Not concerned about 'Mohenjo Daro' criticism: Hrithik Roshan

The trailer of "Mohenjo Daro" may have become a butt of jokes online and made historians cringe, but lead star Hrithik Roshan has brushed away the negativity saying the film will silence critics after its release. This is not the first time Hrithik's film has been accused of distorting historical facts.

His 2008 film, "Jodhaa Akbar", also directed by his "Mohenjo Daro" helmer Ashutosh Gowariker, was initially slammed for being historically inaccurate but that did not stop it from becoming box office success.

"I am not concerned about it (negativity around the trailer). This current situation reminds me of a time when Twitter was not there but when I played Akbar, I was in the spotlight right from the release of the first trailer.

"People said what I did was wrong as Akbar was only four feet ten inches tall, while I am over six feet. Also that I had light eyes, which Akbar did not," Hrithik told PTI. "People raised several objections about the film. And now who remembers that? They have all forgotten about it. Now when you talk about 'Jodhaa Akbar', you say how great the film was and how well it did."

The 42-year-old actor says the historians, who have raised objections about usage of lip colour on women, to the use of horses in certain scenes, are least of his concern as they are not the people who will go and watch the film in theatres on August 12.

"They are not our fans, who will go to cinemas to watch the film. These historians are voicing their



opinion, they have no bearing on the film being good or bad. "They are talking about how they can have lipsticks but people of the Indus Valley used to crush rose petals and put it on their lips. Our film is fiction mixed with facts."

Hrithik says "Mohenjo Daro", which also features newcomer Pooja Hegde, is a simple love story set in the backdrop of the Indus Valley civilisation.

"It is a love story, a revenge drama in the backdrop of Indus Valley. It has not been made to teach people about Mohenjo Daro. It is like 'Titanic', which was not about how the ship works, it was about a love story with Titanic as the backdrop. That is where we are coming from."

"Mohenjo Daro" is Hrithik's second historically-themed film after "Jodhaa Akbar" but the actor says his upcoming movie was way more difficult to work on as it involved shooting in harsh conditions of Bhuj in Gujarat.

"It was in a lot of way tougher than 'Jodhaa' because of the setting we were put in, long hours on the sets in Bhuj. It was quite tiring." Praising his co-star Hrithik says he was surprised to seen how confident the actress was right from the time of their first photo shoot for the film.

"The shooting conditions were tough but Pooja was unfazed. She gave her shots naturally and spontaneously. If it was my first film, I would go home, I couldn't have done it. She is very hard working."

"Mohenjo Daro", also stars Kabir Bedi, Arunoday Singh, Suhasini Mulay and Nitish Bharadwaj.