Raajneeti doesn’t resemble any real person or incident: Prakash Jha

Director-cum-producer Prakash Jha is all excited about his upcoming movie Raajneeti, which has recently completed its shooting and getting ready to release in June after five years' long attempt. Staring a host of Bollywood actors like Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kapoor, Arjun Ramapal, Ajay Devagn, Manoj Bajpei and Nassiruddin Shah in leads, the movie is all about elections, democracy and politics in India.

The director was recently in Bangalore as a part of the promotion of the movie Raajneeti. Along with Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kapoor, Manoj Bajpei and screenplay writer Anjum Rajabali, he attended a debate on 'Aaj Kal Ke Raajneeti' held at Brigade Millenium convention hall in Bangalore. Meanwhile, he spoke to Oneindia at a length about Raajneeti too. Here are the excerpts of Prakash Jha interview.

The shooting of Raajneeti has created the headlines for many times due to its five long yearss process. What would like to tell about it?
The script works of the movie started somewhere in 2004 and it took five years to complete the shoot and other works. The whole movie has been shot in the capital of Bhopal for nine months. Along with lead actors, 7000 other artistes had participated in the shooting process. The film has come out very well and I would like to thank all the actors and technicians, who have continuously supported me for the past five years.

What is the message of the movie Raajneeti?
I"m neither intended to give any message to the audience through the movie Raajneeti nor give judgment or definition of any particular aspect. I"ve just made an humble attempt to present a big story about the present politics on the screens. Of course, the audience might walk out of the theate with some good lesson from the film.

What is your inspiration behind doing this movie?
The Mahabharatha, the great epic of India, has inspired several filmmakers of India and many characters from it have been adapted in the Bollywood movies earlier. I"ve also taken my inspiration from it and several of my characters are taken from it.

How close are your characters and incidents in Raajneeti to real politics of present India?
As I said, my characters are taken from Mahabharatha. I"m not intended to target any person or event of any party. There is no hidden political intention behind doing this movie. So Raajneeti doesn"t resemble any real person or incident. And you will get to know about this only after you watch this movie.

Earlier, you have contested election and got defeated in it. Have you got inspiration from that incident?
No! Absolutely not. The script of the movie Raajneeti was ready in 2004 even much before I contested election. I"m an industrialist and a farmer and I wanted to do something good to this society. There is saying that unless you set your foot in mud and do hard work in the field you won"t understand the value of rice. Based on this theory, I contested the election and I"m not much bothered about the defeat because I just wanted to try my hand in it. Of course, I got some strange experiences after entering politics, which you can see in all my previous movies too. But I"ve never taken a stand to defend the ideologies of any particular party in any of my movies.