Mumbai: 25 years after his superhit film Sarfarosh starring Aamir Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Sonali Bendre, filmmaker John Matthew Matthan is on a break from filmmaking. Mathan, who started out as an ad filmmaker, got a taste of feature filmmaking when he first assisted Govind Nihalani on Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Amrish Puri’s Aakrosh (1980) and then assisted Richard Attenborough on Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi (1982). He had a fire burning inside him to make “impactful” cinema at that time, and he made his directorial debut with Aamir Khan’s Sarfarosh (1999).
Matthan says he knew the subject of his film was relevant. The film released just before the Kargil war when tensions between India and Pakistan were high. The filmmaker says he still can’t believe that the film is still being talked about after so many years. He is now keen to make a comeback and wants Sarfarosh 2 to be his next project.