Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 22, 2014)

J P Dutta has been working on two projects—Border 2 and Border 3 based on the Indo-China 1962 war and the Indo-Pak 1971 war respectively. But due to reasons he refuses to divulge, the filmmaker has put his war epics on hold to focus on a medium-budget film that he hopes to roll with by the end of May. This story about friendship and love will launch his daughter Nidhi as an actress opposite Nafisa Ali’s son, Ajit Sodhi.

 Speaking to Mirror Dutta says, “Nidhi is the third generation of Duttas to become a part of the film industry. She had assisted me during Umrao Jaan and I then realised that she was keener on facing the camera than staying behind it. But after that I went to Border 2 and being a war film, there wasn’t anything substantial for a girl.”

 Then, one day, he heard her speaking to Binoy Gandhi, who has assisted Kunal Kohli in two films, and understood that his daughter was interested in starting out with a light-hearted romance.

 “Since I haven’t made any romcoms I decided that Binoy who was ready with an original script, should make his directorial debut with this as-yet-untitled film,” says Dutta, who had worked with Raj Kapoor, a filmmaker who never interfered when another director was at the helm and promises to give Binoy his creative space.

 The film will be shot partly abroad and Dutta is toying with locations like Mauritius and Bangkok. And in India he is looking at archaeological sites down South and in Rajasthan. “I’ve visited some of these places but never shot there.They would be a perfect setting for the characters,” he reasons.

 So, what sets his actors apart from the crowd of newcomers? Ajit, he says, is a “good-looking, hard-working boy” he had planned to launch in Border 2. “Since he was committed to the company, we cast him opposite Nidhi.”

 Prod him on his daughter and he smiles with paternal pride, “During a recent photosession with Nidhi, her resemblance with Bindiya (wife Bindya Goswami) struck me. She has the same ende-aring quality, a girl you would want to take home to your mother.”