Kunal Kohli has made a career out of directing romantic comedies. His most definitive one till date is Hum Tum (2004), starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji. On this edition of SCREEN Spotlight, the filmmaker looks back at that movie, the struggles of casting the ‘metrosexual’ lead actor, working with Siddharth Anand as a co-writer, and the controversy around Saif winning the National Award.Hum Tum fetched Saif Ali Khan a National Award. But is it true that a lot of top actors said no to that part, including Aamir Khan?No, Aamir actually didn’t hear the script, to be fair to him. He was going through his first divorce with Reena Dutta then. So, he wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Hrithik Roshan really loved the script. But he was just not ready to do it. Because he said, “I’m not sure how my character in Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003) would come out or be accepted,” which it wasn’t. My own film, Mujhse Dosti Karoge! (2002) hadn’t worked with him. But he said, “This film is pure gold! I don’t have the confidence to do it right now. I’m not in that space.” So, he gave it a pass. Vivek Oberoi was a very big star at that time. He’s a very accomplished actor now as well. But this was right after Company (2002) and Saathiya (2002). He kept coming in and going out for various reasons. And then we zeroed in on Saif.Saif really killed it in that part because of his metrosexual image after Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Nikkhil Advani’s Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003). Have we lost that metrosexual man in films today?We haven’t lost the metrosexual man, we’ve not understood him. That came naturally to Saif, to me, to Imtiaz Ali in Love Aaj Kal (2009), and to Siddharth Anand in Salaam Namaste (2005). We presented Saif in that zone so naturally because we’re also like that. Our thought process was modern, and at the same time, desi. When you try to do that, as either an actor or a director, it won’t work. Directors who’ve tried to that aren’t finding their voice with it. Saif Ali Khan in Hum Tum.How do you look back at the controversy around Saif winning the National Award for Hum Tum (his mother Sharmila Tagore was the CBFC chairperson then)?Well, I just directed the film. The head of the jury at that time was Sudhir Mishra. You should go catch Sudhir (laughs). I’m flattered that Saif got it for a film I did. I had nothing to do with him getting the National Award except ensuring a great performance from him. That was my only contribution.Story continues below this adAbhishek Bachchan had an extended guest appearance in Hum Tum, playing Rani’s husband. How did you convince him to do such a small part?He was doing a walk-in part for Adi (Aditya Chopra, producer). It was just a fun part with two to three days of work. It’s not some great story. It was just, “Listen, help us out.” And so, he did.Hum Tum used animation as a plot device, which looks better than some of these AI-generated animated films today. How much did that cost you?No one’s been able to put animation that well in a film before or after Hum Tum. I don’t know why. People still talk about it today after 23 years. At that time, it took up a big part of my budget. I had a very small budget. It was smaller than most films with smaller actors today. They’d still get Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore. I made Hum Tum on a budget of Rs 7.50 crore, out of which animation was Rs 50 lakh. And I still saved Rs 2 lakh. Rs 7.48 crore was the final budget.Story continues below this adAlso Read — ‘I can’t dance in front of your dad’: Mona Singh reveals ‘tricky’ shoot of Aryan Khan’s debut, Shah Rukh Khan’s special promiseSiddharth Anand was a co-writer on Hum Tum. He pivoted to big-budget action thrillers with Bang Bang! in 2014. Did you see that shift coming?There’s a joke that Siddharth and I share. When I used to write, I used to write, “Then they enter a huge church, a huge hall.” Siddharth would say, “Everything you write is ‘huge’!” Well, now he’s the one making huge films. God bless him. He’s cracked the action really well. I really enjoyed Pathaan (2023). He plans big, and executes bigger. More power to him. I’m very proud of him, and happy for him. Siddharth and his wife Mamta Anand met on my set of Mujhse Dosti Karoge! She was doing costumes for me. So, it’s nice to see her heading their production house (Marflix Pictures) and doing so well for herself now.