What have been your factual sources and what are the fictional liberties you have allowed yourself in telling this story?
The facts are that King Bharmal’s daughter Jodhaa was married to Akbar, and then Jahangir was born. However, what happened in their chamber or between the two of them, their evenings and their days, is not written about anywhere. There’s a gap there, though we have accounts of what kind of lifestyles the Rajputs and the Mughals had. So I have used that generic information and pieced together my story, which, we can say, is 70 per cent imagination and 30 per cent history. For facts, I referred to Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari and Akbar Namah, Badayuni’s Muntakhab al-Tawarikh, works like Jadunath Sarkar’s A History of Jaipur, The Kachhawas Under Akbar and a whole lot of Rajput history. I also met professors like Irfan Habib sahab and Shireen Moosvi of the Aligarh Muslim University, who are top-notch historians on Akbar. I met the Jaipur royalty and discussed the script with them before starting the film because Jodhaa was from that family.  

Jodhaa Akbar looks contemporary in its treatment, but there are certain givens that come with a historical. How different is your take from the classic historical on Akbar, Mughal-e-Azam?
I find it difficult to evaluate or describe, because how contemporary a film is depends on its maker’s personality. I can’t pinpoint how contemporary Jodhaa Akbar will be, but even Lagaan in spite of being a period film, had a certain modernity to it. Mughal-e-Azam was made at a time in the 1960s, when literature in cinema was given a high platform, when the style of acting and writing were shifting from the stage to films. Which is why the film had a more literary, theatrical and grandiose treatment. But the people making Jodhaa Akbar are of a different generation. We don’t want to ape anybody and have approached our script with all honesty. When you see the Agra fort or go to Jodhaa’s chamber, you see the size is true to the original. We have not created anything larger than life. That’s not the focus in this film. As regards comparisons, our story looks at Akbar from the age of 13 to 28. So it’s a youthful romance and its focus is far removed from Anarkali, Taj Mahal or Mughal-e-Azam.  

What made you cast Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in the lead? Were they your first choice?
The two names that immediately came to my mind on hearing the story were that of Hrithik and Aishwarya. At that point of time, it was just a wish-list. I am fortunate to have two big stars who made the project more attractive and hence got me little more money to spend, though the bottomline is the story. You can’t make films of this nature unless you are backed by actors, stars and technicians of a certain merit. It’s about getting the right team—Nitin Desai (sets), Kiiran Deohans (photography), Neeta Lulla (costumes) and each and every member of the crew. When they back you, everything starts falling into place.  

How important was Hrithik or Aishwarya’s resemblance to the original characters? Was star value the only criteria?
They were also my first choices because they are superb actors and their physical attributes lend themselves very well to the looks of a comic book emperor and a princess. My images of Akbar and Jodhaa are from the Amar Chitra Katha and like those portrayals, Hrithik is strong and has princely looks, while Aishwarya is the quintessential princess. As regards historical resemblance, my belief is that, it doesn’t matter. Ben Kingsley is far removed from the Gandhi you see in all his photographs, nor does Brad Pitt match the mythical depictions of Achilles. Sometimes, you need a face that will do justice to the character and take it a little ahead by making it more believable.  

Poonam S Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha’s wife, seems to be one of the most unlikeliest debutants in your cast. How did you think of her and convince her to come onscreen after three decades?
She has an extremely charming and regal personality and has a body language, which is very elegant. While casting, I kept saying that I need someone who looks like Poonam Sinha for the role of Akbar’s mother, but I wasn’t getting anyone. So I decided to ask her instead, and she was pleasantly surprised. But she said that I must first take Shatruji’s permission and, thankfully, they both liked the role and said yes. As Hamida Banu, an empress from Turkey, she makes an impact with very few words.

The film has an eclectic period track which has you team up for the third time with AR Rahman and Javed Akhtar.
It’s the first time that Rahman and Javed sahab have done a film set in the Mughal era, so we did have our discussions as to how to approach it. We wanted to create sounds and melodies that depict that past and carry the scene forward, and yet appeal to today’s generation. Also the language we wanted had to have just a hint of Urdu and be very simple. Even in the script and dialogues, any word that I don’t understand is not in the film and my Urdu is very limited.

Does the burden of expectations affect your working process?
The most important phase is when I am writing the script. For me direction is 80 per cent on paper. In the other 20 per cent, I only focus on translating that script on to the screen as accurately as possible. When I am doing that, I am not looking at what’s happening every Friday. I am not looking at changing trends, whether action films are working or comic films are a hit, or if the genre of horror has taken over. A Friday can shake a creative person because when a film works or fails, you immediately start drawing parallels to your work. So I don’t let myself be influenced. But now that the film is done, I am going to push it, promote it, market it, and hope that people like it.