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Prakash Jha talks about the many real life people who have inspired his upcoming films
Speculation is rife about the casting of the leading lady of Gangaajal 2, a heroine-centric project. And names like Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra are doing the rounds...
I'd love to work with Aishwarya and Priyanka but I haven't approached any one yet. I've appointed a casting director but I'm travelling till the end of the month. So, I will start speaking to actors only in December. It'll roll in January.
Buzz is, the character has a real-life muse...
Well, it is not entirely her story. But yes, I have drawn from the experiences of a young IPS officer posted in Madhya Pradesh. Since she's a woman, the people around her, including the DSP, the inspectors, sub-inspectors and constables thought they could manipulate and bully her. But she put the house in order though she was harassed, penalised and her career was threatened.
Will her identity be revealed?
No, she's still a part of the system, fortunately higher in the hierarchy today. Her story inspired me to craft Gangaajal 2 with a woman protagonist but she is not the only inspiration.
Like?
I'm intrigued by Gopal Goyal Kanda, the former Home Minister of Haryana, who was arrested when air hostess Geetika Sharma named him in her suicide note. He was a real estate broker who became the Home Minister and had the entire police machinery under him. Gangaajal 2 revisits the nexus between politics and the police after 12 years.
Has anything changed in these years?
A lot. In Gangaajal the dictum was 'every society gets the police it deserves'. Now, that has changed to 'inaction is virtue and efficiency is a crime'. Today, a cop would think twice about arresting a criminal because he knows he will have to contend with local goondas, corporations, politicians, questions in the legislative assembly, NGOs, the media, and if he escapes all these, then the judiciary. Twelve years ago, you'd approach a cop when in trouble. Today, you are scared if the police turn up at your door.
Did Rajneeti 2 emerge from the ever evolving game of politics?
Yes, who'd have imagined two years ago that the BJP would return to power at the centre? I already had a story about a political family whose only surviving male member has left the battlefield and a woman who has come from outside picks up the baton.
So, Katrina Kaif will topline the cast.Will Ranbir Kapoor and Ajay Devgn also return in the sequel?
Ajay's character, like Manoj Bajpai's and Arjun Rampal's is dead. I don't know if Ranbir's character will return. Katrina's Indu is now the Chief Minister and Raajneeti 2 will start with her. Then we'll have other family members coming in.
Will it draw references from real political families like the Gandhis?
Well, there will be some parallels. Remember how Rajeev Gandhi reluctantly became the PM, then lost in the next elections? His story is the tragedy of some good people who enter politics.
Your third film, Satsang, is about a godman. Right now there's one in Haryana, Rampal, defying the police who want to arrest him.
My film is about what happens when spiritualism becomes a business, a means of earning unimaginable wealth playing on the fears of ordinary people. I've drawn from Rajneesh and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to the gurus in Gujarat and Haryana--the good, the bad and the ugly. I completed the story three years ago and am waiting for Ajay to finish his film so we can roll with it.
All three are controversial subjects which could leave you open to legal harassment and post-release bans.
I will say what I have to, and face the problems if they come. I did it during Raajneeti, Aarakshan and Satyagrah and if I have to, I'll do it again.
You are also producing three other films, Crazy Cukkad Family, Lipstick Waale Sapne and Fraud Saiyyan, which are comedies. A change of genre for you? (Laughs) Don't forget that I directed Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne, a comedy. I enjoy them. I can direct one film a year but I can produce five-six. I back good content.
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