Development Director Ashutosh Gowariker was first inspired to make a film set in the ancient
Indus Valley civilization when he was in
Bhuj,
Gujarat, scouting locations for his then-upcoming
Lagaan (2001), and stumbled across the massive excavations in progress at the ruins of
Dholavira: "I thought, My God! This is incredible! What happened to this civilisation, who were the people, how did they live?" which, despite being the largest city yet discovered from that ancient civilisation, is today known only by the name—which translates as "Mound of the Dead" in English—ascribed by the
Sindhi locals to the site when its ruins were discovered in 1922. "Mohenjo Daro" is not only the official name associated with that ancient city by the United Nations (as a
World Heritage Site since 1980), Thus, regardless of the literal translation of the words, "Mohenjo Daro" was the chosen title for an audience to identify with the actual reference point despite the fact that the city would likely not been so named in ancient times. During Ashutosh Gowariker's research, he met "as many as seven archaeologists" who are closely involved in excavating sites and studying the Indus Valley civilisation. considered one of the world's leading experts on the subject, who had worked at the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro over 35 years. He brought together Kenoyer to a
round-table discussion with five other expert archaeologists who have also been working on this topic for many years—P. Ajit Prasad, V. N. Prabakhar, K. Krishnan, Vasant Shinde, and R. S. Bisht, The symbol ultimately selected for the film
Mohenjo Daro recalls one of the earliest discovered artifacts from the initial archaeological excavations at the ruins of the ancient city itself: 'Another [seal] shows six animal heads—"unicorn", bison, antelope, tiger, the remaining two broken—radiating from a ring, and recalling a whorl on another seal from the same site with a single "unicorn" and five featureless lobes', the "unicorn" being one of the 'most frequently represented' animals portrayed among the 'over 1,200 of them [seals] [which] have been found at Mohenjo-daro alone'. The filmmaker has chosen to identify the "unicorn" with his central character. The broadest
artistic license required in bringing the Indus Valley civilisation to the cinema, inevitably, would be costuming. Because although "undisputed traces of cotton cloth have survived at Mohenjo-Daro" and the Indus culture is believed by archaeologists to have pioneered the cultivation of cotton for clothmaking in the ancient world, no actual samples of finished clothing or other organic matter have survived over these four thousand years, due to the "damp
alkaline soil" prevailing at the Indus sites. Some of the female figures, for instance, wear elaborate headdresses and jewellery but little else. Explained the director in an interview, "I cannot make a movie with so much nudity, obviously. So I had to create and imagine a costume which will be away from all the different styles that we have seen in other movies, and yet be special for this civilisation." and the costumes were designed by
April Ferry and
Neeta Lulla.
U.K. based trainer Joshua Kyle Baker was roped in to train Roshan for his character in the film. He described the three-month training so as to allow Roshan to appear 'lithe' and 'agile' rather than muscular. Relating the natural environment required for
Mohenjo Daro, Gowariker was impressed with the calamitous VFX seen in the films
The Day After Tomorrow and
10,000 BC that were designed by
Karen Goulekas. In September 2014, as a
visual effects supervisor, Goulekas was brought on board for the film. Gowariker revisited Bhuj in December 2014 to begin production.
Casting In August 2014, Roshan, who had starred in Gowariker's critically and commercially successful
Jodhaa Akbar in 2008, was confirmed to play the male lead role again for
Mohenjo Daro. He reportedly demanded . Said the director, "I wouldn't have made the film, without Hrithik."
Telugu and
Tamil cinema actress
Pooja Hegde was signed as the female lead, and made her
Hindi film debut with
Mohenjo Daro. "While scripting the film, I was thinking that I needed someone with innocence and someone who did not have stardom baggage [to be received by the audience only as this character]. I thus began looking for a fresh face when Sunita (Gowariker) spotted Pooja in a commercial and suggested that we call her. She called Pooja and I auditioned her. And that was it!" For supporting roles, casting director Nalini Rathnam wanted to bring in newer and fresh faces, even from non-Hindi speaking regions. To populate his recreation of the ancient city, Gowariker naturally required a huge number of non-actors as extras. With the full cooperation of the Bhuj
panchayat or community council, the filmmakers hosted full-fledged auditions for all the local residents. Many of those seen on-screen in cityscapes and group scenes throughout
Mohenjo Daro are the real-life local citizens of Bhuj.
