Thaindian News

June 4, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): ‘Rajneeti’ has released and is finding a high profile arrival for itself in theaters. An event of sorts, the film is also special because it has hit the theatres a good five years after Prakash Jha’s last film ‘Apaharan’. From a relatively smaller film like ‘Apaharan’, Jha has moved to far more ambitious ‘Rajneeti’ which promises to expose the underbelly of Indian politics with strong reference points to Mahabharat.

Meanwhile for audience, it has actually been a long wait to see Jha’s vision get translated on celluloid. It has been more than 25 years since the man has been making films and ‘Rajneeti’ is only his 10th film. One can see that he is pretty choosy about the stories that he has to tell. Why is he being extra cautious?

“Well, it’s not that there was nothing happening for 3-4 years after ‘Gangaajal’ and suddenly work began on ‘Rajneeti’. Kaam Toh chalta hai rehta hai”, says Jha who spent quite some time refining the script before arriving at a final draft, “I had given the idea of the film to Ajay (Devgn), Nana (Patekar) and Arjun (Rampal) five years back itself when I was shooting for ‘Apaharan’. In the meanwhile I kept on refining the story idea that I had in hand. Collaboraters ke saath bhi kaam chalta hi rehta hai.

No wonder, Jha has already made quite some progress on his next film in the interim period.

“As I said, I start working on a project well in advance. For my next film, I started work 2 years back itself”, reveals Jha, “Meanwhile, I continuously work on the subject and if that doesn’t work out well, I move on to something different.”

Now that the film has created quite some curiosity amongst audience, Jha adds, “While making a film, I look at whatever is working in entirety. Once that is cracked, the things to follow take a relatively easier route. Eventually, the subject which comes on screen is something for which I have been most convinced about the narrative. There are no corners cut at all.”

–Rudhir Burman/ Sampurn Wire