Ashutosh Gowariker is one the best period cinema makers we have but we all know how long his movies can be. Someone else felt the same too.
Hrithik Roshan, the lead of Ashutosh Gowariker’s next, Mohenjo Daro and Akbar of Jodha Akbar fame, put a condition in front of the director. He refused to sign Gowariker’s latest venture until he reduced the size of his script from 200 to 80.
He said,
“First thought was that Ashutosh is my friend, first thought was that he gave me a film like Akbar (Jodhaa Akbar), my first thought was of immense joy that he is considering me for another film. After that I looked at the script, you don’t want to know my second thought. But I still said, ‘no, he is my friend’, so I read the script. I loved the story but I waited till that script of 200 pages went down to 80 pages and then we shook hands and said ‘Let’s do this’.”
He made sure it was no more than 80 pages of words. Even when it had come down to 81, he didn’t sign it.
Quoting him, “The day it came down from 81 to 80, he had flown to Delhi to meet me, ‘Hrithik, I have done it’. And we signed the film there and then.”