Mexican beauty Barbara Mori, who is paired opposite Hrithik Roshan in Kites, has been turning heads since the official teaser of the film came out but director Anurag Basu says the the actress was not hired for her sex appeal.
Hrithik has often been equated to a Greek God by Bollywood followers and his chemistry with Mori has been a talking point. The actor's lip locking moments with Mori even led to rumours that his marriage with Suzzanne was in trouble. However, film maker Anurag Basu insists that Kites is much more than just a skin fest.
"Of course, Barbara is attractive; we all know that. Still, it wasn't just her sex appeal that made us sign her. She has done so much good work in films as well as on TV. I saw them and based on that, we decided that Barbara would be the right fit for Kites," said Basu.
The director is aware that Mori is one of the top searched celebrities on internet today, at least in India, and audience expectation is pretty high from the young woman who is also a mother of a grown up kid in real life.
"Yes, people do search for her pictures on internet. However, as a director I can vouch for the fact that she surprised when we were shooting the film. She has quite a few dramatic scenes in the film and I was wondering if she would be able to pull then off. But I was taken by surprise by her acting," Basu added.
{{/usCountry}}"Yes, people do search for her pictures on internet. However, as a director I can vouch for the fact that she surprised when we were shooting the film. She has quite a few dramatic scenes in the film and I was wondering if she would be able to pull then off. But I was taken by surprise by her acting," Basu added.
{{/usCountry}}The director says he was so impressed with Mori's performance that he started rethinking about some of the scenes that he had originally written. Basu decided to sizzle up the act by rewriting a few scenes and adding a different perspective to them.
"Really, I was blown over by the chemistry between Barbara and Hrithik. Some of the very scenes that originally looked great to me were seemingly fake once I saw the two on screen. I had to throw these scenes away and improvise at the last moment. Call it ironical but some of the best scenes in the film are those which were written at the very end. Hrithik and Barbara really look so real and good together."
Basu, who worked for close to three years on the film, says shooting for the movie was a "great experience" but he avoided getting carried off.
"Rather than feeling overtly elated, I used to tell myself right through the making of Kites to not get carried away. I had great locales, the best art direction and the stars. I could shoot in as opulent manner as possible but I knew that I didn't have to go away from the soul and character of the film. It happens so many times that due to the aspects as mentioned, a director gets greedy."
Also starring Kangna Ranaut in a special appearance along with Kabir Bedi, Kites has music by Rajesh Roshan and releases all over this Friday.