Maharaj: Director Siddharth P Malhotra on Junaid Khan, Success & More

In this interview we have Siddharth P. Malhotra, who is an Indian film director and producer who has directed films like Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), We Are Family (2010), Hichki (2018), and Maharaj (2024). He talks about working with newcomers Like Junaid Khan who is Amir Khan’s son, Sharvari, and more. His childhood and memories with Mayapuri.

Your film Maharaj is quite popular on Netflix, however, to get released it had to fight a lot. I would be starting on that note only that the time and effort it takes to make a film that is inspired by true events and then getting that shelved because of various reasons and all that issue. What was your reaction to that time when you were facing these issues?
At that time, Hichki was released 6 years ago! It was a super hit film at the box office. When I got the idea of Maharaj from Vipul Mehta who is the co-writer of the film with Sneha Desai. She made it into a Gujarati play, based on a book by Sourabh Shah. When I saw it, I was impressed by the play, so I brought the rights of the play, read the book, got it translated to Hindi from Gujarati, and studied the case regarding this. We thought that whatever emotion is there that could actually hurt the sentiments of the people or they could affect the case, we wouldn't be showing that in the film! We won't be keeping those in our film! We wanted to do a story about a man’s ideology and his fight for women's rights at that time in 1862! For Widow Remarriage, Caste, and Creed, he fought for those issues! He was a journalist, and Karsandas Mulji had more such good deeds that were done by him, many people think that he did those for revenge, however, that is a misconception. Karsan was a social reformer and was well-written by Sneha and Vipul! The movie was made very flowing, however, the time of release was a bit difficult for us. We just released a poster and got to know that we got a ban on the film! In real life also it became a court drama for us. Will the film ever be released? We didn’t want to offend anyone or even religion, so we won’t be doing so. Luckily our judiciary saw that the movie wasn’t offending anyone. I am thankful to them and the people. As you might know that court case ended at 4.30 and the film was out by 5.30! The audience didn’t know that it was releasing! So our publicity was done after the film is out now! Before that, we didn’t get to do it properly. The trailer launched after the film. The film is actually trending number 1, now number 2 globally! People are still in doubt that the film might have drama from the court, I request them to watch it to see that the film has learning!

I really liked that you even urged the court to watch your film and then decide whether the allegation against the film was true or not. Not watching the film before passing your judgment won't be right! That was a practical approach to the film's success.
Yes, that is because you will have to watch the film before passing any judgment or opinion as once the film is out, it becomes for the audience to decide whether it is good or bad. It is their right to like it or not to like it.
When we watched it before the controversy, we found it really well made. After such a long time we saw such a good film, this film talks about the issues that society refuses to talk about and thinks are not relatable to this time, but the thing is the issues are still present in society in the rural part of India. Thank you to Director Siddharth for presenting us with such a good film!

Sir, I would like to talk about the star cast of the film as well, I mean it has Junaid Khan, the son of Mr. Perfectionist of Bollywood Amir Khan. The way he played his character is just amazing and commendable. How was it for you to work with him?
He is my Karsandas in reality. He is such a genuine and simple soul and he has done so much hard work over the span of 1.5 years with me and the writers also! I once saw an audition of Junaid, and I was in a discussion with Amir Khan about a film. That was the time when I asked Aaditya Chopra (Producer), that we don’t need a Film Hero in this film, we need to get a newcomer who has honesty and rawness in them as Karsandas was 23-24 years old and had that kind of look on him. Junaid liked the script and even Amir Sir liked the script when we narrated it to him. And I am glad that Amir Sir trusted me to launch his son and Aadi trusted me to make this film. Jaideep sir is a benchmark actor for me, after Irfan Khan, if anybody asks me to take an actor's name I would take his name! He was a no-brainer for me to cast him. He had so many layers, I had to make him understand that there was a reason behind his smile, and why he didn’t talk that much! His transformation was commendable!

Did you ever think that this would be a risk to cast such young faces for such a heavy story?
Honestly, it was more of a responsibility than a risk. Sharvari had done only one film before that, which was Bunty Aur Babli 2 (2021) and Shalini had done Jayeshbhai Jordaar (2022) in Bollywood and yes of course she had done Arjun Reddy, still she was a fresh face. Jaydeep Sir was seasoned yes! So it became my responsibility to deliver them right to the audience. So that they get loved by the audience, as a Director it was my responsibility to do so. I am seeing that everyone is getting so much love!
I have read that somewhere it's written, that if anybody has to cast Amir and Junaid together, then it would be Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar in the remake of the film.
Yes according to me Junaid should do Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, it is one of my favorite films and one of my favorite directors Mansoor Khan. I hope we get to see them acting in a film together!

What do you think sir, about the special thing about this film?
The special thing about this film is that it’s made with so much simplicity and truth. The end credit of this film is about 6 minutes long and it's all of our films! 
What was Amir Sir’s reaction after watching the film?
He liked the film very much! I still remember that, after watching it, he said to me hug me. And for me, it was like a dream come true.
You also produced some television shows, is there any upcoming shows that are coming up?
Right now I don’t have any planned shows, my last was Pashmina, on Sony SAB and that was my last show. There would be something coming on OTT also.

Is there any list on your mind of actors you would like to work with?
Of course, the Three Khans of Bollywood, especially Amir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, like every director dream of working with him and Kamal Hasan! 
Thank you soo much for talking to us sir, the film was amazing, please watch it!
Go watch it as it was made with soo much love!

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