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'The common factor in all my films is ruggedness'

Jyoti Prakash Dutta gives you goose pimples with his laugh -- loud, lusty, with more than a hint of menace. JP is very north Indian, undoubtedly male, and one who thinks that a woman needs a macho man to feel secure.

That ruggedness shows through in all his films, so full of rustic blood, sweat and womanly tears. And his films are obsessed with the desert -- the Thar, that is -- with all the tough beauty of its undulating, ribbed sands, its colourful people...

JP straddles the line between art and commercial cinema, if such a line exists: Though his films are cinematographically superior, he doesn't make art movies; and his commercial films have all flunked at the box office.

Still, all the big stars vie to work with him. Batwara, Yateem, Kshatriya, Ghulami and Hathiyar have earned him recognition and respect, but little commercial success. Yet, oddly, Bollywood still hasn't dumped him; perhaps it knows something the audience yet don't.

He faces the jury again this week as Border, his first production, hits the marquee. (Till Border, he has only directed). If things work out, it may even be his first hit!

But when Sharmila Taliculam met him, the release was still at the other end of the week, and JP was still preparing for it. After apologising for keep Sharmila and photographer Jewella C Miranda waiting for two hours, going home to peck the cheeks of his adoring two daughters -- he is married to former actresss Bindiya Goswami -- he returns to Sunny Sound Studio before discussing his films and why they failed. Excerpts from an interview:

Border is a story of a battle during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. How did you get the idea?

This film has (been) generated from a true story. And this idea of making a film on the battle was born to me in 1971 itself. That was the end of December when my brother came home from this battle. Though younger to me, he was a part of the Longewalla battle. He was a flying officer at that time in the Air Force. He narrated this story to me which I wrote down in a notebook.

I was doing my final year in St Xavier's college at that time. I remember that I wrote the whole thing down as a screenplay, because I always wanted to become a film-maker and I thought that I would make a film on this one day. I got my chance now.

How?

See, I have always written and directed films, never produced them. Border is my first film where I am not only a director, but a producer too. So I had the freedom of making a film on my terms. I am totally in control of my project. If I had told another producer that I want to make a war film, he would have taken the first flight home. So when I read this book again, my decision was made. I have dedicated this film to my brother who is no more. He was killed in a air crash in 1987. He was a squadron leader and used to fly MiGs then. So that's how the film came about.

You have said the Indian army has helped you a lot. How?

Let me put the record straight. I have got a lot of assistance from the army and the air force by paying them a hell of a lot of money. I had to pay for every solider I hired, every tank, every aircraft that I used, everything. But, then they went all out to help me and provide me with everything I needed. Also, that must be because I had approached the (then) prime minister, Mr Narasimha Rao. I spoke to him and showed him my script. He was very enthusiastic and gave me the permission to make the film. So that's how I got all the help.

If Narasimha Rao gave you the go-ahead for the film, why didn't he help with the finance too?

That must their policy. Anyway, I prefer it that way, because otherwise my film would have been more or less a documentary. And I am here to make a commercial film based on a true story. The basic story is true, but the characterisations are fictionalised. My film is the combination of real and commercial. So there was no question of asking anybody for monetary help. They would have held the strings otherwise.

Apart from the personal experience, you must have done a lot of research too.

Yeah, I met Brigadier Kuldeep Singh, who was a major when he fought this battle. He is a very proud man. He has even got the Mahavir Chakra. I spent three days with him discussing the war. I got almost all the story from him. Then I met others too. I spoke to a air force officer too. That time it was the air force who was the decisive force then because they had completely destroyed the Pakistani tank regiment there.

You have always had multistar casts. Apart from Yateem, all the others had big stars. Why can't you make a film with one star?

(Laughing). That's because I think about more characters than I should be. I cannot confine myself to one character. When I write a script, I think of so many characters. The world is made of so many of them. My characters are so real.

All your films have Rajasthan as the main location. Why this obsession with the place?

This is one question I have answered many times. I saw Rajasthan when I was a kid. I was studying in the eighth standard and I had gone there for a wedding there. I am a city guy, being born and brought up in Bombay. So when I went there, I was impressed by the desert...

There was something there, you know what I mean. I was totally in awe. I loved the emptiness, the expanse and the stark colours of the desert. That was also because I grew up on Westerns. As a child when you watch a lot of Westerns and war films and then when you become a film-maker, you try and recreate them. So maybe it was something to do with my growing up days that I have certain things in all my films. And you certainly can't deny that the place is beautiful.

You see so many others wanting to make a film there. Whether it's shooting a song in Jaisalmer or a scene in Udaipur. More than half the industry is sitting there, shooting films in Rajasthan, and they were the same people who used to ask what am I doing there.

Your films have very a strong storyline. How do these ideas come to you?

The story of Yateem was taken from Hindu mythology -- the story of Puran Bhagat. The critics and the media then thought I was very American in my thinking. You know, the whole scenario of a married woman wanting this boy. The relationship between him and Farah. It was a bit too much to digest for anybody to believe that the inspiration was mythology. Other films like Kshatriya were something that just came to me. They were characters I thought of just like that. There was no inspiration behind them.

And it's natural for you to think of Rajasthan at the same time?

No, in fact, Yateem was not shot in Rajasthan, but in Gwalior and Agra. The same with Hathiyar. Two of my films were not shot there at all. Yes, you must have thought so because the terrain looks similar. The northern part of India looks the same. Not desertfied, but rugged. So the feeling of the desert is there. The common factor in all my films is ruggedness. The place is rugged and the men are very macho. I had a caption made for Border which I will not be using. It said, 'Border, where men are men'. I like my heroes to be macho, rugged, people who make a woman feel secure in their arms.

Is that the reason you have Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Sunjay Dutt and now Sunny Deol feature regularly in your films?

Yes, with due respect to the others, I consider these stars very macho.

Sunil Shetty?

The negative reports about Sunil Shetty is exactly what Sunjay Dutt got when his films were releasing. It happened to Sunny Deol too. They have gone through a period where they have not been accepted by the people. But today, it's the opposite. I think Sunil is a very fine actor, very hardworking, sincere and professional. These qualities are required by an actor and Sunil has them all plus his presence on the screen is impressive. Sunil is very honest and dedicated to his work.

Your films don't fall into a commercial or an "art" category. How do you classify your films?

This is one question which cinema has suffered from for years. Right from the time films were being made. The tug of war between art and commercial cinema will always be on. I fall into the category where the film-maker walks the tight rope between commercial and art film. My films are very real to the extent that they can be called art films but for the star cast and the way I shoot my films. I have paid a price for walking that tightrope... Most of my films have not been hits at the box office.

Guru Dutt and Bimal Roy have walked this path and their films have not necessarily been hits or raked a lot of money. I like to make films which I believe in.