Mohenjo Daro

Mohenjo Daro (English: Mound of the Dead Men) is an upcoming Indian epic adventure-romance film written and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. The film is produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur and Sunita A. Gowariker. It features Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hegde in the lead roles.

The film is set in 2016 BC in the ancient city of Mohenjo-daro in the era of the Indus Valley civilisation. The film is about a man who falls in love with his enemy's daughter who is a dancer. Centred on romance through the cultures and ancient civilisations of Mohenjo-daro, Gowariker took over three years to develop the film with the help of archaeologists who documented the discovery of Indus Valley civilisation. The film was shot in Bhuj and Mumbai with short schedules in Jabalpur and Thane.

The soundtrack album and film score are composed by A. R. Rahman with song lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar. The film is scheduled for a worldwide release on 12 August 2016.

Cast

 * Hrithik Roshan as Sarman
 * Pooja Hegde as Chaani
 * Kabir Bedi as Maham
 * Arunoday Singh
 * Suhasini Mulay
 * Nitish Bharadwaj as Durjan
 * Kishori Shahane
 * Sharad Kelkar
 * Manish Choudhary
 * Narendra Jha
 * Piyush Mishra
 * Casey Frank
 * Diganta Hazarika

Development
Ashutosh Gowariker announced the film officially in February 2014 with A. R. Rahman composing the film score. In August 2014, Hrithik Roshan was confirmed to play the male lead and was paid. Actress Pooja Hegde was signed as the female lead. On taking up the project, in an interview, Gowariker stated that there was meagre and superficial information available about the people in that civilisation, particularly about their lifestyle, food and feelings. The lack of information about the period troubled Gowariker and he decided that whenever he would get a story to tell, it will be depicted in the 2500 BC-Mohenjo Daro. On the film's plot, he was quoted as saying, "While the plot will follow the discovery of Mohenjo-daro and the culture and the vibe of the ancient civilisation, it will largely centre on a love story." It took Gowariker three years to piece together a plot of the entire civilisation through various cities and weave a love story into it. During his reconnaissance, he met as many as seven archaeologists who had been closely involved in documenting the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation. He had also visited the archaeological site of Dholavira. Further, with the film being set in a certain period, the whole site had to be recreated in a film studio. He was involved in working out the logistics during June 2014. The film's stunts would be choreographed by Glenn Boswell and the costumes will be designed by April Ferry and Neeta Lulla. U.K. based trainer Joshua Kyle Baker was roped in to train Roshan for his character in the film. He described the three-month training so as to allow Roshan to appear 'lithe' and 'agile' rather than muscular. Relating the natural environment required for Mohenjo Daro, Gowariker was impressed with the calamitous VFX seen in the films The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 BC that were designed by Karen Goulekas. In September 2014, as a visual effects supervisor, Goulekas was brought on board for the film. Gowariker revisited Bhuj in December 2014 to begin pre-production.

Filming
The principal photography commenced in Bhuj on 27 January 2015. The first schedule of 101 days was wrapped up in the same city by 23 May 2015. In June 2015, Hrithik started training to fight with tigers in one of the sequences of the film. Filming resumed in Bhuj and was completed by October 2015. The second schedule of filming began in Jabalpur on November 2, 2015, where a fight sequence with Crocodiles was completed. In December 2015, the third schedule began at Film City in Mumbai. On April 4, 2016, the crew filmed the climax of the film at China Creek in Thane.

Filming was completed on April 8, 2016.

Screenplay
Director Akashaditya Lama alleged the makers with film script copyright infringement. According to Lama, in 2003, he shared the script with his friend, editor Ballu Saluja, an associate of Ashutosh Gowariker. Lama stated: "I sent him a handwritten script through Saluja which he returned after four days saying that he had just directed a period movie Lagaan (2001) and didn't wish to make another one immediately." Lama had registered his script titled "Saamrajya" under the Copyrights Act with Ministry of Human Resources Development in 2007. He went on to re-register the same script online in February 2010 with the title "Mohenjodaro" with the Ministry of Human Resources Development and the Department of Higher Education, India, under the Copyright Act. Two days later, he also registered the same script with the same title with the Film Writers' Association in Mumbai. However, in March 2015, lawyers on Gowariker's side responded: "Our client states that they had received a script from Mr. Ballu Saluja in 2003. However, our client returned the script to Mr. Ballu Saluja immediately without reading the same and they were not intending to make a historical film."

Finance
In mid-September 2014, owing to non-payment of their regular expenses and remuneration, the workers belonging to Allied Mazdoor Union and Film Studio Setting refused to complete the pre-production work in Bhuj, Gujarat. To this stalled situation, Gowariker took a legal route and lodged a complaint with the 'Indian Film and Television Producers Council' accusing the members of stalling work that would result in losses to the company. Lawrence D'Souza, executive producer of the film, maintained that though their payments were ready, the remote filming locations of Bhuj delayed the reception of the same.

Cinematography
Ayananka Bose had originally been signed as the cinematographer but when the film was delayed, he took up other projects as he was paid on a project-to-project basis. Bose failed to join the discussions prior to filming and requested Gowariker to be allowed to join the set directly after he was done with his other commitments. A displeased Gowariker replaced Bose with C.K. Muraleedharan.

Music


The music for the film has been composed by A. R. Rahman while the lyrics have been penned by Javed Akhtar. The music rights are acquired by T-Series. The full music album of the film was released on 6 July 2016.