‘I’m Stunned’

Set the record straight and tell us what kind of business has LoC done.
The collections in Uttar Pradesh are rock steady and it has recovered its investment in Bengal. Bihar and the North are also doing well. Delhi and Bombay have been bad.

Has the failure of the film broken your spirit?
It’s not as if I haven’t had a failure before, but this time I haven’t been able to come to terms with it. I am perplexed that so many people who have seen the film have walked up to me and told me that they’ve loved it.

People in the Ministry of Defence have liked the movie and so have many army personnel. But the media has just torn the film to shreds.

You think the media has deliberately run it down?
You needn’t be destructive when you’re criticising a film. If you don’t like a film, say that, but why go to the extent of saying don’t see it. On the very day of its release, some critics said it was a disaster. How could they say that?

But why would the media target you?
I don’t know but since day one there has been speculation about LoC. Many believe it’s because I am not, what’s the new word, media savvy. But then even Aamir Khan is not very accessible to the media but he isn’t run down.

What was the budget of the film? Some trade publications say it’s a Rs 70 crore washout.
The film was made on a huge budget, I used a 10 camera set-up and shot with a crew of 450 people in Ladakh. We had four major outdoors. But the budget was not Rs 70 crore, it wasn’t even Rs 50 crore. It was much less than that. I used my two daughters’ fixed deposits to make the film. It has left me in debt, I’m honest enough to admit that I’ve lost good enough money.

Was LoC your dream project or was it your most ambitious project?
It wasn’t a dream project because Kargil happened all of a sudden. I wasn’t expecting it to take place. It was ambitious in the sense that I wanted to project the truth about Kargil.

So what do you think went wrong?
I think people came to watch a normal Hindi commercial film and here I was making a docudrama. Maybe they couldn’t handle its realistic treatment. Perhaps I was at fault for not building it up like that.

Was the film’s length (4 hrs, 8 mins) a deterrent?
That was my call. My conscience didn’t allow that I leave out even one character or one battle in the film. The film is my way of paying tribute to our army and I went against all norms of film-making to do it.

You didn’t show the Pakistan army mobilised in the film. Comment.
That’s because till date Pakistan hasn’t admitted its involvement in Kargil. So how could I go to the other side of the LoC when I didn’t have any clue?

Is it true that the actors haven’t been paid?
That’s nonsense. All my actors have been paid their respective market price. It hurts when things like this are said.

Do you think that the thaw in Indo-Pak relations affected the film?
If that was the case then all history books ought to be burnt. Now we are friendly with Britain, so burn the history books. Burn my film, burn everything.

What’s the best compliment you’ve got for LoC?
It was from the parents of the boys who died in the war. They thanked me for bringing their sons alive.

What’s next?
Nothing at the moment.