Kalank writer Hussain Dalal says he takes responsibility for ‘maybe ruining it’

Writer Hussain Dalal, who exercised his acting muscles in the recent film Toofaan, wonders if he is responsible for the ‘failure’ of the big-budget flop Kalank. Produced by Karan Johar and directed by Abhishek Varman, Kalank featured an all-star cast that included Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, and Sonakshi Sinha.

In an interview, Hussain Dalal said that while success is external, failure is internal, because it changes an artiste. Hussain wrote the dialogues for Kalank, while Shibani Bhatija was credited for having written the story.

He told Bollywood Hungama, “The thing about success is that you wake up the same person in the morning. I wake up, I’ll have my chai, read the newspaper… Success is very intangible. You can’t see it; it’s only for the world… I’ve felt failure, when a movie goes down.”

He continued, “For me, a big film went down two years ago; Kalank went down. And the sense of responsibility you feel, that maybe you ruined it, that your writing was so bad that people couldn’t watch the film. Failure is a more tangible emotion for an artiste. Success is always in the perspective of others… Success is never for the artiste, it’s always in retrospect. Failure is a great teacher, it makes an artiste…”

He said that after tasting success, he was approached by many producers, and after experiencing failure, he sensed a hesitation, because he was convinced he’d ruined the movie. When the interviewer pointed out that he’d said he prefers naturalistic dialogue over the poetic kind (and that Kalank had the latter), Hussain said, “I learned. I went overboard with the poetry. Perhaps if I had simplified it, I could have communicated better. Kalank was so personal to me, such a beautiful story, I take full responsibility for maybe having ruined it a little bit with over-poetry…”

Also read: Karan Johar says he takes responsibility for Kalank’s failure, won’t make same mistakes with Takht

Previously, Karan Johar had claimed full responsibility for the film’s failure. “Whenever a film fails, you can always say that a group makes it, so everyone is equally responsible. But, being the most senior member of that group in terms of the creative crew guiding that ship, if it failed, I’d take complete responsibility as it was my failure more than anyone else’s,” he had told Hindustan Times.