Big bucks, big picture
BAGESHREE S.
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From the mighty emperor to the Sufi saint who dares question him, everyone is larger than life in Akbar Khan's new film
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when I saw the Taj for the first time, I could feel every stone in it breathing AKBAR KHAN
DOGGED PURSUIT Akbar Khan spent five years working out every detail, from the sets and costumes to script;Zulfiker Syed and Sonya Jehan play Shah Jahan and Mumtaz in the legendary love story
It's important, they say, to never miss the big picture. And if there is one man who believes that, quite literally, it's Akbar Khan. He likes to set his eyes on big characters — preferably a mighty Mughal emperor — and mount them on a big canvas with a big budget.
Childhood fascination
"Even as a child, larger-than-life films and larger-than-life characters always fascinated me," recalls Akbar. The scale of the producer-director's soon-to-be released Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story should be proof of how this fascination has endured. Billed the most expensive film ever made for the Indian screen ("No, no, I don't want to reveal the exact figures!"), Akbar had special sets built in the interiors of a fort in Rajasthan for shooting, besides elaborate sets replicating the Taj Mahal with intricate inlay work. He employed a team from the U.S. to create special effects for the battle scenes and moved heaven and earth to find the right people to play the roles. "I needed characters larger than life — tall, handsome, broad men and fair, delicate and curvaceous women," he is quoted as saying.
The film, of course, tells the familiar story of the building of the Taj Mahal and the many layers of history and myths that surround it: of eternal love against the backdrop of sibling rivalry, greed, war, hatred... The idea of a film on the monument was in his head for nine years, says Akbar. "Here is a monument with a soul inside, I thought, when I saw the Taj for the first time. I could feel every stone in it breathing!"
And tourists of all nationalities who were around him were eagerly lapping up the love story behind it. "There were tears in everyone's eyes, irrespective of caste, creed and nationality."
Akbar let the idea hibernate for a while and then started work on it. He spent five years working out every detail, from sets and costumes to script. He teamed up with Fatima Meer (who wrote Making of Mahatma for Shyam Benegal) for the script.
Finding the right cast was an equally elaborate affair, which went beyond even finding the tall, fair, etc. types. He wanted two people who resembled each other to play the younger and older Shah Jahan and finally found Kabir Bedi and the Banglaore model-turned-actor Zulfiker Syed. Mumtaz is played by Pakistani actor Sonya Jehan, grand-daughter of the legendary singer-actor Noor Jehan. The story goes that he was hoping to cast Aishwarya Rai in the lead rule but the dates wouldn't match. "No regrets about that, though I admire Aishwarya," says Akbar. He would rather have "a new actor getting into the skin of the character than a star getting into the shoes of the character".
But would people really be interested in watching the Taj saga all over again? We have had several versions of the film, including one with even the same title. "That was 40 years ago," retorts Akbar. "Wasn't there a Titanic before we saw the one that made Hollywood history recently?" He swears that his film is new — very, very new. In fact, it's the kind of story that would appeal to even an international audience. (The aforementioned lachrymose Japanese, for example.) "It's a new story, in a new format, with new technique, depicting something that happened over 300 years ago." And it's not going to have "stagey characters throwing their hands about dramatically". He has psychoanalysed each character, says Akbar, making them very human in the middle of a grand history.
The other history
But could he ever consider skipping the labour of "rendering grand characters human" and instead pick characters who aren't grand to begin with — those little fries who go unmentioned in the annals of history. "I don't mean just kings and queens when I say larger than life," says Akbar. Taj Mahal, for instance, has a sufi saint who questions the authority of Aurangzeb and is beheaded for his pains. "He stands mightier than the king. Might does not belong to the rich and the famous alone and I know it best." So, don't be surprised at all, Akbar warns you, if he next decides to make a film on the life in a Bombay chawl.
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Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
