Wasim Khan up in the prison. Rishi has managed to get close to the exchange spot on his own after evading the terrorists. During his escape, Rishi subdues two terrorists. Liaqat catches up with him and holds him at gunpoint. Rishi reasons with Liaqat further and convinces him that his war is immoral. Liaqat lets Rishi go and he goes to the exchange spot. Liaqat escapes from the Indian Army while Rishi and Roja are united once again. Cast Arvind Swami as Rishi Kumar Madhoo as Roja Nassar as Colonel Rayappa Janagaraj as Achu Maharaj Pankaj Kapur as Liaqat Shiva Rindani as Wasim Khan Vaishnavi Aravind as Shenbagam C. K. Saraswathi as one of the village seniors Vijaya Chandrika as Roja's mother Sathyapriya as Rishi's mother Vatsala Rajagopal as Roja's paternal grandmother Sujitha as Chinna Ponnu S. V. Venkatraman as Chandramoorthy, Rishikumar's chief and RAW official Nirmala Periyasamy as Newsreader Raju Sundaram (special appearance in the song "Rukmini") Production Development On 28 June 1991, K. Doraiswamy, an executive of the Indian Oil Corporation, was kidnapped by Kashmiri militants and put in captivity for two months. This inspired Mani Ratnam to make the film Roja. Doraiswamy's wife was fighting for his release, and according to Ratnam, it was her plight that the film was based on. During the making of Anjali (1990), Ratnam told actor and director Kitty the outline of Roja and offered him to direct the film. Kitty declined, as he wanted to do something of his own. As Ratnam was telling him the outline, the subject became more crystallised. Kitty did not pick it up and when filmmaker K. Balachander asked Ratnam, he told him the outline. All the developments happened after that. It was Balachander who approached Ratnam to make a film for his banner. As Balachander was the inspiration and the reason for Ratnam entering Tamil films, when he asked him to make a film for his banner, Ratnam wanted it to be one of the best films they had produced. Ratnam was keen that it needed to be of Balachander's standard. Balachander instantly approved the outline of the film when Ratnam narrated. However, he disliked the title Roja (Rose) as he felt it sounded similar to the name of a brand of crushed betel nut. Ratnam thought the title represented Kashmir because "the rose is something beautiful but with thorns". To satisfy Balachander, he suggested