A director works like a dog, says Ahmed

Did the failure of your first film, disappoint you?
Any failure disappoints anyone. You learn from failures and you learn from success.

So did you have a different approach in this outing?
I did feel that I need a change and I would not have a Sunny Deol in my film. But I knew Sunny was the right person to work with again. The role completely demanded it. Then we got Shahid and Paresh and the fun loving gang. Post Lakeer, when I checked my mail all my fans said they expected something visually appealing and young and energetic and somehow they didn't get that. Now that the promo of Fool N Final is out, I have got very positive reviews for it. They said that this was expected from my first film. You learn from people, you don't learn from yourself.

Sunny Deol is not exactly known for his dancing histrionics. Does he have any dances in the film?
Yes he does. In fact he has danced with Shahid and Viveik. Shahid was a bit help for me on the sets. Sunny used to be shy on the sets like a kid so then Shahid encouraged him. Simultaneously, I had action scenes where Shahid and Sunny were fighting together. That's where Sunny helped Shahid. He explained to Shahid on how he should take a blow and how to hit other people. There is a lot of respect because Shahid respects Deol as a senior and Sunny respects Shahid because he is much junior to him. So for me it was easy. If you have two artists who cannot dance then it's difficult but when one can dance while the other cannot then it gets easier. There is a nice Punjabi up-tempo song which is going to rule the discos for sure. Shahid, Viveik and Sunny are dancing to it.

You have also choreographed for Anil Sharma's Apne. So how many of the Deols did you make dance to your tunes?
All three of them together (smiles). I was the first human in India who has encountered this visual. God has given me the pleasure to make three Deols dance in one frame. Right from Dharamji to Sunny to Bobby. I was handling three eras. It was not that I was dealing with one artist of one generation and then the next and then next but they were a family. A father with his two sons who are very close knitted. They have so much respect for each other.

It was a bit difficult because Dharamji used to dance and feel shy. Sunny used to come to him and tell him to do it only if he was comfortable. He would then say he can do it. Then Bobby would come to me and say that he would not jump so much in front of papa. So I was facing all these problems on the sets. But Anil Sharma was a big support. He knows the family very well. He kept telling Dharamji 'aapko toh karna hi padega'. At the end of the day they all had fun.

I made Sunny and Bobby dance like Dharamji. Both of them would imitate him and he would get angry and shout 'shut up, you are copying me' and then the whole song would stop. Then he would take off and dance to the song Jat Yamla Pagla Deewana. If you recall, Dharamji created a step where he would dance with one hand up and one hand down. So the other two also do that. Dharamji is the original man who created that movement and this time he is doing it with his sons. It's going to be hilarious.

Firoz Nadiadwala had announced a film Deewane Huye Paagal with you way back in 2004 along with Phir Hera Pheri. The film later got shelved and Vikram Bhatt directed a film with the same title for Firoz. Is Fool N Final the film you were going to direct?
No, it was a different film. The cast comprised of Anil Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor and Nana Patekar. It was a different cast and story. After the failure of Lakeer, I didn't want to just jump into another film straightaway. It was nice of Firoz because he gave me the liberty and the opportunity to think twice. We announced the film, had a mahurat but I was not sure of the film. So I told him that and he told me take a year off if I wanted to figure things out. So he roped in Vikram Bhatt and they made another film as they had the dates.