Mahesh Bhatt and how he views Begum Jaan

Mahesh Bhatt and Begum Jaan Vidya Balan

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is producing Vidya Balan-starrer film Begum Jaan and he is very happy for it. After doing number of films on sex and thrill, Mahesh is again back to subjects that he explored during his formative years in Bollywood.

In Mahesh's words: “For us to move away completely from the cinema that we make, was a concious decision. And we are very happy that we did it. I have opted for this kind of cinema after ‘Zakhm’. The last three films we made were almost non-films. They disappeared… So, as they say, ‘in the darkest night you must begin from the point where you once started before’." The veteran filmmaker further said "The way Srijit Mukherji tells his story, his way of working reminds of Mahesh Bhatt of 1984 and he used to make films like ‘Arth’, ‘Saaransh’ and ‘Zakhm’.”

Film Begum Jaan is a Hindi adaptation of Srijit Mukherjee’s critically-acclaimed Bengali outing Rajkahini where Rituparna Sengupta played the lead role. 

Mahesh Bhatt said: “There is no male star, no item song, but purely context of the story. This (response to the trailer) is certain kind of indication that the world outside is far more receptive to new idea, new content than the market.”