Latest news with #Raajneeti
India Today
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Prakash Jha confirms Raajneeti 2: I am working on it, casting underway
Filmmaker Prakash Jha recently confirmed that his popular film 'Raajneeti' has been renewed for a sequel. The film, which clocked 15 years on June 4, was believed to be a modern adaptation of the Mahabharata, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee, Nana Patekar and Naseeruddin Shah among the special occasion, the director in a conversation with Hindustan Times,, shared that the second part is already in the works and that the script and casting are underway. 'Raajneeti (politics) ki yatra toh anvarat (constant) hai, chalti hi rehti hai! There's always been a plan for 'Raajneeti 2'. While there is nothing concrete in terms of casting and shooting yet, I am currently working on it.'advertisementThe director further recalled shooting for 'Raajneeti' with 800 actors. 'The film's pre-production went on for a year. We cast 8,000 actors for an authentic crowd scene, which was quite a task,' Jha said. The director shared how he managed to put such a big star cast together. 'The good thing about casting was that whoever we approached, liked the script and came on board. They felt challenged to perform well. People say it was a commercial success."The 2019 political thriller depicted an archetypal conflict between rival political families and parties.
Indian Express
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Raajneeti turns 15: Prakash Jha says Katrina Kaif learnt her speech for 40 days, Anjum Rajabali had his doubts about Ranbir Kapoor
Aamir Khan may be planning to make a film series on the Mahabharata and then hang up his boots. But filmmaker Prakash Jha and screenwriter Anjum Rajabali did that 15 years ago. Their 2010 political drama Raajneeti was a modern adaptation of the epic, yet they maintain it never started off as that. 'Unlike Gangaajal (2003) or Apaharan (2004), Raajneeti didn't happen after witnessing a specific incident. It was a broader socio-political drama based on reality, but resonating with the Mahabharata. The characters are all the same everywhere, as they were back in the epic,' Prakash Jha tells SCREEN. 'There's something for everybody — drama, crisis, highs, lows — everything you can think of about human existence, it's all there capsuled in the Mahabharata. So every Indian creator keeps drawing from it,' he adds. 'We didn't start out by wanting to adapt the Mahabharata. We just allowed it to enter our script. It's a sprawling epic. But you're not writing an epic, you're writing a screenplay,' Rajabali points out. After serving as a script consultant on Jha's last two films, he was approached by the director to co-write a film on electoral politics. 'I wasn't interested in that,' recalls Rajabali. But he proposed to Jha that the filmmaker visits him every evening from 7:30 pm to 10 pm. They'd brainstorm over 'two shots of vodka' for seven days, in the middle of which Rajabali recalled they began veering towards the Mahabharata. The idea of power conflict and cousins competing with other brought them closer to the broad strokes of the epic. But Rajabali was dead sure he didn't want Karna to be the hero, much to the surprise of Jha. 'Karna has the usual characteristics of a hero: he's the underdog who comes up fighting against injustice. But I told Prakash you must not look at only as destiny, but also in terms of the choices he made. He wholeheartedly went with Duryodhana, knowing fully well he's an evil guy. That lends the story a dystopian end — who do we side with, because they're all evil,' reasons Rajabali. Enter: Arjuna. 'Prakash said Arjuna is a boring character, who's a good family member and a good warrior. But I brought his attention to Arjuna's arc — he doesn't want to enter the war, but Krishna gives him the perspective on why he should fight for a cause. Then their dark deeds begin to surface. So I asked Prakash, 'What if Arjuna begins to revel in that?' Because he's suddenly a demon who has been unleashed,' says Rajabali. The Arjuna of Raajneeti — Samar Pratap Singh — is the proverbial outsider. The youngest son who comes back from his school abroad for a few days, only to get caged in the politics of his family and that of the state. 'His father is killed, brother is jailed, so he has to enter politics out of anger. Then the guy who's researching Victorian poetry begins to do one dark deed after another. If you notice, even the topic of his research has to do with violence in the 18th century. So there's a fascination with violence, which was already coming out via academics,' underlines Rajabali. He recalls the time when he got a call from Jha who said they've found their Arjuna: Ranbir Kapoor. 'Who, Rishi Kapoor's son? That's how I knew of him,' says Rajabali, reminding us that Ranbir's debut film, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya (2007), hadn't released then. 'Have you seen it? Can he perform?' 'I haven't, but my instinct says he can.' 