Hrithik Roshan in
Hrithik Roshan in PR Handout

A runtime of over 180 minutes is a given for any Ashutosh Gowariker film, but "Mohenjo Daro" is all set to change the trend. Hrithik Roshan confirmed that it will be the director's shortest film ever.

"I can assure you this that Mohenjo Daro will be the shorter than Ashutosh Gowariker's 'shortest' film. I don't mean this is not 3 hours, but 2 hours 50 minutes, but it will actually be way shorter than that. When I say it's short, it's very short. Believe me on this," he told DNA.

This is a shocking development, considering all of his previous films either touched the 210-minute mark or exceeded it by a good 15 minutes in some cases.

Aamir Khan and Gracy Singh's fight with the British colonisers in "Lagaan" stretched to 3 hours 45 minutes; NASA scientist Mohan Bhargava's story in "Swades" was told in 3 hours 30 minutes; it took 3 hours 34 minutes to wrap up "Jodhaa Akbar" and a minute less for "What's Your Raashee?" And now "Mohenjo Daro" is set to bring the story of Sarman (Hrithik), an indigo farmer, come alive on the silver screen.

Although Hrithik's fans are ecstatic about their favourite star returning to the big screen after a gap of 2 years, some have ridiculed the film for being factually incorrect. In a series of tweets, JNU scholar Ruchika Sharma slammed the makers for dressing up their leading lady, Pooja Hegde, nothing like how a Harappan woman would.

"Boss, what sick orientalism is this? Who told them that Harappans had these feathers in their hair?," she asked and later suggested that the team could have picked up hints from the several Teracotta figurines depicting women of the era.

"Mohenjo Daro" is scheduled to open in theatres on Aug. 12, same day as Akshay Kumar's "Rustom."