Dining with the Kapoors, Editor, Geeta Singh

0:00Geeta SinghFor me, the most touching parts are the parts where Rima and Armaan visit their old home, the Deonar Cottage, which is now sold, and also the part where Rima talks about, losing her parents and her siblings. Those re…

0:17Jawad MirYeah.

0:18Geeta SinghFor me, I think the person who stands out the most is Rima Jain. Like, she's the rock star. Like, she just, you know, she's, she's endearing, she's funny, she's emotional. She's also the one who has all the stories, 'cause she's witnessed that whole life with her dad and mum, everybody. So the Deonar Cottage bit was just so heartwarming. It was so emotional. And to see, you know, at that moment where, you know, she just puts her head on, her brother's, shoulder when they're sitting on the swing, and they're just, you know, it's a life gone by, and how many memories they must be having as children in that house with Raj Kapoor.

1:08Jawad MirGood morning, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Kingdom of Dreams Podcast, the making of stories. I'm your host, Jawwad Mir. Today, my guest is Geeta Singh once again. I had the pleasure of speaking to her about January last year for Netflix series, The Roshans. Today, she's here to talk about the most recent one-hour special by Netflix called Dining with Kapoors. Dining with Kapoors is essentially about the famous Kapoor family from India that has been involved in Bollywood for the last good 70 years as directors, as producers, as actors, as actresses, and essentially this one-hour special is that entire family getting together for dining while one of the family members prepares them a meal, and it's just a very casual, very authentic conversation between all these family members as any other family members would do it. It's a great one-hour special, and I truly had a great time talking to Geeta about Dining with Kapoors by Netflix. I don't know what stage you came on the project, but when you did ca… come on the project, was it always, like, planned as an hours long special, or was it maybe a couple of episodes or maybe, like, a two-hour special, or was that the whole brief concept of the, that special?

2:22Geeta SinghSo I actually came in a little later. This, the show was actually being done by somebody else initially.

2:29Jawad MirOkay.

2:29Geeta SinghWhile I was actually cutting Roshans. But there were some things that were not really working over there, so it came to me much later. So but it was always planned as a one-hour special, one hour, one hour 15 minutes, but one episode. It was never, I think, planned for more than one. So that was the initial concept and idea, and I, of course, just went ahead with that and yeah, to answer your question.

2:54Jawad MirGreat. Makes sense. And when you came on the project, was the production, I'm assuming, completely done at the time?

3:03Geeta SinghOh, yeah. Yeah, they had done a few versions of the edit as well. S… maybe I think it was not working at some sense, so I was, I sort of came in at that point. So yeah, the sh… the shoot was complete, fully. Like, yeah, so but I did start from scratch.

3:24Jawad MirGot it.

3:24Geeta SinghBecause it's hard to work from another version of the edit also…

3:27Jawad MirYeah

3:28Geeta Singh... Pretty much.

3:28Jawad Mir'Cause you don't know where everything is, plus the story could be a little bit leading in a different direction.

3:34Geeta SinghNot a little bit.

3:34Jawad MirBut

3:35Geeta SinghCompletely changed.

3:35Jawad MirA lot. Okay. I was just being, nice. You know, the Kapoor name is very well known, in the subcontinent. I remember, you know, growing… I used to have this cassette. We bought it in 1988 when I was in Pakistan. It was, like, the best of Raj Kapoor. I still remember the cover of it and, you know, the songs that you, we all know. When did you first become aware of who Raj Kapoor is and his stories and all?

4:12Geeta SinghI come from a home which is, very fond of Hindi cinema. So I've grown up watching a lot of films and old films also. So my mother and my dad both are, like, avid film buffs and, so I watched all these films as a child. I have grown up watching a lot of, Raj Kapoor films, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Bachchan, all of them. So I've... Like, full film me.

4:39Jawad MirSo you knew what you were getting into pretty much.

4:42Geeta SinghBoth and happily.