'I trusted his instincts, but I had my doubts,' reveals Rajabali. A few days after Jha began filming in Bhopal, Rajabali visited the set. Jha showed him the scene in which Ranbir is just sitting on a chair and looking at the television news of his father's death and brother's arrest. The camera goes from right to left on his face. 'That boy was speaking volumes with his silence. There was no prep. He's an intuitive actor, a complete natural. I was completely convinced. Ranbir had very few lines, but boy, did he leave an impact! He's the best actor we've had in more than a decade now,' says Rajabali. If Ranbir was a revelation, Katrina Kaif wasn't far behind. 'We couldn't pick Draupadi's angle as it is because the fight between husbands for her and all that jazz doesn't quite work today. But it stayed with me after reading the epic that Draupadi loved Arjuna, but he was too focused on ambition. So there was an unrequited love,' recalls Rajabali, who again was concerned if Kaif would be able to pull off the Hindi heartland dialogues with the right accent. 'Once again, Prakash was convinced she'd deliver,' he adds. 'Katrina is a very hardworking actor. She worked with so much dedication. She learnt her lines for 30-40 days so she could deliver them confidently,' Jha recalls. Rajabali did find issues with her accent during the filming, but changed his mind during the dubbing sessions. 'The amount of effort that the girl put in… she managed to deliver word to word in near-perfect diction,' says Rajabali. It's been 15 years, the party in power has changed, so it makes sense for us to pose the question to Rajabali: Was Katrina Kaif's character inspired by Sonia Gandhi? He refuses, but sees the parallels. 'There are various archetypal characters in life and in good literature and cinema. Rajiv Gandhi was the proverbial outsider. He didn't want to join politics. But then he did, and he won. Then he gets killed. There's a widow. Katrina looks half white. I wasn't concerned, but I anticipated such allegations,' says Rajabali. He then reveals that as the Congress party got concerned closer to the film's release, they inserted their representative in the Central Board of Film Certification. 'This was an open secret. There was no contention with the film though, except one word. When two people at a chai shop are discussing election results, a laconic man, buried in the newspaper, says, 'Le jaegi vidhwa sab samet kar.' They objected to 'vidhwa' because that might be confused with Sonia Gandhi. I didn't agree with it, but Prakash said we'd have to remove it. So the word was changed to 'bitiya,'' says Rajabali. Other changes in translating the Mahabharata to the world of Raajneeti included eliminating Nakul and Sahadeva because they're quite similar, and choosing Arjun Rampal's character Prithvi as Bhima over Yudhishthira. 'Prakash recommended we take Bhima because there's an innocence to him. He loves his family. He's loud and uncouth, but there's an endearing quality to him too. He's gullible so can get tricked very soon, so you need to protect him,' says Rajabali. Another change was to make their Krishna far more quieter than he's in the epic. In fact, Nana Patekar is the only actor in the ensemble who doesn't get a monologue. Even Naseeruddin Shah does, within a cameo. 'He doesn't pick up any weapons, but only operates on plotting. So that's how I asked Nana Patekar to be in his body language,' says Jha. 'He's a thinking person, a strategist. He'd just process everything and come up with just one line that Samar catches up on. He's the man to watch out for. He forces you to pay attention to him precisely because he doesn't speak much. So you always wonder what he's up to,' argues Rajabali. He quotes the example of the scene in which Patekar's character comes up with the perfect candidate to compete with Surya (Ajay Devgn's character based on Karna). 'It's obvious he's the natural choice to win in a Dalit constituency. Nana Patekar doesn't say anything, but he just goes there and announces their candidate as Surya's father. That's a masterstroke,' points out Rajabali. Jha recently admitted that he has the story for the sequel ready. 'I have an idea with me. But we just haven't gotten to it yet because other commitments keep coming up,' says the filmmaker, who's been busy with his MXPlayer show Aashram, his next film Janadhish, and other projects as a producer. 'It can be quite rich because it can reflect today's challenges for politicians. The Mahabharata is infinite so there is a lot of potential,' argues Rajabali. Jha points out that most characters from the first part, including those of Devgn, Manoj Bajpayee, and Arjun Rampal, are dead. So would the sequel continue where we left the other characters? Also Read — Dune director Denis Villenueve was impressed by Ranbir Kapoor after watching Raajneeti on a plane: 'He stood out among such an ensemble' 'It may start from there or once we work on it, it may be something completely new,' says Jha, with a shrug. But where would Samar, Indu, and Mama be today? Or what would their Arjuna, Draupadi, and Krishna up to to now? 'I can't possibly answer that because I may give you the idea Prakash and I just end up doing. So I have to be a little discrete about it,' says Rajabali, in true Krishna fashion.
