“And I wanted to work with Rahul who is such a sensitive filmmaker,” says Sanjay.

But Dholakia, who made the extremely sensitive Parzania, had to cross several hurdles to get his film rolling. Lamhaa was stalled when leading lady Bipasha Basu left the shooting midway in Kashmir and rushed back to Mumbai, a few weeks ago. Then it was the Kashmiri separatist bodies objecting to the content of the film. But Dholakia was determined to complete the film, the script of which, he had worked on for two years.

“The story of my film was always fictitious, and has remained the same. I conceptualised my characters after doing a two-month research in Kashmir. The characters are not real, but yes I conceived them after observing the people of Kashmir, their attitude and behaviour. Anupam Kher’s character may appear to be based on the Kashmiri hardliner Ghelani, but that is because he is the only known hardliner of the valley. I have modified Bipasha’s character because according to the separatists it appeared to be based on a Kashmiri personality. I also changed a bit of Kunal Kapoor’s character. No changes have been made to the script or Sanjay Dutt’s character. I must add that the people of Kashmir adore Sanjay Dutt. When we were shooting there, many defied the curfew to catch a glimpse of him.”