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Mosquito repellants and films - the connection wouldn't be immediately obvious to those who haven't met R Mohan, entrepreneur and film producer all rolled into one mild-mannered, soft-spoken yet deceptively shrewd package.

The two sides to the Mohan persona - that of businessman who built a fortune on that most bothersome of pests, the mosquito, and of a film-maker committed, box office willing or no, to making good, clean films - only when, and where, he wills it.

One week away from the release of his most ambitious celluloid project yet on the Bollywood marquee, Mohan took time off to speak to Rediff On The NeT. Excerpts from an interview with Sharmila Taliculam:

Kalapani, unlike your earlier films, has been shot on a mega-budget. Any particular reasons?

Firstly, it is wrong to talk in terms of 'big budget' and 'small budget' - a film is made according to the subject, the actors, the director.

When we first decided to make Kalapani, we did not think in terms of making it in Tamil and Hindi, besides the original Malayalam. But the costs seemed prohibitive, given that we wanted to shoot on the Andaman islands. Nothing was available there, so we had to ship it all - provisions, sets, horses, everything. Since the film deals with the freedom struggle, we didn't want to compromise. So the costs kept mounting.

Funnily enough, when we cast the film we didn't look for multilingual appeal - but now, if you see it, you'll find that the casting is just right. Only Amrish Puri could have done justice to the role he plays in the film. And Tabu is a natural for her role.

So after seeing the initial picturisation, realising that it worked on a multilingual scale, we realised that it could be made into a multilingual. And so that is how it happened...

Getting back to the budget, we've heard that Malayalam films are shot cheap, and quick. How much does a film cost you to make?

A normal Malayalam film would come in at just a crore (Rs 10 million), or so. A film with popular stars like Mammootty and Mohanlal would cost more.

And do you get the money back? The general feeling is that since Kerala has such a small audience...

But of course. My last film cost me a crore and a half (Rs 15 million) to make, but I made three-and-a-half crores (Rs 35 million) profit on it.

To move on to your film... Kalapani deals with the freedom struggle, you said. Vidhu Vinod Chopra tackled the theme some time back, in Hindi, with 1942, A Love Story, and it bombed. Do you think your movie will fare better, especially as people are already negative about the subject?

I am not talking about the freedom struggle, as the history books have it, in this film - rather, I am talking about the people who fought for freedom but were never given their due. Gandhi, Gokhale, Nehru, they all fought for our freedom, everybody knows that. We know, too, that the freedom struggle began even earlier, right from Rani Laxmibai's time. But there are so many people, unknown to us, who have contributed to this struggle.

In America, they have the concept of the Unknown Soldier - in India, we have thus far ignored this particular section of patriots. And Kalapani is about them, it tells the story of the people who were charged with 'Kalapani' on the Andamans.

Could you elaborate, please?

Look, the film is about this ordinary man. Not a freedom fighter, or anything, he is just an ordinary man, living in a small village in Kerala. The British come there, and he too gets involved in the resistance. Around this time, he gets married to an uneducated girl from a small village - and on his wedding night, he is picked up and packed off to the Andamans.

The girl, his bride, waits for him. Somebody has told her that when India gets Independence, he will come back to her - so, for her, Independence means the day her husband comes back.

It is a simple film, focussing on simple, ordinary folks.

Was this film researched extensively?

Sure. We did a lot of research, we even went through books like Veer Savarkar's My Transportation Days. He was on the island too, you know, serving Kalapani. The film is 70 per cent fact, 30 per cent fiction.

Is this a 'message film' of some sort?

Not really. But yes, there is a message underlying it. You see, every Indian has within him, no matter how deep it is buried, an element of patriotism. The question is, how does he bring it out? It is a question we all ask ourselves, and it is a question this film answers at some level.

Earlier, Mammootty had tried entering Hindi films - and failed, despite holding two national awards for acting at the time. Do you think Mohanlal, who is relatively unknown outside Kerala, will fare any better with the Hindi-speaking public?

This film is not made as Mohanlal's vehicle to Hindi films. He suited the role perfectly, and that's why he was cast in the film. What clicks, or doesn't, here, is the story, the treatment.

We notice that unlike in the past, you have been publicising this particular film pretty heavily. Any particular reason?

Actually, I haven't done any publicity at all - it is the press that has been seeking us out, writing about us, on its own initiative. Maybe because it is a different kind of film...

Your director, Priyadarshan, has been quoted as saying that technically, the southern industry is far ahead of Bombay - especially in cinematography. Do you agree?

Of course. Look at the work of P C Sriram, Santosh Sivan, Rajiv Menon, so many of the young cinematographers today are hugely talented. And it is not merely in cinematography - I think we are ahead in terms of acting, direction, art...

Your two occupations have earned you the name 'Goodknight' Mohan in filmdom. How did a businessman like you get into film-making in the first place?

See, films can be made only by those people who are interested in making them. You have to love films to make them - and I love films. Also, you have to have a certain amount of creativity - which, again, I think I have.

A general question: the films of Mohanlal and Mammootty, the two superstars of Kerala cinema, have not been doing good business of late. Why is that so?

It is not that their films are not doing well, it depends on the audience, on how they accept you. Look at Aamir Khan - his Rangeela did very well, but his Akele Hum Akele Tum was a total flop. Likewise with Mohanlal and Mammootty.

Look, we make many films a year, but only a few of them are hits. Often, we lose money, say 30 to 40 lakhs (Rs 3 million to Rs 4 million) per film. The only difference is that in the south, the producer suffers the loss, while in the north it is the distributor who bears the brunt.

Kabhie Na Kabhie, we heard, is going to be your next film. What is it about?

It is a typical Hindi film, actually. With comedy, good songs, action, romance. It's a triangular love story, with Anil Kapoor and Pooja Bhatt leading the cast.

Any more multilinguals on the anvil?

Definitely. I am planning to make a bilingual next, featuring Satyabhama, one of the wives of Lord Krishna.

Kalapani is scheduled to release on April 5, but you have already announced Kabhie Na Kabhie, acquired distribution rights to an English film, and have a bilingual coming up. Does this signal your entry into the industry, full-time?

Cinema has always been my weakness. Earlier, I treated it as a hobby. At that time, there was no concept of big-budget, multilingual films - but that concept is changing. Films are costing more to make, and they are earning more in profits. So good, corporate people are getting into it now. And I, too, am doing just that - converting a hobby into a business.