Anurag Singh’s Border 2, which released in theatres on January 23, has emerged as one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. Bringing back Sunny Deol to the battlefield, the war drama opened to a terrific weekend and has since crossed the Rs 400 crore mark at the box office. But for producer and writer Nidhi Dutta, who is carrying forward the cinematic legacy of her father J.P. Dutta, numbers were never the driving force behind the film. “I have never spoken numbers. I have never said, ‘Oh, this is where I think we should do it — itna karegi, utna karegi,’” she says while talking to mid-day nearly two weeks after the film's release. “I’ve never learned that. My father’s never taught me that.”

She recalls how her father J.P. Dutta once made the four-hour-long LOC Kargil, despite knowing its length would cost it shows in theatres. “That’s never been our focus,” she indicates, underscoring that storytelling has always taken precedence over commercial calculations.