4:43Jawad MirYeah.

4:43Geeta SinghGive me more. I mean, I just love this stuff.

4:46Jawad MirI think the only film that I saw of Raj Kapoor, well, I've seen two, but the first one that I've seen, I saw was, the one that he directed, Prem Rog.

4:56Geeta SinghOh, yeah.

4:57Jawad MirWhich Rishi Kapoor and I don't remember, Padmini, was it?

5:00Geeta SinghPa… Padmini Kola.

5:01Jawad MirYeah. Yeah. I mean, it was a, now that I think about it was a very, ahead of its time film because it talked about a taboo that…

5:11Geeta SinghYes

5:12Jawad Mir... You know, even I don't know if now it still, if it happens in certain parts of India or not, but, he's an amazing storyteller. I mean, I picked up on that. I think that's the only film that I saw of his that he directed at the time, and he, I saw Heena, which I think Rishi directed, right? Was it Rishi, or was it…

5:30Jawad Mir... The one with the Pakistan angle and the Rish…

5:34Geeta SinghI don't remember. I don't know.

5:35Jawad MirI don't know, I don't know who directed it, but it was Kapoor, basically under Kapoor banner.

5:40Geeta SinghRight.

5:40Jawad MirWhat's your favorite film of Raj Kapoor and why?

5:45Geeta SinghOh.

5:46Jawad MirI know it's a tough question.

5:47Geeta SinghTough one. There's so many, like all of them. Shree 420, Awara. There's so many.

5:52Jawad MirNo, but something that stands out, like a scene, a song, or a story, or a messaging now that, you know, later part in life.

6:00Geeta SinghI think all of his films, the ones that he acted in even later, had a lot of social messaging. Which was re… really touched your heart. But I have to say, like, if I just come back to this show ... I think the idea of this show was not to delve too much into his work, while the backdrop was, of course, his 100th birth anni… anniversary.

6:27Jawad MirRight.

6:27Geeta SinghJust that. But it wasn't to go too deep, into his filmography and to, analyze his work. So having said that, I didn't get a chance to view all his films during this project, so my memories are largely from what I have seen, growing up, which is very long back. So I didn't get to see a lot of his films during making of this show because that's, because, A, I had only four months to finish the edit.

6:58Geeta SinghSo you have to, and you have to stick to what your, you know, the path is. So there was no time for me to... And like I said, we were not analyzing his work. That was not the intent of the show, so I didn't. So I'm,.. I can't answer that question very well right now because I didn't get a chance to revisit all his films as much as I would have liked to, and maybe now I will. But I didn't, during the edit. It was more actually picking out, if you not… if you've seen, you have seen, so there were no dialogues really. There were just a few songs that we chose. So and the songs are, of course, we were all aware of. But I couldn't watch every film and that joy I didn't get during this project because it was out of the ambit.

7:45Jawad MirDid it surprise you? Because it certainly surprised me, the, there's a part in the, in the episode where I don't know m… which film it was that he went to Russia and he was, like, greeted…

7:55Geeta SinghAwaara

7:55Jawad Mir... Like, with the, with, yeah, Awaara, with, like, such a mass fan following. Did you know this beforehand?

8:03Geeta SinghYeah. Huge fan following. Huge. Like, you just…

8:06Jawad MirWhy Ru… why Russia?

8:09Geeta SinghIn fact, had interesting anecdotes which, didn't make it to the cut where they said, you know, that, very often, like, they would get into, like, cab and they'd get to know that they are members of, the Raj Kapoor family, so the cabbie wouldn't charge them. Says, "Oh, no. We're not taking money from you because you're Raj Kapoor's wife or his son or daughter," or whatever. So they were just, they were just crazy about him. There's, there's also another story, I don't know which film it was, where he went and the crowds actually picked up the whole car in which he was sitting.

8:43Jawad MirOh, wow.

8:43Geeta SinghJust... Yeah. So I mean, phenomenal fan following.

