But you don't regret that
LoC was too long. Don't you think you could have edited it to a manageable length?
Not at all. If I had done that, it wouldn't have served justice to the soldiers of the Kargil war. I could not possibly cut the stories of the boys' lives. I met their fathers and sisters, and it was impossible to do so.
Coming to Umrao Jaan, you've been vehemently against calling your film a remake...
What do you call a remake? Mine is not a scene-to-scene remake of the earlier film. The source of this Umrao Jaan is a book (laughs). I am making a film on Ruswa's book, and I feel like crying because people don't know Ruswa in our country. This book was written in 1904, and it was a runaway success.
In Hollywood, many people have made Romeo and Juliet but they are different interpretation of directors and no one talks about remakes. Why? Because the Western media is educated but here people are only talking about remakes, and no one talks about the book.
Don't miss: The Umrao Jaan special section
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