Can The Hero do a Gadar?

Whether Anil Sharma likes it or not, he is in the thick of things again with his new film The Hero: The Love Story Of A Spy. After all, with the superhit Gadar being this director's last film, expectations are sky-high. And Sharma seems to have been affected, no matter how marginally. "I made The Hero in a very calm and collected manner. There was no pressure at all. Now, however, I am beginning to feel the heat," says Sharma, "The way I see things, I made another movie without expecting the industry to build up The Hero as the film which will rescue the box-office from a spate of flops." If Sharma managed to steer clear of pressure while making The Hero, part of the reason lies in his planning the movie even while he was shooting for Gadar. "It's not as if I had to rake my brains and think of a subject which would match the success of Gadar. Whatever might have been the fate of Gadar, I would have gone ahead and made The Hero. Similarly, my next film, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Bobby Deol, has already been planned and will proceed as per schedule irrespective of the fate of The Hero," says Sharma. Great expectations apart, talk about Sharma in the industry is centred around the 'P' or Pakistan factor. "Certain people insist that Gadar worked because of the Pakistan factor, but I don't believe in this theory," maintains Sharma, "I conceived Gadar as a modern-day Ramayana, wherein Ram has to cross geographical boundaries to rescue Sita. Pakistan is just the backdrop — let's call it the Lanka of the film. In the same fashion, The Hero tells the tale of a man who is willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of his country." The obvious question: but why a spy as the hero? "Because a spy is an unsung hero. And since a spy has to fight the enemy, it is necessary to bring Pakistan into the picture." The 'P' factor again? "I am not the only director making films with Pakistan as the backdrop. In any case, at the end of the day, what decides the success of a film is the audience's emotional attachment to the characters and not anti-Pakistan dialogues." The box-office's verdict on The Hero will come later. But Anil Sharma seems to have got his formula right.