8:48Jawad MirI wonder, I wonder it has anything to do with the politics of the time in Russia and the films that he was making, if it sort of resonated in terms of the messaging.

8:57Geeta SinghMaybe. Maybe. But that, the Awaara…

8:59Jawad MirInteresting

9:00Geeta Singh... Was so lovely, where, you know, he's singing, he's standing in the car and, you know, the crowds are singing along with him and he's dancing. And if you notice, when he's dancing, there is Dev Anand also behind.

9:10Jawad MirYeah, I saw that. Yeah, I saw that.

9:12Geeta SinghDev Anand and Nargis and, Nirupa Roy. They're all there.

9:17Jawad MirWow.

9:17Geeta SinghThat was a lovely, archival piece that we got luckily.

9:23Jawad MirYeah. No, that's lovely, man. That's lovely, Geeta. Like, I wanna get back into the special. So what was the, sort of your take on it when you got into, when you got involved, the showrunners take, the director's take, and the angle, and, you know, what was the direction that you guys wanted to head into and how did you sort of tackle that with the material that you had available?

9:56Geeta SinghSo one thing was clear, that, okay, this family, which is a foodie family, a film family, are coming together to celebrate Mr. Raj Kapoor's 100th birthday. That was the backdrop. And the, I think that the, my only thought was that, what is the purpose of this show? So when you finish watching it, what does it leave you with?

10:22Jawad MirYeah.

10:22Geeta SinghSo when I was watching the rushes, the one thing that really stuck out, and connected with me was that this could be any family story. Like, I can imagine my home, and this happens typically every time I go back to my home in Delhi with my parents and, you know, my siblings and cousins. You know, the food at the table is over, but the conversations continue. You know, it's just a lingering feeling and you're pulling each other's legs and there's banter, and you're thinking or remembering old days. And so I think that was the warmth that we wanted to infuse in the show. Wasn't difficult to do because it was already there. So that everyone who's watching the show feels that, "This is my story. And they may be a very big film family, the first family of Hindi cinema and all of that, but here they are just regular people. They are not celebrities, and I can connect to them at that level. And also, of course, get a glimpse into their life, their stories." for example, you know, there's one, part where they're all talking about, their memories of food, and they speak about this one person called Chandrapal, who is some staff member in their house.

11:37Geeta SinghAnd the way Kareena says, "Chandrapal, "who to kab ka mar gaya." You know, there was this thing, I was like, in every home there must be some Chandrapal, some human being like that who's someone's Man Friday, or he's just the go-to person in the house, you know, that staff member. So I was like, "These are the small things that people are going to enjoy and connect with." I did. And I think a lot, and that's what is c… people are finding very relatable. So Armaan, who is the producer of the show, also Raj Kapoor's grandson and, now a chef. So he hosted the lunch. So the idea was that he hosts the lunch for his entire family, cousins and aunts and uncles, brings the whole family together under one roof to celebrate this momentous occasion. Yeah, that's pretty much it. And it, the, I mean, the shoot was pretty chaotic because truly there was nothing scripted, not one word. Everything was just playing out as is.

12:37Geeta SinghThe cameras were just there, and they were... They, like, they didn't bother. They were just talking to each other, sometimes talking over each other, talking mostly over each other, and just being there and enjoying the moment. That's it. And of course they had shot the interviews, but so that we could, you know, get that intercutted with those bits to make the story more interesting. Yeah.

13:03Jawad MirI, you know, when I was watching it, and then when I finished watching it, so I walked away with a few things, right? So I... It kind of felt like an episode from Seinfeld. I'm not sure if you've watched Seinfeld.

13:15Geeta SinghNo

13:15Jawad Mir... Seinfeld is literally, like, about nothing. Like, there is no story whatsoever. It's just four people, you know, complaining about their lives and the good things, the bad thing, mostly bad thing. But there's no necessarily story. And one thi… another thing that I loved, so the person th… that's the outsider in the, in the show is Saif.

