Ekta gives Milan Luthria an ultimatum 
By Subhash K. Jha, May 14, 2008 - 16:11 IST
Milan Luthria has been given an unenviable task by his producer Ekta Kapoor. He has to make a gangster film with Sanjay Dutt which would be completely different from anything done so far in Hindi films.
Considering the underworld cinema has been done to bludgeoning death by every director from Mahesh Bhatt to Ram Gopal Varma, and considering Dutt has played a gangster in at least three dozen prominent and inconspicuous films, Luthria is at his wit's end as to how he should approach the age-old theme of gangsterism.
"I've been focusing on the getting the writing right. It's not easy to make a film that looks at the era and still manages to tell a powerful story. To compound my problems, there's hardly any material on the underworld in the 1980s. That in a way is a blessing because it gives a free reign to the imagination."
The director of Kachche Dhaage and Taxi No 9211 is trying to get the fundas right for this project. "My film for Ekta Kapoor will take a penetrating look at gangsterism in the 1980s. I'm quite enamoured by the period, quite taken up by the period and its flamboyance. There was a lot action and lots of inner life in some of the films from during that period. I think the last film that looked at gangsterism from inside was Anurag Basu's Gangster."
"Earlier when I was assisting Mahesh Bhatt he did some interesting takes on gangsterism like Saathi and Sir. The challenge is to have a fresh take at the whole era. I've to take the whole period into account and yet it can't be a rambling look at the era. It has to have a strong story to tell. It has to be a clutter-breaking gangster film."
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