London: Director J P Dutta, who is working on a remake of the classic Umrao Jaan, has said his film will focus on "Amiran, the woman, and not Umrao Jaan, the courtesan that the world saw".
"I wanted to showcase the 'person' rather than the 'persona'. In fact, for the longest time, I was debating on calling my film Amiran," he said and added that women were his "target" audience.
Dutta said the poignancy of Umrao's life was enough to motivate him. "After all when one chooses a film to make, one has to live with it for almost a year, if not more. So one has to be fascinated by the subject."
"The emotional journey of this character overwhelmed me. A common small town girl Amiran is abducted from her home and sold in the 'bazaars' of Lucknow. It so aptly fit with famed lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi's telling lines, 'Aurat ne janam diya mardon ko, mardon ne use bazaar diya' (woman gave birth to man and man sold her on the streets)," a very moved Dutta said.
He said his version was different from the earlier three — Mehndi, Zindagi Aur Tufan, and the third Umrao Jaan — though all four are based on Mirza Hadi Ruswa's book titled Umrao Jaan Ada.
It was the third film in which Rekha portrayed the role of the courtesan.
In Dutta’s Umrao Jaan, Aishwarya Rai enacts the role of Umrao, Abhishek Bachchan portrays Nawab Sultan, "a Pathan, a rebel, with a passion for beauty and poetry and Shabana Azmi plays Khanum,” Dutta said.
Dutta explained how he wanted to show the "glory" of Lucknow and the Shias as men of letters, art and music lovers in his film. "At the time of Umrao Jaan, Avadh was in its full glory. It was centre of culture and learning. In many ways it had taken the shine off Delhi. It was a strong Shia city," he said.
"It was a great period to talk about the wisdom, fine art, poetry, that was India. It was a very intoxicating era, an age of passion," he added.
Describing it as one of his "easiest" films, the director said the entire shooting was done in 72 days in Lucknow and Jaipur.
Speaking about the film, Shabhana Azmi described it as "mainstream". "There are a lot of things in this which were not there in the earlier films. Umrao in this film is a nautch girl and songs have been played as mujras and not gazals. Music is its highlight," she said.
It's not just Dutta and Shabana who have enjoyed working on the film, Abhishek also said, "It has been quite an experience. It was made with a lot of fun and I am looking forward to its release."
And when asked about his marriage rumours with Aishwarya, Abhishek said, "It was spread by the media. I am too busy working."
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