So how have your nerves been holding?

(laughs). Very well. No stress at all. Whatever stress I had was before I chose the script. I believe you should enjoy the process of making the film rather than worry whether it has the right ingredients, the right amalgamation. All that should be done before choosing the script.

Swades is a very expensive film. You?re telling me you aren?t worried about its fate at the box office at all.

No, I?m not. I?m happy with the film, the way it has shaped up. It?s not just what I wanted to make. It?s also something I feel the audience want to see. In any case, expensive is a relative term. How much you need for a particular scene depends on the persona of the maker, the way he thinks, the way he wants to project his visison and the stance he wants to take. You can do a particular scene in, say, a thousand of rupees but the same scene could be given better production values and be done in 10 thousands or even 30 thousands. So in that sense, if you ask me if I?ve made an expensive film. I?ll say no, this is what I needed.

What was the Swades experience like? Did you experience the same high that you did with Lagaan?

On one level, yes. Because otherwise I wouldn?t be making this film. For me, the newer the scenes, the newer the characters and the situations in the script, the more exciting it is to make that film. Swades is something I haven?t visited before so it was very exciting.

Many people see traces of Lagaan in Swades...

If you take immediate parallels, I think there are. That they?re both set in a village is a common factor. But my counter argument for that is that Swades is set in a contemporary village. Not even a village actually, it?s a village on the verge of becoming a small town.The other common factors are A. R. Rahman and Javedsaab. So our sound might tend to remind you of Lagaan. What?s good at least is that Swades is being compared to my own film.

Are you happy with the way the music has been received?

Yes. When the audience likes one song, most film-makers heave a sigh of relief-- mera ek gaana chal gaya. If the audience likes two, the happiness is doubled. In Swades, people have liked three songs (Yeh tara, Yun hi chala chala and Ahista ahista). People tend to hear the music and decide whether they want to see the film or not. Besides Shah Rukh Khan?s presence in the film, the audience will say, yeh teen gaane bhi hai.

Was it easier working with A. R. Rahman this time?

(Smiles) Much, much easier. We broke the ice in Lagaan. It took us a little more time to do everything be it working on the tune, the lyrics, the background theme, for Lagaan. With Swades, it became easier because we now knew each other well. He knew what I wanted. I knew his method of working. I wanted to give him his space. Rahman?s greatest quality is his understanding of the script. He understands the script, the song situations. In his songs, the mukhda are good, but it?s his interlude pieces that are brilliant. They tell the story on their own. That comes only with an understanding of the script.

Was it a wise decision to turn producer?

A very wise decision and one that?s been full of happiness. I became a producer only after my wife Sunita agreed to produce it look after the nitty-gritty. Though she did much more really. She took over the entire administration and was closely involved in giving creative inputs. I had the same comfort I had during Lagaan. Had Aamir wanted to produce it, I?d have been glad. But since that was not to be, the only option was to do it myself.

Did you miss Aamir Khan?

I missed Aamir on a very different level. Which was when I was on location, when I was going through the entire grind. I was doing a one-schedule film again, so it was the same taam jhaam all over again. There were moments throughout the shooting of the film that one would miss him. He would visit our set very often because they were shooting The Rising in the same locality.

Were you a little more careful with the money this time because you were a producer?

No. I always give the creative side a little more preference. But at the same time, I didn?t want the producer in me to get up and say, why do you need 10,000 juniors? I don?t want that to ever happen. I don?t think it can ever happen to me. But Sunita managed to keep us within budget.

We heard you had a whole pool filled with mineral water for a scene!

Let me explain. We had a huge pit set up on location and it was filled withth muddy water. I wanted Shah Rukh to dive into it and it was just an exterior shot. I wasn?t going to shoot underwater because the water was so muddy. Actors usually have to be extra careful with their skin, so my first question to Shah Rukh was, ?How do we do it? You have continuity with Yashji. Is your skin sensitive, will you break into a rash?? He said, no, he had no problem. So he got into the water and we took the shot. When we came back here I realised I needed an underwater shot. When you shoot underwater, you need clean water and the only water that can give me visibility is something purified. That?s how the mineral water came in.

Shah Rukh Khan and you have worked together earlier, but both as actors. So what was the new equation like?

Superb. See, neither did he have to impress me in any way nor did I have to impress him. So right from the first day of shooting we were very casual on the sets. We worked as if it was our fourth film together (we worked together in Circus, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa and Chamatkar).

I?m not a dictator. If I want to play a particular shot and emotion in a certain way and an actor wants to do it differently, I first go his path. Because I?m an actor first and I know how actors need to be cajoled, how they need to arrive on their emotions. So I let the actor go on his path. If he comes up with something good, I accept it. But if he?s not up to the mark, he?ll have to do it the way I want it to be played. So there was no clash ke, arre yaar I wanted to play the character in that manner, dekho yeh kya ho gaya. We were in sync with each other and in sync with the script.

The story doing the rounds is that Shah Rukh delayed your film because of Veer-Zaara. How much truth is there in that rumour?

None. I don?t think Shah Rukh is the sort who?ll try and manipulate a release for personal gain. See, both Yashji and I got delayed first because of Shah Rukh?s back problem. But that was in November 2003. Then I lost four weeks because I wanted to shoot in NASA and couldn?t get permission because they had a launch and were under high security.

Why did you keep your heroine totally under wraps till the film?s release?

Very simple. My film is about a village, which Mohan Bhargav discovers. He?s drawn into the life of the village and what its inhabitants are going through. When he enters this world as an outsider, everything should be new to him. So all my characters are new faces. Including, naturally, Gita. And I wanted that new face to be discovered on screen. It can?t be discovered by way of photos of her in outfits that are far removed from the film. It can?t be by way of interviews and her personal thoughts coming across. I?d rather people discover her on screen.

But isn?t it unfair to deny her the publicity to kick-start her career?

Her opportunity to kick-start her career came the day she was cast in my film. That was made clear to her in the beginning. I told her she had the choice of saying no right then, so that she didn?t feel I was exploiting her by keeping her under wraps for too long.

But she?s a newcomer. Surely she?s not going to refuse Ashutosh Gowariker.

Correct. If you say yes, come whole-heartedly and give 18 months of your life to this film. It was the same approach, with Lagaan and Gracy Singh was extremely clear, calm and composed. She knew what she was getting into. And so does Gayatri. I would have been unfair if I?d signed her for a three-film contract and said, you?ll work only with me for the next two films. Because you never know when you?re going to make your next film.

What next?

I?m trying to get a fix on the script for my next film. But I?m almost content with the story idea. This time I want to swing into action right away.

Why?

Because I feel a director has only five years to do his best. These five years are his peak years, when he comes up with his best stuff. After that, he just comes up with the reworked version of what he?s done in those five years -- that?s if he?s been successful.

How have you arrived at this five-year theory? Take any successful director in the world and you?ll see their first three-four films are okay. Then, in the five years from the fifth film to their eighth or ninth, they are brilliant. After that they either remake their earlier films or just fizzle out.

You have a head start since your third film was a hit.

(laughs) No, I don?t have a head start. I made Lagaan in 2001 and I?ve invested three years in Swades. Which is four years gone. According to my formula I have to make my next film soon. So really, I have only one more film to go.

Anuradha CHOUDHARY

Source Filmfare

?I missed Aamir on a very different level. Which was when I was on location, when I was going through the entire grind. I was doing a one-schedule film again, so it was the same taam jhaam all over again.?