Pix by GAJANAN DUDHALKAR

Director Rajkumar Gupta has startled the critics and the viewing public once before. His first movie, Aamir, made for a super-cheap Rs 2 crore, turned into the sleeper hit of 2008. Now he’s ready with his second, highly topical movie No One Killed Jessica.

The movie, as its name suggests, is based on the infamous Jessica Lall murder case in 1999. And this time he has pulled in big names to heighten its box office appeal — there’s Vidya Balan playing Jessica’s sister Sabrina and Rani Mukherjee as a hard-charging journalist who doggedly follows the case.

But Gupta is quick to emphasise that the movie made on a Rs 9-crore budget, doesn’t follow real life too faithfully. “The biggest challenge was to create a fine balance between reality and fiction. Scripting the film was also a challenge since I didn’t want it to treat it as a biography,” he says.

In terms of treatment, Gupta says that the film is pacey, edge-of-the-seat and dramatic. “I love to look at a film in a different way and try to borrow from real life,” he says.

Research has been an integral part of the film. He took two years to research and another seven months to script the film. “From the very first day I was confident about what I wanted to do,” he says.

“I met Sabrina many times during my research and she too was very forthcoming with her suggestions. It was really inspiring to meet a real life icon who fought 11 years for justice,” he says.

Inevitably, there were occasional painful moments during the research. “Of course she too got very emotional while helping us to put the pieces together. I was careful not to make the film a docu-drama but a story based on a series of events,” he says.

Gupta wowed cine-goers with his hard-hitting debut film Aamir in 2008

The film is shot mostly in Delhi and also Calcutta. Gupta’s only too aware that his fans have huge expectations from him after his successful debut film. “I was 31 when Aamir released and was fairly new. But in two years I have matured as a director.”

Nevertheless, he has always been a details man, as people who have worked with him testify. Alphonse Roy, who did the cinematography for Aamir, says: “His sense of camera angles is spot-on and he is very thorough in what he wants from a particular shot. I showed him around 4,000 still photos which I had taken on the various locations before starting work on Aamir.” Adds actress Vidya Balan: “What’s striking is the fact that he labours on even the minutest details with junior artistes because he does not like to compromise on any scene.”

Vidya Balan who plays Sabrina in the film praises him in other ways too. She says: “I asked why he wanted me for the role of Sabrina. Rajkumar told me that he sees in me vulnerability and strength at the same time. I saw the passion in him to tell such an interesting story.”

Though the movie is based on a real life story, Gupta doesn’t like to be categorised in a specific genre. He says, “I don’t want to restrict myself in a specific category of filmmaking. I am open to all kinds of cinema.”

Up next is an out-and-out romantic film called Rapchik Romance. He adds: “The past few months have been hectic because of post-production work. I intend to start writing the script for my third film soon. I haven’t decided about the cast yet as that will depend on the final script.”

Gupta, 33, grew up in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. After graduating from Delhi, he moved to Mumbai in 1999 and enrolled for a course at the Xavier Institute of Communication. After graduating he worked as an associate director on the serial Kagaar on Sahara Manoranjan before shifting to films.

It was director Anurag Kashyap who decided that the youngster had potential and hired him as second-unit director on his film Black Friday. Gupta was also the associate director of Kashyap’s film No Smoking and says he considers the older man his mentor and brother.

“I love Anurag’s spirit of filmmaking and his passion to tell a story despite all odds. I have learnt from him that you can tell a good story within a limited budget. He always insists that a filmmaker should not be dictated by budgets,” says Gupta. He makes it a point to discuss all his projects with Kashyap.

Gupta says that he cannot work late at night and sleeps early and does all his writing in the morning. So when he is not shooting how does he spend time? “I am a bit of an introvert and you are more likely to find me watching a film at home rather than going out and partying,” he says, laughing. His friend and singer Shilpa Rao says: “We all know him as a serious filmmaker. Besides that, he is a true foodie and cooks really good mutton. He also has a good ear for music.”

For now, though, he wants to concentrate on writing the script for his next film.

He says: “Though my career has just started, I have learnt that you are on your own in this industry. If your conviction is at the right place, it is possible to attain success.”