13:40Jawad MirAnd how in the end he kind of talks about that, you know, he's not... He doesn't really has shared all the stories, but he's heard them, and I think that was a sort of a doorway for, as an audience member, into that family. So Saif was the audience. I…

13:56Geeta SinghYeah

13:56Jawad Mir... That's what I felt.

13:58Geeta SinghThat's right.

13:58Jawad MirAnd I think that, and I think that was pretty neatly done. I don't, I don't know if it was intentional or unintentional, but I really resonated with that because that gave me that, you know, okay, now he's an outsider more or less, s… so are we as an audience member. And I think the timing of the show couldn't be better because in the US it's Thanksgiving, so the whole thing about, you know, getting together with the family and stuff

14:23Geeta SinghYeah. So in fact, at the end when, you know, the, when Armaan brings Navya forward and said the next generation must take this, tradition forward, and then suddenly Saif comes up and, you know, says his bit about being welcomed so warmly into the family. It was so spontaneous. It... Like I said, there was nothing planned. Everyone was just doing something as though they're just in their homes. Like, if you're in your house and you're sitting with 15 other people, what will you do? Just you'll do regular stuff. You're not, you're not…

14:52Jawad MirYeah

14:53Geeta Singh... Rehearsed. It was exactly that. And that's what we... I said let it be raw. Let it be sa…

15:01Jawad MirBut that's, yeah

15:02Geeta Singh... Because that's how families are and how, that's how family get-togethers are. We don't want it to be polished, because the moment we start, you know, smoothening the edges, it's going to start looking like it's scripted and rehearsed, which it wasn't. So I said let it be rough. Let it be a little bit of slightly clumsy somewhere. It's fine.

15:20Jawad MirAnd I think that's what resonates, and you can tell. Like, you know, audience can figure out very easily nowadays where it's, there's BS and where there's real, moments. And the rawness of it shows in certain part of their conversations, like the things that they say about each other. I mean, there's constant dissing, there's constant praising and, you know, "Oh, you were rolling?" Or, you know, it's stuff like that. I think that really hits hard with the audience that they're in there. And obviously it saves so much production time because you got, like, you know, what, seven, eight cameras maybe just kind of rolling nonstop and, you know, two-hour dinner or three-hour dinner cut down to one.

15:57Geeta SinghCameras, like 40 audio tracks. It was, like, pretty manic. It was quite crazy. And then, you know, and everyone's talking at the same time, right? So when I was, editing it, like, okay, so, you know, then there are these groups that are formed, right? So there are four people talking here, there are four people talking there. You don't know... If you put all the tracks on, you don't know what they're saying. It's just a cacophony.

16:20Jawad MirYeah.

16:20Geeta SinghYou have to literally go solo each person's track and say, "Okay, what is, what is he talking about?" And that's when I found interesting conversations, whether it was, you know, some Prithviraj Kapoor's height. That's how they start talking about each other's height, or they're talking about, you know, whether, "Are you my cousin or are you my niece?" You know, small... So there were small conversations which I had to actually single out tracks to extract from that eight, 10-hour, rolling of the lunchtime. So that was, hard very hard. Very hard work.

16:53Jawad MirYeah.

16:53Geeta SinghTo actually, you know, try to make sense of it. Sometimes you'll, you know, you like something, but sadly there's no camera on that person at that point, but you want to use it, so what do you do? You know, so you work around those things, the best that you can. So but yeah, it was, fun.

17:12Jawad MirYeah. You know, another movie, I just remembered while you were, talking about, Prithviraj, was, the two other movies that I saw of Raj Kapoor, the director, which were actually really good. They were fun. I think it, certainly one of them was, his Biwi Aur Biwi with, Sanjeev Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar and, his name, Krishna Kapoor's dad. What's Kareena Kapoor's dad's name?

