The James bond

Rohit Jugraj, a doctor from Delhi, who has debuted with the slickly made James, talks to Komal Vijay Singh about his journey to the dream factory

HE is the guy who could have been an Army officer. He went on to become a doctor but found his calling in film-making. He is the newest kid on the Bollywood firmament. Debutant director Rohit Jugraj, who has been variously panned and acclaimed for the slickly made James, a Ram Gopal Varma production, declares himself to be a Haryana guy who had the good fortune to realise his dream in the Mumbai film factory. His immediate aim is to treat the masses to a new kind of angry young man.

Born in Dak Pathar, a small town near Dehra Dun. Rohit did his schooling from Yamunanagar and Jagadhari and says he has great regard for The Tribune. "Reading it everyday used to be a religion for me", he reminisces. He remembers how at his class X farewell from Sacred Heart Convent School, Jagadhari, his teacher said she hoped no one would think of making a career in films or politics. He laughingly says he has already stormed one forbidden bastion.

He says, "For a middle class boy from an academically inclined family, dreaming of films was nothing short of a far-fetched, unattainable idea. But then I believe if you want something bad enough you are sure to get it."

"After class XII, like most kids I found myself at the crossroads where I was expected to make a conventional choice of career". He appeared for the NDA entrance exam and was selected for the Army. "My heart was in joining the Air Force. I wanted wings and when I did not get them I let go of the chance to join the Army. In retrospect, I feel whatever happens, happens for the best. Everything that happens has the imprint of God’s design."

Then, he cleared the PMT test and got admission in Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi. A doctor’s son, he thought he was following in his father’s footsteps even though his heart’s desire lay elsewhere and he did not have the courage to voice it.

During the third year of his MBBS, he took an overnight journey to Corbett National Park on a naturalist friend’s invitation. There, he came across a BBC team that was shooting a film on tigers. Getting the chance to assist them, he was "hooked to the medium." In the next two years, he went on to make 12 trips to Corbett. He would primarily assist BBC’s Channel 4’s teams for various projects.

Rohit candidly admits, "Even if I had gone on to practise medicine, my heart and soul would not have been in it. I thanked God I had discovered my calling in life. Once, when I returned to class in dirty, mud-spattered jeans from Corbett my professor said: Here comes Cowboy. I just blurted out that I’d rather waste five years of my life to listen to my heart than realising after 55 years that this is not what I wanted to do."

Rohit went on to clear his GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and managed to get the BBC to give him a recommendation for a film-making course at New York University. "Just like any other Indian student there, I worked at being a part-time delivery boy to a construction worker," he says.

A year and a half down the line, he was back in India, or Mumbai, to be precise. Armed with four films shot by him, his immediate concern was to work with one of four film-makers only: Ram Gopal Verma, Mani Ratnam, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shekhar Kapoor. He got the nod from Bhansali first but quit working for him after one schedule of Devdas.

Rohit declares, "I could not agree with the concept of lighting a thousand candles for a scene. My vision of cinema differed from his multi-crore, grandiose one."

"I now set my sights on Ram Gopal Verma. I followed him and tried attracting his attention by running after his car. One day, when he stopped I implored him to give me a chance. I wanted him to see my short films. I told him I was a doctor just like he was an engineer who wanted to be a film-maker." He got to assist him for Bhoot.

When he broached the subject of James, which he had co-scripted with two others, with Varma he was asked to direct it. "Just like that," he says.

Defending James, he discloses, "I never set out to make an intellectual film. It is for the masses. Not being plot-based, it is just a child’s look at a hero, like Spiderman."

Right now, he is writing a script and his endeavour still remains to give a new kinda angry young man." He says with a flourish, "After all, I have grown up watching Amitabh Bachchan mouthing dialogues like "Main kabhi phenke hue paise nahin utthata".

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