It’s a double dhamaka for Kunal Kemmu!
The actor and his wife Soha Ali Khan are expecting their first baby in September and Golmaal Again releases a few weeks later
Kunal Kemmu is in a cheerful mood as we meet him in Hyderabad shooting for Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Again. The actor looks relaxed while he’s recovering from a bout of flu as we catch up for a chat on him turning a father with his baby due in September, working in Golmaal Again and taking tips on fatherhood from his co-star Tusshar Kapoor…
Yes I will become a father in September and then the film will release on Diwali in October. Right now I am figuring out what we are having – a boy or girl as we don’t know. I can’t really describe the feeling of impending fatherhood but I am very excited and happy. It’s not been unnerving though a lot of people said I would be very nervous and excited about it as I would get sleepless nights but I haven’t felt that. I just remember being very happy and I can’t wait to be a father now!
You both don’t know if it’s a boy or girl?
I just want a baby! In fact, actually I never felt the need to know, except a few times when I was curious so I could know what to shop for but there’s a little bit of excitement in the fact about what it’s going to be. The prep work has started – have already bought the sling bag to carry the baby in. We have stuck to neutral colours while doing up the baby’s nursery as of now and kept certain things which we can do later on depending on what the baby is. Luckily it’s not hit ya flop, it is going to be a hit either ways not like Friday ki opening lagegi ya nahi! Thankfully it’s not like that.
Will you take paternity leave for your baby?
We will be promoting Golmaal Again after my baby gets born so yes, a little bit of leave is very important otherwise I will be in trouble later (laughs). I am sure we will have help at home but more than me taking leave, I really want to because I want to spend time with the baby. I am very excited about this so I start planning in my head what we are going to do after our baby is born. Soha is like, ‘Listen it’s going to be some time for the baby to grow up before you do all of that.’ So yes, I will take some time off. I don’t think we will have a pretty rigorous schedule while promoting the film and then when Golmaal Again releases, I hope our baby will watch my first film!
Has your co-star Tusshar Kapoor given you tips on fatherhood?
I think he’s still figuring out being a father himself. Yesterday I saw him all worked up, and taking off when his baby Lakshya was crying because of the hot weather. I could see Tusshar ‘OMG! Everybody is looking at me!’ So we all calmed him down and said, ‘It’s okay. He’s fine.’ I don’t think he’s the one who will give you tips. In fact I ask him slyly ‘So how’s it been? Has it changed?’ And you can see Tusshar has actually become way more mature now and he’s so much calmer. He loves his kid. He spends so much time with Lakshya and its wonderful seeing the way he looks after his baby. It’s been babies galore everywhere – Saif had a baby and so many of my other friends were having babies. Everybody was like ab tumhari baari hai. I was like yeh koi ticket thodi batt rahi hai yaar… But it’s good – I am happy! There was so much pressure that finally I was like ‘Thank God! It’s done!’ I am just happy ki ab ho gaya! It’s also at the right time as Soha and I were both prepared to have this baby.
On the work front do we get to see you do something different in Golmaal Again?
I hope you will get to see something quirky in my character in Golmaal Again. I don’t know if we evolve in any of the Golmaals but we definitely become quirkier and funnier. We are having so much fun that we lose perspective but we know we have the right captain in Rohit Shetty to handle this ship. I can’t comment on the details but yes, we have retained a little bit of the mahuvra thing (he played a poet in Golmaal 3) and tried to do something with the kind of sequences and the way we go about scenes. This Golmaal stands out from the others we have done and Rohit’s vision for this one is much bigger and is actually like a festival film as we know that the kids and families come to watch and enjoy such films. We have VFX, computer graphics and drones on sets and it’s really cool to see them work.
Tell us about the Goa Goa Gone sequel…
It’s too early to talk about it. Right now we have just figured out that we are going to make the second part so scripting and all have started. It’s a long way before we begin but we are hoping to crack it somewhere within a year.
