Randeep Hooda: I started admiring Gandhi while working on Swatantra Veer Savarkar
Randeep Hooda dons the director’s hat for the first time with Swatantra Veer Savarkar, in which he also plays the Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
The actor-director says Savarkar was not given his due in history. He also says that claims made by some historians, like Savarkar didn’t participate in the freedom struggle, are lies.
In this conversation, Hooda speaks about his admiration for Gandhi, his understanding of Savarkar and how he doesn’t think the Hindutva ideologue was anti-Muslim.
Excerpts:
How did you balance directorial duties while playing the lead role?
As an actor, your communication is mostly with yourself. But as a director, you are talking to so many people and trying to understand what they want. Because of this, I often forgot to take my own shots. Along with that, I was under-weight and hungry all the time and that makes you very irritable.
The Indian Constitution is based on ideas of equality and fraternity which are contrary to the views of Savarkar who formulated the ideology of Hindutva. What are your thoughts on this?
First of all, he came up with the ideology of Hindutva after what had happened in the Caliphate movement to support the Ottoman Empire in Turkey. It was called the Khilafat movement in India and Gandhiji became its president because he felt that it would encourage Muslim leaders to join the Congress. After that, they were given more seats compared to the ratio of the entire population. In those circumstances, there was a fear of a pan-Islamic invasion. So, if Indian Muslims are fighting for the Turkish Muslims and they ultimately invade India, will Indian Muslims fight for their religion or for their country? Savarkar’s stance was that you have to put the country above religion. That’s what Hindutva says. Hindu Mahasabha was created in response to the Muslim League. Hindu Mahasabha was asking for equal rights for all citizens. Congress, on the other hand, was giving more rights to Muslims.
So, how do you see the criticism that Savarkar is anti-Muslim?
He was not anti-Muslim. In fact, he used to quote Bahadur Shah Zafar so many times. But when he went to Kala Pani (Port Blair’s Cellular Jail), he saw a lot of torture. He saw a lot of conversions for petty things like roti. So, his point of view towards Muslims started changing. Then there was a riot in Malabar where thousands of Hindus were killed and nobody spoke up. That’s when he formulated the ideology of Hindutva. Subsequently, when they started asking for a separate country, he found it wrong as he did not want to divide the country. He was angry with the fact that Muslims were being appeased.
Historical facts state that when Savarkar went to prison and came out in 1924, he did not participate in the freedom struggle. What do you have to say about that?
There is only a side of history that is being shown to us. When he got out of Kala Pani, he was released on the condition that he cannot partake in any political, revolutionary or religious activity. Breaking these conditions would mean a full sentence of 50 years. In the meantime, he did a lot of social work. He was against the caste system. He encouraged inter-caste marriages and said that if we married outside our castes, then after four generations, we would forget all castes. So, he tried doing everything to contribute to the country. But there were many conditions put on him and nobody tells you about that.
In the teaser, it was implied that Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose were inspired by Savarkar. The claim was later called out by some people, including the grand-nephew of Bose, who said that it was manipulative. What are your thoughts on this?
I have done deep research about this which is unavailable to a lot of people. It is absolutely true that Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose were inspired by Savarkar. All armed revolutionaries were inspired by the book he wrote in 1907, where he changed the point of view about the 1857 sepoy mutiny and called it the First War of Indian Independence. It was a book that was on the must-read list to join the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) headed by Chandrasekar Azad of which Bhagat Singh was a part. Further, if you look at the jail diary of Bhagat Singh you will find so many poems written by Savarkar.
What was your perspective about Gandhi when you were making the film?
I started admiring Gandhi more while working on this film. He really galvanized the masses into paying attention to the freedom movement. On the other hand, Savarkar was a man who had developed a sharp tongue due to his prison time.
This movie is not an attempt to malign Bapu. In fact, Gandhiji said that Vinayak saw the evils of the British government much earlier than he did. They had a very mutual admiration for each other. He went to meet Savarkar in 1906 and came to visit him in Ratnagiri when he was under house arrest. All these conversations are documented and I have stayed true to that.