Hindustan Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
As Raajneeti turns 15 today, director Prakash Jha confirms Raajneeti 2 is in the works, script and cast being finalised!
Filmmaker Prakash Jha's Raajneeti (2010) earned cult status due to the storyline, a huge star cast and a successful soundtrack. The film, which clocks 15 years today, was believed to be a modern adaptation of the Mahabharata, starring Ranbir Kapoor (reluctant Arjun), Ajay Devgn (cursed Karna), Nana Patekar (the knowing Krishna), Katrina Kaif (victimised Draupadi), Arjun Rampal (golden hearted Bhima), Manoj Bajpayee (stubborn Duryodhana), Sarah Thompson (Subhadra) and Naseeruddin Shah (the guilty God). Speaking to us as the film achieves the 15-year milestone, Prakash confirms that a sequel to Raajneeti is in the works. 'Raajneeti (politics) ki yatra toh anvarat (constant) hai, chalti hi rehti hai! There's always been a plan for Raajneeti 2. While there is nothing concrete in terms of casting and shooting yet, I am currently working on it,' says the director. The film's pre-production went on for a year. 'We cast 8,000 actors for an authentic crowd scene, which was quite a task,' says Prakash. Sharing how he managed to put such a big star cast together, he adds, 'The good thing about casting was that whoever we approached, liked the script and came on board. They felt challenged to perform well. People say it was a commercial success. For me, Damul (1984), Mritudand (1997), Gangajal (2003), Apaharan (2005) or Satyagraha (2013) are just films. But, it feels nice when people talk about them.' The movie had a hit soundtrack, featuring four composers — late Aadesh Shrivastava, Pritam, Shantanu Moitra and Wayne Sharpe, with lyrics penned by Gulzar, Irshad Kamil, Sameer and Swanand Kirkire. Prakash shares that Aadesh came up with the song Mora Piya Mose Bolat Naahin 'much earlier' during a creative sitting and it perfectly fit the situation in the film. He adds, 'He sang it beautifully, too.' Singer Kavita Seth, who also sang the song, says, 'I took extra time to prepare the song, as the situation was intense. It is one of my biggest hits till date. It's a part of my set list at all the concerts along with Ek Tara (Wake Up Sid).' Bheegi Se also became a big hit. Separate helicopters were needed for different characters. So, to save the cost, one helicopter was painted in two colours on either sides. It was shot from different angles for different scenes. Katrina Kaif, Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Rampal became friends during the film's shoot. They would often be seen together playing cricket and savouring delicacies together. They named the trio BhoPALS. The film's assistant director Ritam Srivastava, director of OTT series like Rafuchakkar (2023) and Raktanchal (2020), tells us, 'Ranbir Kapoor was very excited when he shared the screen with Manoj Bajpayee. It was also the first time that Ranbir used a pistol in a scene.' Manoj's chase sequence was shot over three days at multiple locations in Bhopal. Ritam shares: 'While doing the chase, Ajay Devgn jokingly said: 'Teen din ho gaye seene mein goli lagey, ab to marr jaao'.' In 2016, Prakash Jha authored book Raajneeti - the Film and Beyond which has lot about the making of the film. Katrina, who was seen in a saree in most parts of the film, was apparently not sure about her look. The book mentions: She would ask the Director of Photography Sachin Krishn, 'Will I look beautiful?'. He would say, 'You would look real'. For authenticity, Prakash Jha refused 'good quality' flags for the shoot just a day before filming. So, 12,000 party flags were printed with cheap material, shabby printing and cheap technology, and were aged. Costume designer Priyanka Mundada used 40,000 metres to dress 8,000 cast members. Tea was used to age the dresses. To accommodate them, hotels, guest houses and lodges were booked in Bhopal. Extra bathrooms were constructed for junior artistes. Caterers were called from Mumbai. Cross-country collaboration was done to create 'international, yet Indian music'. New York-based musician Wayne Sharpe, who also composed the score of the film, created western melodies and then recorded with Indian sounds. He recorded melodies in his studio in the US, the orchestra was recorded in Prague, Czech Republic, while the Indian instruments were recorded in Mumbai.
