A love story to create history again

By Molly, IndiaFM

History

continues to be re-created at the Nitin Desai Studio in Karjat even as

Ashutosh Gowarikar waits for his Jodha (Aishwarya Rai) to return from

her honeymoon. Producer-director Ashutosh Gowarikar, the young man

who has made various kinds of film like Pehla Nasha, Baazi, Lagaan and

Swades, films way far and different from each other is busy shooting the

most ambitious film of his career to date, Jodhaa-Akbar a film he calls “a

beautiful romantic story born even while history was in the making.”

The film, according to reports coming in is the most talked about

subject in Rajasthan. It is lately in the news because of the section of

certain experts on Muslim history who have taken objections to Gowarikar

making light of Mughal history because of his talking about the romance

between Jodha and Emperor Akbar. They said it is not right talking about

the love story of the Emperor and Jodha Bai who are two of the most

respected and revered figures of Muslim history. Ashutosh claims that he

has done extensive research on the subject and there is evidence to prove

that Emperor Akbar had a very special place for Jodha Bai. He said he is

telling the story of Akbar and Jodha between age of 18 and 26, before

Salim, the heir to the throne was born. Gowarikar has also made it clear

that he had taken certain cinematic liberties without tampering with

historical facts. He is making a film about a chapter which could have been

a part of history but was not recorded. He has tried his best to make his

position clear to the historians and they are coming around.

Gowarikar is also facing trouble from the organisations which are

fighting for the prevention of cruelty animals. He is using a number of

elephants, camels and horses in his film without whom the ambience of the

period he is creating will not be complete. The activists have made him

accept certain conditions if he has to continue working with the animal and

he has agreed to abide by them.

Gowarikar has been shooting since the last one month. His unit will

return only after entire shooting in Rajasthan is over because he can not

imagine going back to Rajasthan “with my unit which is like an entire

army.”

Soon after he completes the shooting in Rajasthan his unit will shift to

a sprawling set now coming up in Karjat on the outskirts of Mumbai. The

well-known art director Nitin Desai has been re-creating the palace of

Fatehpur Sikri and even the Red Fort and other historical structures of the

period because the government did not give Gowarikar the permission to

shoot in the actual location because of security reasons.

Gowarikar had a tough time finding the ideal actors to play the young

Akbar and Jodha. It was after a great deal of adjusting and readjusting and

thinking that he finally decided to cast Hrithik Roshan as Akbar and

Aishwarya Rai has Jodha. Gowarikar knows that he is dealing with history

for the first time. He is aware that his film will be compared to some of the

historicals made in the past but knows that his love story is a very different

and moving story which also played a very important part in the period he

is dealing with.