Danish Devgn is all set to mark his directorial debut with his just-released music video, Hanju. Danish is the nephew of Ajay Devgn and the grandson of Veeru Devgan. Talking about Hanju with Hindustan Times, Danish reveals how Ajay reacted to his first work.
Hanju features Priyank Sharma and Ishita Raj. The heartbreak song is sung by Javed Ali while Danish takes to the director’s chair. Backed by Panorama Music, the music video was out on Tuesday. Hanju means tears in Punjabi.
Danish on his directorial debut
Danish explained the making of Hanju and revealed his inspiration behind it. He said, “I didn’t want to treat it like a typical love song. That is when the technicalities came in. I just wanted to bring out the story in the song. Javed Ali sir did a beautiful job and I had to do justice to it.”
Danish aspires to become a Bollywood filmmaker. But, filmmaking is different from a music video shoot, mainly due to the time constraint. Speaking of Hanju, the director said, “To compile all emotions in a music video is very difficult. You need to establish the story within that amount of time. In this case, I had four minutes only to execute. Luckily Priyank and Ishita, my actors, really supported me.”
Hanju shows the pain of a lover who lost his partner in a brutal car accident. As he survives, he deals with guilt, anxiety and misery. But, what makes the single different from several other already-released songs? Danish opined, “Hanju has a very contemporary piano arrangement. I genuinely fell in love with the song and then we got on board. Everyone has been through heartbreaks and everyone has their own way of depicting it. I could only bring out the pain in the song with today’s problems. Anxiety is a real thing. People unfortunately don’t take it seriously. A lot of people don’t think it’s legit. Whether it’s a breakup or split or death, anxiety comes and not everyone can deal with it. I think we really need to learn to accept it.”
Danish on Ajay Devgn’s reaction
When asked Danish if he has taken pointers from his uncle Ajay, he quipped, “Whatever I have learnt, it’s from him. I am not going to deny it. I was the first child of the family. He has literally taken me on sets since the time I was 1 or 2. I have seen and learnt from spot-boy, light-boy and other crew members. With this song, I tried to go to him. I told him to come (and help) but he told me to just do it on my own. This made me really nervous. Once I finished it, I thought of showing it to him but I couldn’t because of the nervousness. He is very hard to impress and I was going to him for approval. He is very particular about these things.
“On the 4th time, I gathered myself and went to him. But, he was so impressed. I was shocked. He patted me on the back and said ‘I’m so proud of you.’ That was a big test for me.” Can we expect a future collaboration between Danish and Ajay? “Hopefully one day since action runs in our blood.”
Danish also shared his faded memories from the film sets of Ajay in the 90s. He recalled, “Back then there was no Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) and all. I have seen them jumping on glasses, doing stunts, and hanging from cables. They have broken bones because it was raw action.”
“Yes. They had to jump from the second floor. There was nothing as a safety net but only cardboard boxes. It was scary. I have cried on sets as a kid, thinking what would happen,” he added.
Danish on Nysa and Yug
Not only with Ajay, Danish also shares a close bond with Ajay’s kids–Nysa and Yug. He told about his cousins, “Nysa is very intellectual. She is heavily focused on her studies right now. She is super fun-loving. So, is Yug. He is also intellectual.” Is Yug interested in filmmaking? He shared, “Yug loves football now. He comes to sets and asks for a football (laughs).”