EXCLUSIVE: Navjot Gulati reveals Pooja Meri Jaan drew from Rhea Chakraborty’s media trial: “Wrote the film before her case, but was inspired by what happened to her…witch hunt against her was wrong at EVERY level”
In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, director Navjot Gulati spoke about the response to his recently-released film, Pooja Meri Jaan, starring Mrunal Thakur and Huma Qureshi, co-writing the drama with a female writer and a lot more.
How has been the feedback to Pooja Meri Jaan?
It has been very good. People have responded positively to the film and, hopefully, understood what we were trying to convey. Some people had a different point of view and felt, ‘Ladki toh galat thi’. Uska main kuch nahin kar sakta because that was not the point of the film. I wasn’t trying to take the side of one gender over the other. In my story, the girl was right. In some other story, the girl may be wrong.
Last year, Mrs (2025) got a lot of hate, but thankfully, nothing of that sort happened with your film…
And that’s great as long as it starts a conversation. In fact, a friend of mine’s sister was being harassed by a guy for four years. She saw Pooja Meri Jaan and called her brother. She told him, ‘This is what I am going through and I didn’t have the courage to tell anyone’. That guy would turn up wherever she was and desperately try to woo her even though she had made it clear that she wasn’t interested. My friend then filed a police complaint.
I don’t think a film can do much more than have an impact like this in real life. So, if it encourages people to speak up, then five people on the internet expressing their reservations don’t matter to me.
In the first half, we see Pooja being hounded by the media and people speaking against her on the internet. It instantly reminds one of the Rhea Chakraborty case, after she was blamed for abetting the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput. Was that the starting point, or were you inspired by the incident?
No, because I started writing the film in April 2020, when Sushant Singh Rajput was still alive. Then, of course, I saw Rhea’s media trial unfold every day, like the rest of us. And I did get inspired by what was happening to her. The witch hunt against her was wrong at every level. So, while I was inspired by what happened to her, it was not the trigger for me to write this film. If something I had already written was literally playing out in real life, then obviously I was going to take notes from it.
How was it writing the film with Kanishka? Also, this is a sensitive topic and hence, how important is it to have a female perspective?
It was a great experience. Kanishka has been my friend and it was the same reason as you said why I wanted her on board – I wanted a female perspective. I’ll never be able to understand what girls go through. But I work as an ally and get an idea about it from a female point of view. So, having Kanishka really paid dividends because I was able to cover all points of view.
In fact, I was Aniket (played by Vikram Singh Chauhan) at one point. Thankfully, with time, I became a better person and understood my mistakes. My understanding of the story was more from the guy’s perspective. Getting a female writer on board helped me understand Pooja a lot better. And the way Mrunal played it, she took it to another level.
Was Mrunal Thakur the first choice?
We were in talks with various people. The casting process is like a game of musical chairs; you never know who finally gets the part! But we were all really happy when Mrunal came on board. She loved the script and really wanted to play the character. She had also been through similar experiences in life, so she could relate to Pooja. When she met us, we knew, ‘Humein Pooja mil gayi hai. Ab kahin aur baat karne ki zaroorat nahin hai’.
How many days did it take to shoot the film?
It was shot in 32 days across Delhi-NCR.
Earlier this year, you gave an interview where you expressed your disappointment over Maddock Films not releasing Pooja Meri Jaan. How is your equation with them now?
What matters now is that the film is out. They are the producers of the film and it exists because of them. People are now talking about the film rather than the journey behind its release, and that is what matters.
No filmmaker wants the struggle to get a film released to become the talking point. All we want is for the film to be discussed. There was a long wait, but that happens sometimes. I did what I had to do and they did what they felt was right. What’s important is that people are now talking about the film.
Thankfully, the film doesn’t look dated. Someone who has no idea that it was shot in 2022 could easily assume it was shot in 2025 or earlier this year…
True. Sadly, the topic has become even more relevant, which is not something you would want.
You have also directed Badtameez Gill, starring Vaani Kapoor, Aparshakti Khurana and Paresh Rawal. Will it release in cinemas?
We are still figuring that out. Hopefully, it should release early next year. It’s a fun film and a conscious departure from Pooja Meri Jaan. I don’t like repeating genres. As you know, I had made three films centred around weddings. People slotted me as the guy who only tells wedding stories, and I hated that. I’ll never repeat that genre again.
So, every subsequent film I make will be in a different genre. It’s not because I care too much about what people say. Of course, I do to some extent, but more than anything, I get bored. I have a short attention span. I can’t do the same thing again and again.
My next film after Badtameez Gill is a dark comedy about news channels.
Have you locked the cast for this film?
I am in the process. Hopefully, it’ll be done by the end of the year.
The post EXCLUSIVE: Navjot Gulati reveals Pooja Meri Jaan drew from Rhea Chakraborty’s media trial: “Wrote the film before her case, but was inspired by what happened to her…witch hunt against her was wrong at EVERY level” appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.