the time. He said this film depends the most on music, adding ‘Music gira toh hum sab girenge‘ (If the music doesn’t connect with people, we are done for). Luckily, we had Prasoon Joshi with us for the lyrics.”

“Main Kunal Kohli ko hamesha tease karta hoon, ‘tu jab tak Jatin-Lalit ke sath kaam nahi karega, tab tak teri picture hit nahi hogi'” (I keep teasing Kunal Kohli, that you would have to work with Jatin-Lalit again to score a hit), the musician added on a lighter note.

Not only the music, be it the supporting cast or the dialogues, director Kohli and producer Aditya Chopra had assembled the best team possible.

While Kohli wrote the clever dialogues, its supporting cast boasted of names such as Abhishek Bachchan, Kirron Kher, Rishi Kapoor and Jimmy Sheirgill.

OF CASTING RISHI KAPOOR AND KIRRON KHER

Speaking about casting Rishi Kapoor as Saif’s father, the director said, “When I went to Rishi ji, he said, ‘I don’t do guest appearances. If you want me to do the film, increase my scenes.’ He said, ‘Main 7 scene wale filmein nahi karta‘ (I don’t do cameos). But he ended up loving his scenes. In fact, Rishi ji did his first guest appearance in my film.”

Meanwhile, Kirron Kher, who had never done comic parts in mainstream movies before, said a quick yes because of the film’s concept.

“Adi called me. I knew him of course, since Anupam (Kher) had worked a lot with YRF. I found the offer very exciting as I had never done a comedy before. I loved the concept of the film and its story. So, it was a quick yes,” Kirron Kher told IndiaToday.in.

After Hum Tum, Kirron Kher found herself flooded with offers of playing the mother figure in multiple movies, including Dostana and Om Shaanti Om.

“After Hum Tum, everybody came. While I immensely enjoyed myself on the sets of say a Main Hoon Na or even Om Shaanti Om, after a while, I began to find it a bit annoying as the industry had started stereotyping me as a typical Punjabi mother,” said Kirron Kher.

THE UNIQUE MARKETING STRATEGY

The chatter around a film after its posters and promos release matters a lot. Sometimes, it is all the marketing that a movie needs. With Hum Tum, Kunal Kohli had cracked the code. Its two animated figures, Hum and Tum, which began to appear on a weekly basis in a leading publication before the film’s release.

Speaking about creating the two cartoons, Kohli said, “We wanted to find a new way to market the film. We just wanted to market that ‘ours is a different film,’ and a traditional approach to it would not have worked. I had to come up with cartoons every week, so I was living Saif’s character during those days.”

Even when you seemingly have the perfect music, cast and dialogues, sometimes a film fails to land if its release is not timed correctly.

“The time was right for Hum Tum. Multiplexes were opening and the dramatic Hindi film hero was not the only kind of hero that the audience wanted to see. Yuva had released along with Hum Tum, so these films were also changing the way acting was happening,” Kohli said.

WILL ROM-COMS RETURN TO BOLLYWOOD?

So why don’t we make movies like Hum Tum anymore? Kohli answered, “Today’s heroes shy away from rom-coms and then they make really bad films and say, ‘see, romantic films don’t work.’ They make rubbish in the name of rom-com. A bad film will never work.”

“The heroes have to have the confidence of letting the girl have the stronger part. There is no love story without it. Check Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir’s love stories. They are all secure enough to let their female counterparts shine. And if the women are not big enough, then what are they winning in the end?” Kohli asked.

Speaking about Hum Tum’s enduring legacy, the director concluded, “It spoke a new language, because there was a Hum Tum, there was a Jab We Met. So, it all follows.” We agree, Mr Kohli, we agree.