17:41Geeta SinghRandhir.

17:42Jawad MirRandhir. Him, yeah, it wa… it was a hilarious movie. If you haven't seen it, watch it.

17:48Geeta SinghYeah.

17:48Jawad MirIt's awesome.

17:49Geeta SinghOkay, I don't remember.

17:50Jawad MirYeah. It…

17:51Geeta SinghThere was Bobby. Bobby?

17:53Jawad MirBobby, yeah. I, Bobby is obviously the classic, but Biwi Aur Biwi is more like, it's basically this guy who likes this girl who's a daughter of a military guy, and he's, like, really hardcore and he's not letting him into the world. And he finds a duplicate of his potential father-in-law.

18:12Geeta SinghOh.

18:12Jawad MirAnd there's, and there's a switch. So the whole film revolves around that, and it's, it's one heck of a film if you watch it. In terms of, I mean, you kind of touched upon the audio tracks and the camera angles. Were there any other technical challenges that you came across where there was, "Okay, should we get something else that we need to get in terms of interviews?" Or was it all that you had, and that you sort of had to work with? Any workaround that you had to do that you can talk about?

18:48Geeta SinghI wanted to shoot a little bit with Armaan because there were some bits that I felt we could have had on camera. You know, the parts where he talks about…

19:01Jawad MirWas it in the kitchen?

19:03Geeta SinghNo, the parts where he also speaks about some of the family members not being able to make it to the lunch. Then there's some other bits which I felt that we should have spoken on camera, but we were running really late. We were late in the production and, we just had to... But largely, no, I think I had a lot of material. We had a lot of interviews, which you've seen, and of course the entire lunch scene. And then we had those, a few scenes where the... For me, the most touching parts are the parts where Rima and Armaan visit their old home, the Deonar Cottage, which is now sold, and also the part where Rima talks about, losing her parents and her siblings. Those re…

19:49Jawad MirYeah.

19:50Geeta SinghFor me, I think the person who stands out the most is Rima Jain. Like, she's the rock star. Like, she just, you know, she's, she's endearing, she's funny, she's emotional. She's also the one who has all the stories, 'cause she's witnessed that whole life with her dad and mum and everybody. So the Deonar Cottage bit was just so heartwarming. It was so emotional. And to see, you know, at that moment where, you know, she just puts her head on, her brother's, shoulder when they're sitting on the swing, and they just, you know, it's a life gone by and how many memories they must be having as children in that house with Raj Kapoor.

20:31Jawad MirYeah. No, th… she was literally, even though she came in late…

20:36Geeta SinghYes

20:36Jawad Mir... In the dinner, she really became the glue of the entire, you know, special. And she's very outspoken and she's very, you know, raw. And she kind of looks identical to her dad, honestly, if you think if you, if you…

20:51Geeta SinghYeah, she does. Yeah

20:54Jawad MirShe... Was there a part that you really wanted to keep in but obviously had to go because of the story arc and narrative that was very powerful or that was very funny that you can talk about?

21:08Geeta SinghNo. I actually wanted to keep, a little more of, Raj Kapoor's, filmography. I wanted to keep a little more of, people talking about his cinema. That was one. And we also had a very lovely sequence of Armaan, and his brother visiting their grandfather's, Samadhi or where he was, where his a… ashes were poured.

21:37Jawad MirAshes, yeah.

21:38Geeta SinghSo that was a very touching thing, and they would... Because they'd never seen their granddad, right? He had passed before they were born, befo… because, Rima got married later. So it's a very sweet sequence. But the platform felt that maybe, you know, it was, it was stretching that part a little bit and, people shouldn't... But, see, because we kept going back and forth, right? We would come into the lunch, we would go away to what happened three weeks ago.

22:06Jawad MirYeah.

