Abhishek Kapoor Says Farhan Akhtar ‘Never Interfered’ In ‘Rock On’ Making, Reveals There Were Disagreements During Sequel

Abhishek Kapoor’s 2008 musical drama film ‘Rock On!’ emerged to be a critical and commercial success. It featured an ensemble cast including Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli and Luke Kenny, and was also backed by Farhan. 

During an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Abhishek recently shared that Farhan never interfered with his vision as a director during the film’s production, as the former was an established filmmaker himself, having directed ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, ‘Don’ and ‘Lakshya’.

Talking about Farhan’s reaction to seeing the first cut of the film, Abhishek said, “The first person who saw the film was Farhan. I was not in town, I was in Cannes and he had seen the cut and he was really happy. It meant everything to me because I have a lot of love and respect for Farhan. I have learnt a lot from him. And he never interfered while I was making the film. He knew he was the producer and he helped me do whatever I wanted to do but he never got in my way of expressing what I wanted to in the film. At the end of it, when he did see the film, he called me and said, ‘I saw the film and I loved it’. That meant everything to me.”

The film not only got critical appreciation, but also witnessed box office success. However, when ‘Rock On 2’ was announced, it was expected that Abhishek would return as the director again. However, Shujaat Saudagar directed the sequel. 

Talking about it, Abhishek shared how there were disagreements between him and Farhan, and he still hasn’t seen the sequel. “Actually Rock On 2, I didn’t write the entire script. I was writing the frame of it but there were some disagreements (with Farhan Akhtar) on how we should proceed. So we both felt that it's better this way and they decided to go ahead with somebody else,” Abhishek said.

Abhishek further confessed how he has now moved on from the experience despite being hurt. “It hurts but these are all experiences in life that make you richer eventually. I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know what’s missing in it or what could have been better. I was hurt but life moves on from there,” he said.

Post ‘Rock On’, Abhishek went on to direct ‘Kai Po Che!’, ‘Fitoor’, ‘Kedarnath’ and ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’.