Source: Absolute India
Date: June 7, 2014
By: Subhash K Jha
GOWARIKER TALKS IN DETAIL ABOUT CASTING ROSHAN IN HIS NEXT FILM BASED ON FAMOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN PAKISTAN.
The tremendously skilled director of Lagaan, Swades and Jodhaa- Akbar is back with another feature film. This time it is Mohenjo- Daro, starring Hrithik Roshan. Shedding light on the casting, Ashutosh says, “Just by his presence in Mohenjo-Daro Hrithik will make the entire city and civilisation come alive. I am glad we’re back together. The film will go on the floors in three months.”
Ashutosh says he was fascinated by the era of Mohenjo-Daro because of the lack of information available. “There was very little on how they lived, what they ate, how they felt.... whatever information is available on the era is minor and superficial. That troubled me on a subconscious level. I decided whenever I get a story to tell that can be located in those times I’d grab the opportunity.”
The filmmaker says he will weave a fictional love story into the historical. “ I feel if a story doesn’t have resonance to current times it just doesn’t connect with the audience. The story featuring Hrithik Roshan is fictional but the period is real.” He has earlier done an authentic historical in Jodhaa-Akbar and a pseudo- historical in Lagaan. Now Ashutosh will attempt a fusion of both the formats in Mohenjo-Daro.
“When I researched and read up on the various cities that existed during that period I realised every city in Mohenjo-Daro had its own story to tell. It took me three years to piece together the entire civilisation through various cities and then weave a love story into it. Incidentally I seem to be going further and further back in time with each film. Lagaan was modern India. Jodhaa-Akbar was ancient India. Now Mohenjo-Daro takes me to medieval India.”
Confessing to a partiality towards period films, Gowariker thinks it’s a responsibility to recreate an entire long- lost culture. “If I’ve taken on the responsibility of recreating a culture then the work required to get the details and nuances right follow. Luckily I have actors and technicians who believe in my vision.”
He’s also shooting a serial on the Everest and says it’s no different from a feature film. “The grammar of storytelling doesn’t change much. Neither does the question of fulfilling audiences’ expectations. In cinema they have the option of leaving the theatre. On television they can change the channel.”