That came in a little later because when our dates were worked out, we had worked out the schedule in a manner where I was shooting with both of them first. Then there was a gap for Aishwarya. In that gap she went and got married and in that gap I was shooting with Hrithik. It was a well spaced out schedule. So her international assignments or the marriage did not affect me.

In fact, whenever any actor or any other Indian is doing things abroad, I bend my back, I mean I go backwards, to help him do that. So be it Rahman when he went for The Lord of the Rings and Bombay Dreams.

You know during every film of mine Rahman has always gone for some foreign assignment. During Lagaan, it was for Bombay Dreams, then during Swades, it was, I think, Lord of the Rings and during this film, it was Elizabeth. So something or the other kept coming up.

I always try and adjust if there is a foreign assignment.

Why is that?

I feel if these kinds of opportunities are there and if they are putting India on a global map then we should take them up right away. I think it's important to adjust. The way we adjust for athletes when they go abroad it is the same thing here.

'They will love Aishwarya in the film'

Did you have to do a lot of work with Aishwarya? One of the most startling things you do is that you that produce performances in an actor that most people would not believe likely. Shah Rukh Khan's Mohan Bhargav is still spoken of as the best performance of his career, even after Chak De.

You can only take the horse to the water, you can't make him drink. Similarly, I like to give the actor all the information required for him to emote, for him to hit the right degree of emotion, the right degree of the pitch of the dialogue delivery and all of that. Ultimately though, he or she has to deliver it. So I wouldn't take full share of the credit for any actor's performance though I would take credit for showing them the path of what is required for that character.

With Aishwarya all our script sessions and script readings, right from the way her wardrobe was going to be, the way her make up was going to be, her behaviourial pattern in the film, all that information we shared with her. She grasped all of that and she has created the persona (of Jodhaa).

Why did you choose to end the film at age 28?

Because of the scope of the film. I was more interested in how their love evolved. From post marriage to the evolution of love is what my focal point was. Beyond that it did not interest me.

But you may run into the same expectation gap that befell Santosh Sivan's Asoka, because everyone expected to see the transformed emperor and that film ended with him on the cusp of greatness. Now your film ends just as Akbar is on the verge of becoming the great Mughal.

I haven't told you my end yet. And you cannot compare my film with Asoka because the Kalinga war is a known milestone in our history. That Jhansi ki Rani rode out with a child tied on her back is a known chapter of history. You cannot not have it in your film if you are doing a film on her.

But in the case of Jodhaa Akbar nobody knows what I am getting into. I mean we know about Chittorgarh and we know about Fatehpur Sikri. There is no peak of his life which has been spoken about and a full stop put over there.

Also read: Aishwarya: Jodhaa Akbar is about married love

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