What triggered the idea of making Jai Gangaajal was a meeting with a senior IPS officer, who I knew had a brilliant career. We were on the same flight once and he told me that he had sought a transfer from active policing to a non-policing job. He told me that the police force becomes active if someone wants it to be active. Similarly, it ceases to be active if someone wishes so. That made me think, that it’s time to make another film.
After Gangaajal received the kind of response that it did, it was a challenge to even consider doing a film in the same genre. It took a long time to convince myself that I have to make the film. Then I met the IPS officer and the reasons to make the film became very compelling. Once I decided to make the film, the constant challenge and also thebiggest problem was to be able to marry my subject into a popular language. The idea is that the story has to be dramatic, engaging and has to be able to emotionally move you. It should have characters that you can identify with and relate to even when they’re not talking about love affairs or romance — they are talking about hard-core issues. I had to write and re-write the script 15 times over a year and a half.
I first start writing on a small notebook and then it flourishes into longer pages with the stories, characters, protagonists. I don’t use a computer.
About the star cast, it’s completely fresh except one guy, Murli who has worked with me in a few films. Priyanka and I had spoken about working together a few times, so when I brought up the script, she really wanted to hear it. I told her, “When do you have the time ” But we did end up meeting over a cup of tea and by the end of the conversation she told me, “Sir, I am your Abha Mathur and no one else is doing the role.”
As for the other elements, we have always finished within the scheduled time and shot within the budget. If I have a 7 am shift in the bazaar, my guys would have made arrangements such that my shoot doesn’t get disturbed.
So far, we have gotten an amazing response from the women police force. I haven’t gone to any mall to promote it.