News18
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Ranbir Kapoor Was A 'Natural', Katrina Kaif Learnt Her Lines In 40 Days For Rajneeti: Prakash Jha
Last Updated: Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif's standout roles in Raajneeti remain unforgettable. Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali recall their dedication and how they brought the film to life. Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif's performances in Raajneeti remain etched in fans' memory, with both actors proving their mettle in one of the most ambitious political dramas of the time. While Ranbir stunned with his silence and subtlety, Katrina surprised everyone with her intense preparation and commitment to the role. Raajneeti was released in 2010 and the team behind the film — director Prakash Jha and screenwriter Anjum Rajabali — recently revisited its journey, sharing how the story wasn't intended as a Mahabharata adaptation at first in a chat with SCREEN. 'Unlike Gangaajal (2003) or Apaharan (2004), Raajneeti didn't happen after witnessing a specific incident. It was a broader socio-political drama based on reality, but resonating with the Mahabharata. The characters are all the same everywhere, as they were back in the epic," Jha said. Rajabali recalled when Jha told him they'd found their Arjuna — and it was Ranbir Kapoor. 'Who, Rishi Kapoor's son? That's how I knew of him," Rajabali said, noting that Bhansali's Saawariya hadn't even released yet. 'Have you seen it? Can he perform?" 'I haven't, but my instinct says he can." 'I trusted his instincts, but I had my doubts," reveals Rajabali. But all doubts vanished once Rajabali visited the set in Bhopal. Jha showed him a scene where Ranbir sits silently, reacting to breaking news about his father's death and brother's arrest. 'That boy was speaking volumes with his silence. There was no prep. He's an intuitive actor, a complete natural. I was completely convinced. Ranbir had very few lines, but boy, did he leave an impact! He's the best actor we've had in more than a decade now," said Rajabali. If Ranbir left a lasting impression, Katrina Kaif's transformation impressed just as much. Rajabali shared how her character was loosely inspired by Draupadi, though the original elements from the epic were adapted to fit a modern setting. He initially had concerns about Katrina handling the Hindi-heavy script. 'Once again, Prakash was convinced she'd deliver," he noted. Jha stood by his casting choice and praised her work ethic. 'Katrina is a very hardworking actor. She worked with so much dedication. She learnt her lines for 30-40 days so she could deliver them confidently," he said. Rajabali added that while her accent worried him during filming, the dubbing sessions changed his mind. 'The amount of effort that the girl put in… she managed to deliver word to word in near-perfect diction," he said. Fifteen years later, Raajneeti continues to be a turning point in both Ranbir and Katrina's careers — a film that challenged their limits and brought out performances that still resonate. First Published: June 04, 2025, 09:44 IST
Indian Express
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Raajneeti turns 10: Prakash Jha says Katrina Kaif learnt her speech for 40 days, Anjum Rajabali had his doubts about Ranbir Kapoor
