Anubhav Sinha, who produces the upcoming Mahatma Gandhi biopic headlined by Manoj Bajpayee, deems that retelling stories of freedom fighters is important in the current era.
Recalling a story that he narrated to his son, through a statement to the press, Anubhav said, "I was telling my son, ‘Gandhi woh aadmi tha jo kehta tha ki tum log jhagda band nahi karoge toh main khana nahi khaunga.’ Toh mera beta hasne lag gaya. Bola, ‘Toh?’ Toh maine kaha, ‘Log jhagda band kar dete thay.’ Ek baar nahi hua, kai baar hua. Yeh uss aadmi ka power tha. (I was telling my son, 'Gandhi told some people who were fighting that he wouldn't eat until they stopped fighting.' My son laughed at this. He asked, 'So what happened?'. I said, 'Those people stopped fighting'. This didn't happen once, it happened a lot. That was the power of this man.)
While the legacy of Gandhi is important, Anubhav also asserts that the first leaders of India agreed on welfare of the people, beyond differences in their ideologies. "Ambedkar ke, Gandhi ke views sabko maloom hain. Par jab Constituent Assembly banti hai, toh woh Nehru se jaakar kehte hain ki Constitution inse likhwao, because yeh desh ko behtar samajhte hain, desh ke vanchiton ko behtar samajhte hain. Aur woh aadmi jo unhe criticise karta tha, woh aisa karne ko agree kar deta hai. Woh Congress party join karta hai. (Everybody knows what the ideologies of Gandhi and Ambedkar were. Yet when the Constituent Assembly was being created, Gandhi told Nehru that Ambedkar would be better suited to create the constitution. Gandhi's reason was that Ambedkar knows the disadvantages of the people better. Even the people who may disagree with Ambedkar, will agree with this decision. Ambedkar joined the Congress then)," said Anubhav.
He added, "Yeh bade unique log thay. Ambedkar ho, Gandhi ho, Patel ho. Yeh baat toh sach hai na ki Patel ko zyada votes mile thay aur Gandhi ne kaha ki nahi, Nehru! Toh woh step back kar jaate hain, aur aapko kahin bhi Gandhi, Patel aur Nehru ke beech koi animosity ya sarcastic remark dekhne ko nahi milta. Nehru, Gandhi, even V. P. Menon. In logon par toh itna zyada kaam hone ki zaroorat hai. Bhagat Singh, Bose. ( They were such unique people. Be it Ambedkar or Gandhi or (Sardar Vallabhbhai) Patel. What is true is that even when Patel got more votes to become India's Prime Minister he stepped back because Gandhi chose Nehru. There was no sarcastic remark or animosity between Gandhi, Patel, Nehru, or even VP Menon. They had the responsibility of achieving such great tasks. Bhagat Singh and Subash Chandra Bose too),"
The upcoming film is directed by Sudhir Mishra, and stars Saurabh Shukla and Waheeda Rahman in key roles. Anubhav and Narendra Hirawat are producing the film under the Benaras Mediaworks banner. NH Studioz is presenting the film.
