What rules, asks Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra

Nice and easy — that’s how Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra likes to deal with his profession, especially when he knows that the final product has to be a masterpiece. The brooding film-maker has steered clear of the mad rush to make films and believes it makes more sense to make good films instead of many.

While Teen Thay Bhai, his next production is up for release, Rakeysh is busy working on his next venture, based on the life of Milkha Singh and is currently hunting for the right actor. Incidentally, he’s made it quite clear that he wants a “not so established face.”

“I don’t want audiences to step in with a preconceived notion, when they come to see this real-life character who is still living,” reasons Rakeysh and goes on to add that, “It is the most challenging script of my life! We have 800 hours of footage from Milkha Singh and learning about him was quite a process. We had to literally drag events out of his memory; things that were buried deep for years.”

The film shows the journey of Milkha Singh from the age of 11, when he watched his family being massacred. He grew up to be a convict, spent time in jail and once released, wanted to do something with his life and hence joined the army. He went on to become the only Indian sportsman to be honoured by US.

If a public opinion could be taken, we’d assume that people would be quite happy to entrust this director with the story of a hero. After all, he has been able to change the way people looked at Hindi films.

“Five years back, when Rang De Basanti was being made, I had insisted there should be no conventional melodrama in the film. Despite sounding vain, I haven’t seen a film that has been as successful in creating such a ruckus in recent times; there have been good films but nothing that changed rules the way RDB did. Fortunately, film-makers like Anuraag Kashyap and Mani Ratnam are changing things by playing beyond the safety net,” says Rakeysh, adding, “I also hope Shekhar Kapur comes back and makes some good films.”