Pre-production Construction of the primary outdoor sets to be used in recreating the ancient city duly commenced in
Bhuj, Gujarat, near where Gowariker had shot his earlier film,
Lagaan (2001). As AGPPL producer Sunita Gowariker recounted their initial dialogue when Ashutosh decided
Mohenjo Daro as his next project, her immediate response was that the city does not exist any more, how would they shoot the film. To which Ashutosh responded: "We put up the whole city!" Painstaking effort was made to ensure accuracy of the city's film set construction, matching its proportions and architecture to the actual archaeological ruins. The famous
Great Bath, for instance, is built to scale, However, construction was delayed in mid-September 2014, when workers belonging to
Allied Mazdoor Union and Film Studio Setting refused to complete the
pre-production work, alleging non-payment of their regular expenses and remuneration. In response to this stalled situation, Gowariker took a legal route and
lodged a complaint with the Indian Film and Television Producers' Council accusing the members of stalling work that would result in losses to the company. Lawrence D'Souza, the executive producer of the film, maintained that though their payments were ready, the remote filming locations of Bhuj delayed the reception of the same.
Ayananka Bose had originally been signed as the cinematographer. When the film was delayed, he took up other projects as he was paid on a
project-to-project basis. Bose failed to join the discussions prior to filming and requested Gowariker to be allowed to join the set directly after he was done with his other commitments. A displeased Gowariker replaced Bose with
C. K. Muraleedharan. The initial outdoor schedule of principal photography had been projected to begin in November 2014. However, further delay occurred when lead actor Hrithik Roshan injured his shoulder during training in late October 2014. Because
Mohenjo Daro was a physically demanding film with challenging action sequences that were to be shot starting with the very first schedule, and no body doubles were to be used, Gowariker postponed the shoot for six weeks, until January 2015. Confirming this delay, Sunita Gowariker stated, "Ashutosh and I want Hrithik to recuperate fully before beginning the film, since we plan to start with action sequences. Now we will start shooting in the first week of January. It is important to us that Hrithik is 100% fit, and shifting the shooting dates by a few weeks makes a lot of sense."
Filming Principal photography commenced in
Bhuj on 27 January 2015. But the demanding action sequences needed by the film took a hard physical toll on the cast which resulted in delays due to injury, especially when an accident involved the lead actor, Hrithik Roshan, who was required for the maximum number of scenes. For instance, shooting was delayed for several days in March 2015, when Hrithik sprained his neck during a fight sequence. The first schedule of 101 days nonetheless wrapped up in Bhuj by 23 May 2015. In June 2015, Hrithik started training to fight with tigers in one of the sequences of the film. A second, shorter outdoor schedule resumed in Bhuj in late summer and was completed by October 2015. Another outdoor schedule of filming began in
Jabalpur on 2 November 2015, where a fight sequence with
crocodiles was completed on the banks of river
Narmada at
Bhedaghat. In December 2015, the next schedule began at
Film City in Mumbai, where most interior sets used for the film had been constructed. Unfortunately, however, an on-set accident during an action sequence in January 2016 tore two ligaments and severely sprained the ankle of lead actor Hrithik Roshan, which kept him home on crutches and doctor-ordered bed rest for two whole months before primary photography could resume in late March. On 4 April 2016, the crew filmed the climax of the film at China Creek in
Thane. Principal photography of
Mohenjo Daro finally wrapped on 8 April 2016.
Post-production Post-production of
Mohenjo Daro was supervised by Gowariker in conjunction with editor Sandeep Francis. Sound re-recording was performed at Futureworks by Justin Jose K. according to the sound design by Parikshit Lalwani and Kunal Mehta. Digital intermediate was done by Prime Focus colorist Makarand Surte. Visual effects were completed by the firm Drishyam VFX under the guidance of VFX consultant
Karen Goulekas in conjunction with VFX supervisor Govardhan Vigraham.
Accusations of plagiarism On 3 August 2016, the Bombay High Court rejected allegations by
Akashaditya Lama that Gowariker had plagiarised his script, and also "... imposed exemplary and punitive costs of Rs. 150,000 against Lama for putting false allegations and harassing makers of the film. The court has also slammed Lama for giving interviews, media articles and related material put on social media to harass the director and other stars of the film." Gowariker donated the entire fine received (approx. $2,246) to the
Naam Foundation, a charity to benefit
Maharashtra's drought-hit farmers. == Music ==