Simi speaks on Jackie Chan

Courtesy: IndiaFM
Monday, September 04, 2006
The Jackie Chan interview is unlike anything on the actor.
I really laboured over it. It's not just an interview. It's a profile on the man. Star World is going all-out with one-minute trailers in multiplexes. Everyone always accused me of being so comfortable with the guests because I knew everybody. 'Oh you knew Anil Ambani or Amitabh Bachchan or whoever.' But when I went to interview Jackie Chan in Hong Kong I didn't know him from Adam. We shook hands and had exactly eight seconds to be introduced and then we were both miked. He gave me exactly an hour and I didn't want to waste a second. When the Rendezvous is telecast next week, no one will know I was interviewing someone I didn't know. I enjoy interviews with strangers far more. Knowing a guest is a disadvantage.

Could you share some intimate moments from the interview?
It just flowed. I had come armed with the research. He was blown away by how much I knew about him. Because of that he gave me the respect. He revealed things about himself and his marriage that he hasn't said on any interview before.

He tells you that he married his wife because she got pregnant before marriage?
That's right. This fact isn't even mentioned in his autobiography. I was surprised by his revelation. I was touched by his honesty. I asked the crew why he shared such confidences with me when he'll probably never met me again. At the end of it he said it wasn't an interview but a conversation, and that everything he had said was the truth. Then he came and knelt before me and sang 'Falling In Love' to me. He didn't want to stop talking. The spark plugs just connected.

This quite a coup!
I feel my talk show is no longer a talk show. Rendezvous is like a documentary. Jackie and I could've carried on talking indefinitely.

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