Water will be made very soon in India — Deepa

"It is tough to re-assemble the unit and go for it, but if anything my resolve has not changed at all. I definitely will make Water. One day, very soon Water will be made," she said in an interview with Karan Thapar in BBC’s `Hardtalk India’ programme to be telecast on Saturday (February 19) night.

Asked if she would consider shooting abroad, Mehta said, "The film has to be made in India for more than one reason. But whether it is Madhya Pradesh or West Bengal, it is more a creative decision, now that I have got a political sort of okay from them." Once the "right places" were located, "We will make the film," she said.

Mehta accused the UP government of "concocting" a law and order problem to scuttle the filming in Varanasi though the Centre did "whatever it could" to facilitate its shooting.

She also alleged that UP Tourism Minister Ashok Yadav put a spoke on the shooting as she did not accede to his "lackey’s" demands including the movie’s distribution rights in the State.

"The State Government concocted a law and order problem to prevent the filming. It was a way of showing their muscle and saying look we are the protectors of culture and we are going to get rid of all bad elements. It was very visible," Mehta said.

The move was also aimed at saving the face of VHP leader Ashok Singhal, who had threatened that the shooting would proceed only over his dead body, she said.

The Varanasi district administration, she said, abruptly stopped the filming on the grounds that there were 10,000 protestors on the street whereas there were only a dozen.

They also did not prevent Shiv Sainik Arun Pathak from "attempting suicide" in protest against the filming despite his having informed them about his plan a day in advance.

Asked whether the Centre left her in the lurch after reapproving her revised script, Mehta said, "I think they did whatever they could. I did not ever feel abandoned by Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley. He did speak to Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta saying he has given permission –let them do it."

She alleged that a "lackey" of Tourism Minister Yadav had demanded that she cast his friend’s wife as a star in the film, make him responsible for hiring all extras in the film, besides him giving the film’s distribution rights for up.

"It was decidedly underhand…I told him to get lost. But before he left, he told my location manager Iqbal Kidwai – “I will see how this film is made over my dead body because she has insulted me’," Mehta said.