22:06Geeta SinghBack and then, you know, go to something else and come back. So that, the balance of when are we going back, when are we coming back to the lunch, how much gap should there be? Will people forget that, oh, there's a lunch happening. You know what I mean? I've taken you somewhere else, but hey, that's happening as well. So we had to be mindful of that, so we don't have very long gaps where people forget that these guys are sitting over a lunch. So that bit was a bit tricky, so which is why they felt that maybe we can, you know, trim this part. I would have loved to have it, but,..

22:41Jawad MirWhat about in the credits or just before? I mean, the ending was really great. His messaging, Raj Kapoor's message was awesome. But yeah, I mean, just sort of throwing it out there.

22:53Geeta SinghYeah, we just wanted to have, like, more fun, so we just used some of the photographs and, you know, the stills from the BTS moments that we hadn't got to ... Just ending it on a lovely high note. Yeah.

23:04Jawad MirI really, I really hope, and there was part of me that was wishing that was there, which you kind of touched upon, 'cause he is, like, the pioneer of Indian cinema as a director. Like, he's, like, you know, even at the time in the '50s and '60s, y… if you pick up his films, like, they have proper, block, c… blocking. They have proper editing. Like, everything is done artistically, not just kind of like picking up a camera. I really wish, I was hoping to see some of the stuff from that angle, like how his storytelling abilities, but I know that would take it away from the whole concept of Dining with Kapoors, right? But I hope to see something like that because, I mean, he's, he's a, he's one of the greatest filmmakers, in India.

23:50Geeta SinghI hope, but that totally, I think, a whole series on him is really warranted, and it should happen, because, I was telling Armaan, I said, you know, "We've just, we've only teased the audience. It really, we should give them the whole thing." but like you said, I mean, it would have... That's another show.

24:09Jawad MirYeah. I hope it's made. I really hope it's made.

24:12Geeta SinghI hope so.

24:12Jawad MirBecause one thing it did, this certainly did for me, and I've been meaning to do this for a while. You know how there's so many movies and TV shows that you wanna watch, but you don't have time? I really want to start watching some of his old stuff, because, again, from a cinematic standpoint and storytelling, not because Raj Kapoor, just because there is so much education in what he did and the cinema that he created.

24:38Geeta SinghYeah. And Rima was telling me, in fact, that he was very particular at the edit table. You know, he would try different things and work out, different endings for the film, and then call his family and show him option one and option two, and then figure out, you know, what works better, get their reactions. So it was nice to hear all these stories from her also. So I'm hoping that, you know, we do a full-fledged documentary on Raj Kapoor and, yeah. But this was

25:06Jawad MirOne… Sorry?

25:06Geeta SinghNo. Okay. Yeah, you…

25:08Jawad MirNo, I was g… I was gonna ask you, like, when, once it was done, obviously they had, like a bunch of different screenings, including family screening, or maybe even a premiere. Was there something that you were there for to s… witness, to see their reaction in any kind of a setting, whether it was at a premiere…

25:26Jawad Mir... Or any screening?

25:27Geeta SinghWe didn't have a premiere. We had a screening, in my studio for the s… for the crew who had worked on it. And there we... But that was before it was, finalized, like the first cut… ... That we'd done, so that we could all, you know, if there was any feedback, we could incorporate that.

25:45Jawad MirSure. Yeah.

25:47Geeta SinghThen we, I, had shown it to Rima and her family, but we didn't do a screening for the whole family. I mean, I wasn't part of that, even if it was done.

25:58Jawad MirYeah. I'm sure they didn't even have the same schedules.

26:01Geeta SinghIt's, yeah, also to get everyone together again to watch this is very…

26:05Jawad MirYeah

26:05Geeta Singh... Very hard, as a marker.

26:06Jawad MirBut what did Arm… Armand and Rima say to you when they saw it? Like, did they give you any thoughts?

26:12Geeta SinghThey loved it.

26:13Jawad MirOf course they did. Yeah.

