Farah Khan he is known for making these entertaining larger-than-life films. While ‘Main Hoon Na’ and ‘Om Shanti Om’ are now considered cult classics, even ‘Tees Maar Khan’, which was perceived as a box-office flop, caught Gen Z. Farah also performed “Happy New Year” with a cast Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika PadukoneSonu Sood, Bomban Irani. The film also featured actor Mohan Kapur and in a recent interview, he revealed Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchanreaction to the film. In an interview with Siddharth Kannan she said, “I got a lot of criticism for Happy New Year.” The host then brought up the much-discussed screening where Jaya Bachchan openly expressed her disappointment with the film.Recalling the evening, Mohan said, “If a film works, it’s a great film, and if it doesn’t, it’s bad. What Jaya Bachchan ji had to say about the film was her opinion. Everyone has an opinion about it, and rightly so. There was a special performance, and I was there. Jaya ji and Mr. Bachchan were sitting in the back, and in between, Amit ji had a surprised expression. Jaya ji walked outside the hall to get refreshments. There, he told SRK what he said, and Shah Rukh, being the gentleman that he is, reacted by saying that he understood his point of view and added that the film was not made for a thoughtful audience or anything like that. They were making a funny movie.’Mohan also defended Farah Khan and Abhishek Bachchan, saying that actors fully commit to the tone of a film when they agree to do it.“Farah Khan is the only person I asked for the job because I loved her first film, Main Hoon Na, and then Om Shanti Om. If you say yes, enjoy the process. Abhishek Bachchan is a smart actor; whatever he did, he did the film, he did justice to his role. If as a mother it seemed foolish, then she was justified in looking at it that way. There is no good or bad. So many good movies flopped, and bad ones became blockbusters.“In 2022, Jaya Bachchan herself spoke about Happy New Year at the Mumbai Literary Festival and admitted that she was blown away by the film.“I told Abhish that he’s a great actor if he can act silly in front of the camera like that. I can’t be a part of what’s done in films these days, and that’s why I don’t do films anymore. I couldn’t do it. But he did it so freely; I was amazed. Of course, I went and told the producer of the film and the lead actor that I have never seen a film that was more absurd than this.’She also recalled Shah Rukh Khan’s honest response to her critics. “He was so quick… an amazing man. He said, ‘Jaya aunty, no more silly than Amar Akbar Anthony’. I told him it could be entertaining. Amar Akbar Anthony is a film I love to watch… if you want to laugh, don’t take home anything you’ve seen in the theatre.”Mohan Kapur further revealed that he personally approached Farah Khan for a role in the film as he was eager to work with her.“On Happy New Year, I applied for a role with Farah, but that very night, I got a call saying that they had already cast me for it. A month later, I got a call again, and they offered me a role of a different character. The shooting was the next day. When I got to the set of Film City, Farah said I was like a piece of furniture in the film. There was no paper, but when I called asking to be a part of his film, he felt bad for me, so he wrote me a paper. I was alone with Jackie Shroff. Later, he gave me some interviews. I was criticized for the role; many fans asked me why I played that role. But you take some decisions from your heart, and this was it, because I wanted to do a Farah Khan film.’Despite the criticism surrounding the film, Happy New Year was a major commercial success. According to Sacnilk, the film earned around 397 crores worldwide against a budget of 150 crores.
