Ashutosh Gowariker doesn’t budge. He can be as resolute as Bhuvan, Mohan and Akbar, his reel heroes. Ask his wife, producer Sunita. For Jodhaa Akbar (2008), the filmmaker refused to entertain her and art director Nitin Desai’s request that the walls of the set for Agra Fort be brought down from the original 70 to 45 feet, given the budget constraints. After all, who’d notice if they measured the same? Gowariker would.

For his fourth period film, Mohenjo Daro, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker of Lagaan (2001) rejected the idea that the set for the citadel of the ancient civilisation be constructed in Mumbai. Gowariker argued that the colour of sky in Bhuj, where the film was eventually shot for six months, would be different from that of the metropolis. But would the audience notice the colour of the sky? Gowariker would.

“It can be annoying,” laughs Sunita, who has controlled the budgets of all his films since Swades (2004). “He doesn’t compromise on his craft. He doesn’t cheat himself and his audience. Of course, any producer would want a film to be made with less money. I keep telling him, ‘Oh my God! Not again. Why can’t you think normal?’ But I know he enjoys creating another world.” Mohenjo Daro sees Gowariker, 52, return to his favourite genre, historical fiction, after two back-to-back flops—What’s Your Raashee? (2009) and Khelein Hum

Jee Jaan Sey (2010). A lot’s at stake, more so since Mohenjo Daro has a few parallels with the film that catapulted Gowariker to fame.

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