26:16Geeta SinghBut it's

26:16Jawad MirDid you, did you…

26:17Geeta SinghI, the actions I'm getting now are also that it's very warm, it's very emotional, it's funny. Like, the whole section where Aditya is roasting his family members, you know, it's funny and it's, it's, again, it's, it's like it's just pulling each other's leg and having fun and, it's sweet. So, it gives you a range of emotions and, it's compact. It's like 61 minutes. Some people said, "Oh, we wanted little more." So I was like, "I would rather leave you with wanting more than saying, 'Okay, when is this gonna be over?'"

26:52Jawad Mir100%.

26:53Geeta SinghYeah. So less is more. So, I think the duration was right. Well, we could have gone up by a couple of minutes. W… I had a slightly longer cut, not by much, maybe like an hour of five minutes, like four or five minutes more, in which I had a little more of, Raj Kapoor and those, that archival stuff of the Samadhi and all. But I think it's, it's the right duration.

27:15Jawad MirYeah. I mean, it's like you said earlier, like, if you take away the audience too much from what the show is about, then they get distracted. On the other hand, I don't know if you know the story of Godfather II, I talk about this to so many people. Y… y… you've seen Godfather II, I'm assuming. You know, it goes back and forth, right? And I was, I had, what's his name? J.V. Hart, he's a screenwriter on Bram Stoker's Dracula, which Francis Ford Coppola directed. So he was telling me that Francis told him that when they were working on Godfather II, they ha… And you'll like this from an editor's standpoint. They had a screening, and the reaction was horrible.

27:59Geeta SinghOh.

27:59Jawad MirAnd Francis, and Francis was like, you know, "What the hell?" He was nervous as hell, even though he, Godfather I was super successful.

28:06Geeta SinghYeah.

28:06Jawad MirSo him and his editor then sort of sat down, I think over a weekend, and they figured out what the problem was. The problem was that the film was going back and forth way too quickly, so the audience wasn't connecting to it. So instead of having 10 minute in the past and 10 minutes in the present, they extended each to 20 minutes.

28:28Geeta SinghRight.

28:29Jawad MirAnd that way the audience kind of felt okay. And that's all they did, and the film worked, right?

28:35Geeta SinghYeah. That's, that's…

28:35Jawad MirSo it's the complete opposite of what you're saying, but that's demanding with the story.

28:39Geeta SinghYeah. So that's the whole thing with the b… balancing that. How much of the lunch do we show?

28:44Jawad MirYeah.

28:44Geeta SinghWhen can we cut away to something else? And then how far, I mean, how long do we stay there and come back when? So that was the tricky bit, but I don't think,.. I think we managed to create that balance. So people are not, they haven't forgotten the lunch, so they know that we're gonna come back here at some point, I think.

29:04Jawad MirYeah. No, you're right. I was quite surprised by it. I was quite taken by it. I like the fact that it was short.

29:12Geeta SinghYeah.

29:12Jawad MirI didn't like the fact that it was short, if that makes sense, because I wanted to see more Raj Kapoor stuff. But you know, overall, really well executed. And it didn't, it didn't become in any way, "Oh my God, Kareena Kapoor is in it. Oh my God, Ranbir Kapoor is in it. Oh my God, Sa…" There was never a moment like that because they were in their true, genuine selves. You know, there was no show, there was no acting, nothing like that.

29:37Geeta SinghThey were just there as family members, cousins to each other, nieces and nephews, and aunts and uncles, and like any family. Yeah.

29:43Jawad MirYeah. No, well done.

29:45Geeta SinghAnd it was, I didn't even know, like I didn't know that Raj Kapoor's name was Ranbir Raj Kapoor. I didn't know that.

29:50Jawad MirOh, I didn't know that either.

29:51Geeta SinghYeah. So in that Ranbir says, no, that, when he was born, they wanted to name him with R.

29:58Jawad MirOh.

29:58Geeta SinghAnd he said, "Oh, this..." 'Cause Raj Kapoor never used it, but he used to sign his checks like that. But he never used the word, the name Ranbir. So it was spe…

30:07Jawad MirI missed that part.

