Observing dad on sets helped: Rohit Dhawan

Mumbai, Sep 27 Rohit Dhawan says his filmmaker father David Dhawan never taught him nuances of filmmaking, and he learnt the art by observing him on the sets.

'Watching him (David Dhawan) on sets, and the years I spent assisting him, I'd say was the biggest learning process for me. Otherwise, he is a man of few words. He's not very communicative, but observing him on the sets helped me,' Rohit told IANS in an interview.

Rohit, who is gearing up for his debut directorial venture 'Desi Boyz', starring Akshay Kumar and John Abraham in the lead, describes his first project as entertaining.

'The film is entertaining but it's not only a comedy - it has a lot of drama in it. It's a healthy blend between drama and humour, and more so it has all those masala Hindi film ingredients - strong romantic tracks, a pretty strong amount of emotions, etc., so the film does change gears. It's not a one-track genre film,' said the budding filmmaker.

He also specified that the humour in his film is different from what his father's. David Dhawan has given hit comedies like 'Jodi No. 1', 'Coolie No. 1', 'Biwi No. 1' and 'Partner'.

'What dad does and the humour that we are subjected to in India is very hard to do, I completely stayed away from that. Humour in my film is subtle. It's a believable setup. The humour isn't larger than life,' expressed Rohit.

Rohit's film, which also stars Deepika Padukone and Chitrangda Singh, in the female leads, will come out Nov 25.

Rohit is from a film background, but he says film connection doesn't alone guarantee a star's nod for the project.

'Usually, an outsider feels that if you have someone in the industry, it's easy to break in. The advantage is getting an appointment for a narration with an actor. You call an actor and he will listen to you because you are coming from a certain background. He will entertain you, but eventually it boils down to the material that you have.'

'The actor will not risk his reputation for a relationship,' said Rohit, who wrote the story of 'Desi Boyz'.

'I was writing something else, which was pretty much done and Akshay was attached to it. It was called 'Com'mon Pappu'. But it just didn't work out for a couple of reasons...budgetary reasons. Akshay was kind enough to work for 'Desi Boyz'.'

'It ('Com'mon Pappu') was a film I'm very attached to because it is the first film I wrote, but at the moment I don't know when am I going to make it,' he said.