Aamir Khan may be planning to make a film series on the Mahabharata and then hang up his boots. But filmmaker Prakash Jha and screenwriter Anjum Rajabali did that 15 years ago. Their 2010 political drama Raajneeti was a modern adaptation of the epic, yet they maintain it never started off as that. 'Unlike Gangaajal (2003) or Apaharan (2004), Raajneeti didn't happen after witnessing a specific incident. It was a broader socio-political drama based on reality, but resonating with the Mahabharata. The characters are all the same everywhere, as they were back in the epic,' Prakash Jha tells SCREEN. 'There's something for everybody — drama, crisis, highs, lows — everything you can think of about human existence, it's all there capsuled in the Mahabharata. So every Indian creator keeps drawing from it,' he adds. 'We didn't start out by wanting to adapt the Mahabharata. We just allowed it to enter our script. It's a sprawling epic. But you're not writing an epic, you're writing a screenplay,' Rajabali points out. After serving as a script consultant on Jha's last two films, he was approached by the director to co-write a film on electoral politics. 'I wasn't interested in that,' recalls Rajabali. But he proposed to Jha that the filmmaker visits him every evening from 7:30 pm to 10 pm. They'd brainstorm over 'two shots of vodka' for seven days, in the middle of which Rajabali recalled they began veering towards the Mahabharata. The idea of power conflict and cousins competing with other brought them closer to the broad strokes of the epic. But Rajabali was dead sure he didn't want Karna to be the hero, much to the surprise of Jha. 'Karna has the usual characteristics of a hero: he's the underdog who comes up fighting against injustice. But I told Prakash you must not look at only as destiny, but also in terms of the choices he made. He wholeheartedly went with Duryodhana, knowing fully well he's an evil guy. That lends the story a dystopian end — who do we side with, because they're all evil,' reasons Rajabali. Enter: Arjuna. 'Prakash said Arjuna is a boring character, who's a good family member and a good warrior. But I brought his attention to Arjuna's arc — he doesn't want to enter the war, but Krishna gives him the perspective on why he should fight for a cause. Then their dark deeds begin to surface. So I asked Prakash, 'What if Arjuna begins to revel in that?' Because he's suddenly a demon who has been unleashed,' says Rajabali. The Arjuna of Raajneeti — Samar Pratap Singh — is the proverbial outsider. The youngest son who comes back from his school abroad for a few days, only to get caged in the politics of his family and that of the state. 'His father is killed, brother is jailed, so he has to enter politics out of anger. Then the guy who's researching Victorian poetry begins to do one dark deed after another. If you notice, even the topic of his research has to do with violence in the 18th century. So there's a fascination with violence, which was already coming out via academics,' underlines Rajabali. He recalls the time when he got a call from Jha who said they've found their Arjuna: Ranbir Kapoor. 'Who, Rishi Kapoor's son? That's how I knew of him,' says Rajabali, reminding us that Ranbir's debut film, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya (2007), hadn't released then. 'Have you seen it? Can he perform?' 'I haven't, but my instinct says he can.' 'I trusted his instincts, but I had my doubts,' reveals Rajabali. A few days after Jha began filming in Bhopal, Rajabali visited the set. Jha showed him the scene in which Ranbir is just sitting on a chair and looking at the television news of his father's death and brother's arrest. The camera goes from right to left on his face. 'That boy was speaking volumes with his silence. There was no prep. He's an intuitive actor, a complete natural. I was completely convinced. Ranbir had very few lines, but boy, did he leave an impact! He's the best actor we've had in more than a decade now,' says Rajabali. If Ranbir was a revelation, Katrina Kaif wasn't far behind. 'We couldn't pick Draupadi's angle as it is because the fight between husbands for her and all that jazz doesn't quite work today. But it stayed with me after reading the epic that Draupadi loved Arjuna, but he was too focused on ambition. So there was an unrequited love,' recalls Rajabali, who again was concerned if Kaif would be able to pull off the Hindi heartland dialogues with the right accent. 'Once again, Prakash was convinced she'd deliver,' he adds. 