EXCLUSIVE: Mirziya has nothing Bollywood about it – Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

By Seema Sinha

Updated on Dec 11, 2015 | 12:46 AM IST | 909K

The shoot of acclaimed director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s next offering, Mirziya – a modern day adaptation of Mirza Sahiban legend - a love tragedy - is complete and now the director, whose Bhaag Milkha Bhaag proved a runaway success, is busy with its post production. For Mirziya, he will introduce four new faces to the film industry, including Anil Kapoor’s son, Harshvardhan and Tanvi Azmi’s niece, Saiyami Kher.

This modern day contemporary story was shot over a period of 86 days in different parts of Rajasthan and also in the virgin territories of Ladakh. Says the director, “The film is contemporary, it‘s today’s love tragedy based in 2015. It’s inspired by the folk lore of Mirza Sahiban. It is timeless like Laila Majnu. It’s as real as it gets, there is nothing Bollywood about it.”

Interestingly, it’s for the first time that the director is attempting a romantic story as most of his films, be it, Rang De Basanti, Delhi 6 or Bhaag Milkha Bhaag have had socio-political issues in the backdrop. Rakeysh's inspiration to do this film goes back to his college days when he read the playwright in his college drama society. “At the end of the play someone would say, ‘Sahiban ne teer kyon todi’ (Why did Sahiban break the arrow?). This stayed on with me for over 30 years. I have heard many love stories.like Romeo Juliet, Laila Majnu...but Mirza Sahiban left a deep impression on me because of the character of the girl, which is unique and pivotal,” says the director.

Rakeysh, who plans to release the film some time mid 2016, further added, “The film doesn’t give a very normal explanation of love, it is not about boy meets girl or they separate and meet again, or die. Sahiban actually broke Mirza’s arrow, and as a result he couldn’t fight and he lost his life. I always wondered what was her compulsion, or reasons to do that. I’d asked this question to Gulzar (the film’s writer) four years back and he found the question - 'Why did she break his arrow?' - intriguing. He strongly felt that we should do the film.”