Subhash Ghai Reveals He Had THIS Bollywood Actress In Mind When He First Wrote Jaanki

Subhash Ghai debuts with his first television show titled Jaanki. It is based on fighting gender bias. This marks Mukta Arts’ first foray into television production. The show’s narrative is inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign to support female literacy and ban female infanticide. The show will premiere on DD National on August 15. The Free Press Journal caught up with the showman for an exclusive interaction.

When asked about Jaanki, Ghai shares, “This series has 208 episodes. Jaanki is a heart-rending saga of a daughter who faces rejections. How she channelises her strength and grows makes the entire society realise this shameful act. A daughter is not a ‘paraya dhan’. She is not a liability but an asset to their family and the society. I have composed three song numbers.”

Ghai is bringing yet another female-centric story. When asked, what can the viewers expect, he reveals, “We need to respect every woman as a mother to us. A female comes to you in the form of a wife, daughter but her motherhood caring quality never ceases. Today, my daughter treats me as a mother. Motherhood is the most common factor in a woman so I have a huge respect and love towards any woman. Even your girlfriend starts treating you like a mother and takes care.”

Talking about how the show was conceptualised, Ghai says, “I already had a story and DD National requested me to give it to them. When we narrated it to them, they loved the story. After getting a green signal from them we made it and gave it to them.”

Since the idea was with Ghai for a long time, one wonders if he was tempted to make it into a film. Pat comes the reply, “When we have any story we can make it for OTT, big screen or TV. We can turn them into anything. But I feel every story has its own time and fate.”

Ghai surprises us by mentioning about who he had in mind when he had first written the story of Jaanki. “When I had written this story way back then I had Rekhaji in mind. I could not take it further because I started making Pardes. After that, I went on to make Taal, thus this story was left behind with me,” he reveals.

Films are not working in theatres. When asked if the reason is a dearth of good directors or writers, Ghai explains, "If you recollect in the 1990s also films that ran well were merely 5 per cent to 10 per cent, same is the case even today. What happens in these 52 weeks when many films are produced and released? Today we have 5,000 theatres; earlier we just had 300 theatres; also there is a rise in population. There is a change but you have to be the best in the current time. If you make a theatrical film, it should allure the audiences to the extent as if they are watching this film for the first time. They need to be entertained to the fullest. We need to choose stories according to varied platforms and the target audience should enjoy it. Under the Mukta Arts banner, we are producing all kinds of stories for different platforms."

Earlier, we would watch both parallel and commercial cinema which is missing now. Ghai has an interesting take on this. “We are watching both commercial and parallel cinema as well. I have recently watched a festival film of Anupam Kher titled Signature. It is a wonderful film. Art cinema is still existing which can be watched in festivals,” he signs off.