Pup Fiction

“I am an animation film buff,” he dimples, as he tick marks all the books, DVDs, toons he has devoured so far. “Pixar, Disney, you name it and I’ve seen it. I’ve never missed a single show,” he says with pride, placing Ratatouille on the number one favourite slot. This was of course a ‘passionate’ secret, one that was known to none other than Aditya Chopra, who called Jugal in to write their first animation film. “We toyed with many ideas, wrote scripts but nothing seemed to fall in place till this one day, I was waiting at the traffic signal and saw these dogs playing in the dirt…uncared for, scruffy looking gang, totally mast in a garbage pile, and I instantly knew the characters of my story.” So came about Roadside Romeo, and Adi asked Jugal to direct it too! “Two-and-a-half years, 150 people and we are all set to release on October 24.”

Roadside Romeo is the story of how Romeo, a pet dog in an affluent household, becomes a stray overnight when the family decides to shift out. Pampered all his life, Romeo feels helpless on the streets till he falls for Laila, a canine beauty, and then fights the local don, Anna Charlie. The voices to the characters have been lent by Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Javed Jaffery respectively.

“I just knew Saif would fit best as Romeo is street-smart and has style. Laila is a diva, and who else would’ve portrayed her better than Kareena?” says the actor, who was last seen as Sanjeev Mehta in Aaja Nachle. Jaffery was a natural choice for “he is a versatile actor, you give him one option and he’ll come up with ten variations! He’s perfect for animation.” An out-and-out commercial flick, full of dance, song (Saif and Javed sing a hip hop number for it too!) and drama – this is where Jugal’s inspiration from Don, Amar Akbar Anthony and the likes comes – he explains how an animation movie differs that from of a regular one. “An animation film is made backwards. The dubbing happens first. Months were spent in getting the expression in each frame right. A retake means seeing the change two days later…it’s all paper work, imagination and patience.”

Roadside Romeo has kept the director busy and his acting plans, for now, are on hold “till something interesting comes up”. And does he have any pets? “Well, now I do.” Touché.