Filmmaker Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti (2010) earned cult status due to the storyline, a huge star cast and a successful soundtrack. The film, which clocks 15 years today, was believed to be a modern adaptation of the Mahabharata, starring Ranbir Kapoor (Arjun), Ajay Devgn (Karna), Nana Patekar (Krishna), Katrina Kaif (Draupadi), Arjun Rampal (Bhima), Manoj Bajpayee (Duryodhana), Sarah Thompson (Subhadra) and Naseeruddin Shah (God).

Speaking to us as the film achieves the 15-year milestone, Prakash confirms that a sequel to Raajneeti is in the works. “Raajneeti (politics) ki yatra toh anvarat (constant) hai, chalti hi rehti hai! There’s always been a plan for Raajneeti 2. While there is nothing concrete in terms of casting and shooting yet, I am currently working on it,” says the director.

The film’s pre-production went on for a year. “We cast 8,000 actors for an authentic crowd scene, which was quite a task,” says Prakash.

Sharing how he managed to put such a big star cast together, he adds, “The good thing about casting was that whoever we approached, liked the script and came on board. They felt challenged to perform well. People say it was a commercial success. For me, Damul (1984), Mritudand (1997), Gangajal (2003), Apaharan (2005) or Satyagraha (2013) are just films. But, it feels nice when people talk about them.”

The movie had a hit soundtrack, featuring four composers — late Aadesh Shrivastava, Pritam, Shantanu Moitra and Wayne Sharpe, with lyrics penned by Gulzar, Irshad Kamil, Sameer and Swanand Kirkire. Prakash shares that Aadesh came up with the song Mora Piya Mose Bolat Naahin “much earlier” during a creative sitting and it perfectly fit the situation in the film. He adds, “He sang it beautifully, too.” 

Singer Kavita Seth, who also sang the song, says, “I took extra time to prepare the song, as the situation was intense. It is one of my biggest hits till date. It’s a part of my set list at all the concerts.”

The film’s assistant director Ritam Srivastava tells us, “Ranbir Kapoor was very excited when he shared the screen with Manoj Bajpayee. It was also the first time that Ranbir used a pistol in a scene.”

Manoj’s chase sequence was shot over three days at multiple locations in Bhopal. Ritam shares: “While doing the chase, Ajay Devgn jokingly said: ‘Teen din ho gaye seene mein goli lagey, ab to marr jaao’.”

Costume designer Priyanka Mundada used 40,000 metres to dress 8,000 cast members. Tea was used to age the dresses. To accommodate them, hotels, guest houses and lodges were booked in Bhopal. Extra bathrooms were constructed for junior artistes. Caterers were called from Mumbai.

Separate helicopters were needed for different characters. So, to save the cost, one helicopter was painted in two colours on either sides. It was shot from different angles for different scenes.

Cross-country collaboration was done to create “international, yet Indian music”. New York-based musician Wayne Sharpe, who also composed the score of the film, created western melodies and then recorded with Indian sounds. He recorded melodies in his studio in the US, the orchestra was recorded in Prague, Czech Republic, while the Indian instruments were recorded in Mumbai.

For authenticity, Prakash Jha refused “good quality” flags for the shoot just a day before filming. So, 12,000 party flags were printed with cheap material, shabby printing and cheap technology, and were aged.

Katrina Kaif, Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Rampal became friends during the film’s shoot. They would often be seen together playing cricket and savouring delicacies together. They named the trio BhoPALS.

Katrina, who was seen in a saree in most parts of the film, was apparently not sure about her look. Ritam says, “She would ask the Director of Photography Sachin Krishn, ‘Will I look beautiful?’. He would say, ‘You would look real’.”

Director Akshat Ajay Sharma was willing to wait a year instead of approaching any other actor for Haddi. When he wrote Haddi that revolves around a transgender woman who rises through the ranks to become a feared criminal, he could only imagine Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the titular role. The director’s belief paid off as the actor gave his nod as soon as he read the script.

“Without Nawaz, there is no Haddi. He reads all his scripts. Given his busy schedule, it was a task to get him to sit down with me for three hours. But once he read the script, he said yes immediately,” recalls Sharma.

“He was my only choice for this role. Why do you think I waited a whole year for him and didn’t pitch it to anyone else?”

With Siddiqui coming on board the ZEE5 film, the director knew the biggest hurdle was behind them. The role demanded intense research and prep. While the character’s physical appearance was an aspect that needed attention, the filmmaker was more focused on the emotional graph.

“We had the best people [to handle] the character’s look. With Priyanka [Mundada, costume designer] and Subhash [Shinde, hair, make-up and prosthetics expert], the appearance was never a worry. The task was to dissect the character’s psyche—the sensitivity, the strength, the bond of sisterhood, and the vengeance of someone who had lost everything. I love how Nawaz absorbs everything that a filmmaker desires of him, then he gives that and more.”

The crime drama, also starring Anurag Kashyap as a gangster-turned-politician and Ila Arun, went on floors in Delhi in July 2022. Before facing the camera, Siddiqui spent time with the transgender community in the capital, understanding their psyche, desires and fears.

The actor shares, “I never considered that I was playing the role of a transgender woman. I always thought I was portraying a female character. When I lived with transgender women and talked to them, what came out strongly was their desire to become women. It’s this wish that fuels their personality. So, for me, it was a valuable lesson not to play this role superficially, but to embody a woman’s emotions regardless of my own physicality. The film was shot from a female perspective.”