'Katrina is a very hardworking actor. She worked with so much dedication. She learnt her lines for 30-40 days so she could deliver them confidently,' Jha recalls. Rajabali did find issues with her accent during the filming, but changed his mind during the dubbing sessions. 'The amount of effort that the girl put in… she managed to deliver word to word in near-perfect diction,' says Rajabali. It's been 15 years, the party in power has changed, so it makes sense for us to pose the question to Rajabali: Was Katrina Kaif's character inspired by Sonia Gandhi? He refuses, but sees the parallels. 'There are various archetypal characters in life and in good literature and cinema. Rajiv Gandhi was the proverbial outsider. He didn't want to join politics. But then he did, and he won. Then he gets killed. There's a widow. Katrina looks half white. I wasn't concerned, but I anticipated such allegations,' says Rajabali. He then reveals that as the Congress party got concerned closer to the film's release, they inserted their representative in the Central Board of Film Certification. 'This was an open secret. There was no contention with the film though, except one word. When two people at a chai shop are discussing election results, a laconic man, buried in the newspaper, says, 'Le jaegi vidhwa sab samet kar.' They objected to 'vidhwa' because that might be confused with Sonia Gandhi. I didn't agree with it, but Prakash said we'd have to remove it. So the word was changed to 'bitiya,'' says Rajabali. Other changes in translating the Mahabharata to the world of Raajneeti included eliminating Nakul and Sahadeva because they're quite similar, and choosing Arjun Kapoor's character Prithvi as Bhima over Yudhishthira. 'Prakash recommended we take Bhima because there's an innocence to him. He loves his family. He's loud and uncouth, but there's an endearing quality to him too. He's gullible so can get tricked very soon, so you need to protect him,' says Rajabali. Another change was to make their Krishna far more quieter than he's in the epic. In fact, Nana Patekar is the only actor in the ensemble who doesn't get a monologue. Even Naseeruddin Shah does, within a cameo. 'He doesn't pick up any weapons, but only operates on plotting. So that's how I asked Nana Patekar to be in his body language,' says Jha. 'He's a thinking person, a strategist. He'd just process everything and come up with just one line that Samar catches up on. He's the man to watch out for. He forces you to pay attention to him precisely because he doesn't speak much. So you always wonder what he's up to,' argues Rajabali. He quotes the example of the scene in which Patekar's character comes up with the perfect candidate to compete with Surya (Ajay Devgn's character based on Karna). 'It's obvious he's the natural choice to win in a Dalit constituency. Nana Patekar doesn't say anything, but he just goes there and announces their candidate as Surya's father. That's a masterstroke,' points out Rajabali. Jha recently admitted that he has the story for the sequel ready. 'I have an idea with me. But we just haven't gotten to it yet because other commitments keep coming up,' says the filmmaker, who's been busy with his MXPlayer show Aashram, his next film Janadhish, and other projects as a producer. 'It can be quite rich because it can reflect today's challenges for politicians. The Mahabharata is infinite so there is a lot of potential,' argues Rajabali. Jha points out that most characters from the first part, including those of Devgn, Manoj Bajpayee, and Arjun Rampal, are dead. So would the sequel continue where we left the other characters? Also Read — Dune director Denis Villenueve was impressed by Ranbir Kapoor after watching Raajneeti on a plane: 'He stood out among such an ensemble' 'It may start from there or once we work on it, it may be something completely new,' says Jha, with a shrug. But where would Samar, Indu, and Mama be today? Or what would their Arjuna, Draupadi, and Krishna up to to now? 'I can't possibly answer that because I may give you the idea Prakash and I just end up doing. So I have to be a little discrete about it,' says Rajabali, in true Krishna fashion.