30:08Geeta SinghYeah. Go back and watch that. And then he says, "So then they named me Ranbir." Shammi Kapoor said…

30:15Jawad MirOh, really

30:15Geeta Singh... "Name him this." And so, oh, this is, this is news. I didn't know. So that was nice, a little nugget of information that maybe some people do, but, like, I didn't know.

30:25Jawad MirYeah. No, Ranbir Kapoor certainly, I mean, not to take away anything away from Shashi, Shammi, and Rishi, and everybody else, but I think Ranbir Kapoor has that persona that I think Raj Kapoor had in his performances. There's just something there with him and I think, I don't know if it's genetic, but it's just something there that brings back Raj Kapoor. He can do ev… any kind of role.

30:50Geeta SinghYeah. Yeah, true.

30:52Jawad MirYeah. What's next for you? Anything exciting you're working on that's coming up in the future that you can talk about?

30:59Geeta SinghNo, I haven't signed up anything yet.

31:02Jawad MirOkay.

31:03Geeta SinghI…

31:03Jawad MirBut I'm sure you will

31:04Geeta Singh... Let you know once, whatever I take up.

31:08Jawad MirGood. Are you taking a break for a month or so?

31:12Geeta SinghNo, I mean, not really. I mean... Well, I guess December is generally a holiday time, and just rest it.

31:20Jawad MirYeah.

31:20Geeta SinghEnd of the year. Yeah, let's see what the new year brings.

31:25Jawad MirAny personal projects or travels planned?

31:30Geeta SinghNo, nothing. Just chilling for a bit.

31:35Jawad MirThat's good. That's good. Any movies that you're looking forward to?

31:41Geeta SinghNo, I don't know. Like, I don't even know what's coming. Actually, I don't know. The movies that are, that are releasing are not doing well. So I'm not sure what to look forward to.

31:56Jawad MirYeah.

31:56Geeta SinghGo to the theater, nothing's really stunning or nothing is, pulling you that much. I'm just watching some shows currently.

32:04Jawad MirYeah.

32:04Geeta SinghYeah.

32:05Jawad MirWell, the reason for that is even in Hollywood and even, I haven't seen a film from India in a long time. This was, like, after I think the Roshans documentary series or something I saw. But there's... I don't know what it is. It's the same thing in here, is like, for the lack of better word, there's just garbage coming out. Like, it's just, there's no emotional anchor that pulls you in. And then there's also having everything available to you on streaming platforms, and there's so much to watch, you don't know which one to pick, right? So.

32:38Geeta SinghI spend, like, an hour trying to, decide what to watch, and then you pick something and you say, you know, "Oh God, this is horrible." So.

32:47Jawad MirBut I would recommend,.. You've heard of Yellowstone, right?

32:51Geeta SinghYeah.

32:52Jawad MirI haven't seen Yellowstone, but there's two spinoff series that sort of take place before.

32:57Geeta SinghOkay.

32:57Jawad MirYou don't need to watch. And 1923, it's called, with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. It's, like, nine episodes.

33:03Geeta SinghWhich show? Like…

33:04Jawad MirIt's on Netflix, I think. It's one of the most amazing series you will see.

33:11Geeta SinghOkay.

33:11Jawad MirIt really hooks you on. And 1883 is pretty good too, but 1923 is amazing.

33:18Geeta Singh1923.

33:18Jawad MirReally emotional anchor in there for sure.

33:21Geeta SinghOkay. Weekend watch.

33:22Jawad MirYeah.

33:23Geeta SinghOkay.

33:24Jawad MirCool. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat.

33:27Geeta SinghThank you so... Yeah. Cool.

33:29Jawad MirThank you so much, Geeta.

33:30Geeta SinghThank you so much. Bye.

33:30Jawad MirAll right. Take care. Bye-bye.