IPS AMIT LODHA’S MANY ANECDOTES MAKE FOR A THRILLING BOOK, FILMS

When Amit Lodha phoned filmmaker Neeraj Pandey to narrate experiences from his days as a police officer on duty in Bihar — to suggest him to make a film on it — they mutually decided to meet for 20 minutes because the latter was busy promoting his film M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016). The rendezvous, however, stretched to eight hours, and it goes without saying that Pandey agreed to make the movie. But, he also insisted that Lodha jots down his adventures as a book, which has now released with the title, Bihar Diaries.

No conversation with this cop-turned-author can be brief since he’s a raconteur. Lodha, Deputy Inspector General of the Border Security Force, says, “It’s Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra who has a big role to play in making me think that my life could be made into a film. Mr Mehra once invited me over to a dinner when he was in Jaisalmer, where I’m presently posted. He asked me to narrate a few incidents from Bihar, and I did so. On hearing them, he said, ‘Amit, a movie has to be made on this’. I really didn’t know if he was serious, but I asked him, ‘Why don’t you make a movie on this?’ He said ‘I’m already booked for the next few years, and my kind of movies are very different from your story’. I then thought of Neeraj Pandey being perfect for this because all his films, be it A Wednesday (2008) or Baby (2015) are commercial successes; very entertaining and at the same time [they are] logical and fast-paced.”

Later, actor Akshay Kumar became his friend as the two have common interests. “He introduced me to Neeraj.”

The actor-turned-author Twinkle Khanna writes in the book’s foreword that the film can be titled ‘Lucky Lodha’. Admiring her wittiness, Lodha, who is an IIT Delhi alumnus, says, “It will sound strange and arrogant, but I’ve always been an achiever. In the sense that when I desire something, I go for it! Whether it’s was to clear IPS or my resolution to arrest this criminal (antagonist Vijay Samrat, in the book); it becomes an obsession for me,” says Lodha.

Not many know that before Pandey, actor Irrfan Khan had expressed interest in making this film. “Irrfan, too, met me over a dinner in Jaisalmer when he had come to shoot for a film. On being asked by his wife, I narrated 1-2 incidents from my Bihar days, and the next day he called me to say that he couldn’t sleep all night because he kept thinking about what I had told him, and asked me to send the script so that he could make a film on it. He even sent me a contract over mail, but somehow the talks never materialised,” says Lodha, who stopped by in Delhi on his way to Hyderabad; “I’m going to meet (Baahubali actor) Rana Daggubati; he messaged me that he read the book on a flight and I believe he wants to make a Telugu version of this film.”

Actor Akshay Kumar became my friend. He introduced me to Neeraj Pandey, who I thought was perfect for a movie on my life because all of his films, be it A Wednesday (2008) or Baby (2015), are commercial successes, very entertaining and at the same time [they are] logical and fastpaced. AMIT LODHA DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE BORDER SECURITY FORCE

PHOTO: SHIVAM SAXENA/HT