Roja (1992)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: Ooty

Roja is a 1992 Indian Tamil-language romantic thriller film directed and co-written by Mani Ratnam. The film stars Arvind Swamy and Madhoo. The film was produced by K. Balachander under his Kavithalayaa Productions and distributed by G. Venkateswaran. The film's cinematography was handled by Santhosh Sivan, production design by Thota Tharani, music by A. R. Rahman in his debut and editing by Suresh Urs. Roja follows a young woman from Sundarapandiapuram a village in southern Tamil Nadu as she makes desperate efforts to find her husband, who is kidnapped by militants during a secret undercover mission in Jammu and Kashmir.

Production

On 28 June 1991, K. Doraiswamy, an executive of the Indian Oil Corporation, was kidnapped by Kashmiri militants and put in captivity for two months. This inspired Mani Ratnam to make the film Roja. Doraiswamy's wife was fighting for his release, and according to Ratnam, it was her plight that the film was based on.

During the making of Anjali (1990), Ratnam told actor and director Kitty the outline of Roja and offered him to direct the film. Kitty declined, as he wanted to do something of his own. As Ratnam was telling him the outline, the subject became more crystallised. Kitty did not pick it up and when filmmaker K. Balachander asked Ratnam, he told him the outline. All the developments happened after that.

Roja was the first film for which Ratnam used a Steadicam, in the shot that introduces the terrorists' hideout to the audiences. The film was made on a shoestring budget. The technicians worked for less money with the understanding that the film would also be sold for less money. It was not thought of as something that would work on a big scale.

Arvind Swamy was signed on to play the lead role in Roja after Rajiv Menon declined. Aishwarya and Ayesha Jhulka were initial choices for the female lead, but declined due to date issues; the role went to Madhoo, credited as Madhubala. Aishwarya later revealed that she deeply regretted her decision, which was made by her grandmother against her will, for a Telugu film which was later cancelled.

Ratnam had planned to shoot Roja in Kashmir, but extreme terrorism there forced him to shoot the film in other hill stations resembling it. Shooting locations included Coonoor, Ooty, and Manali, Himachal Pradesh. The film's cinematographer Santosh Sivan said that a lot of images were written in at the script level; even in the Kashmir sequences, the audience only sees the snow when Roja sees it for the first time.

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