First Choice For 'Sardar Udham', Irrfan Khan Could Pull Off Any Character, Says Shoojit Sircar

About 21 years ago, Shoojit Sircar came to make a film on Sardar Udham Singh, an unsung freedom fighter who had enticed him for several years before that. What took it so long to make a film like Sardar Udham? In a chat with Indiatimes, Shoojit Sircar says,

"I kept the idea to myself. I didn¡¯t know how to do it. I keep marinading; I kept cooking. The film required some sort of maturity. So, I kept waiting. Also, doing a film like this wasn¡¯t easy, especially in terms of the budget.¡±

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Sircar had first cast Irrfan Khan, who was a dear friend to him, in the titular role, but he opted out of the film owing to his ill-health. When asked why he thought Irrfan was the perfect choice for this role, he said, ¡°How do you think Irrfan cannot do anything?"

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"He was the only actor we had in the industry who could pull off any character - be it Piku, Namesake or Paan Singh Tomar. He would always bring a different dimension to the character. There was no other choice apart from him, especially after I worked with him Piku.¡±

Was it difficult to find a new actor after Khan¡¯s tragic loss?

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¡°It wasn¡¯t easy, of course, to suddenly think of somebody else in a role that you have imagined Irrfan Khan in. It took a little time, but when I met Vicky Kaushal, we had developed a certain type of rapport where I could give him the feelings and doses required to understand Sardar Udham Singh. He also understood it wasn¡¯t a chest-thumping patriotic film. He completely surrendered to the vision.¡±

A few days before the shooting of the film began, Vicky Kaushal had an accident on the sets of Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship.

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He got thirteen stitches on his cheek. The first thing he did was - he sent a picture to director Shoojit Sircar, who told him, 'Don¡¯t worry, you come with the stitches, Sardar Udham Singh will have stitches'.

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Elaborating on that, the filmmaker said, ¡°What else I could have done. There was a huge crew waiting in another country. I thought whatever it was I had to move on with it. I didn¡¯t want to wait for the scar to go away. Also, when you start seeing the face of the character like that, you start believing the character the way it is. I was happy not many questions were raised on how he looked. He looked like a normal guy who just had a cheek injury.¡±

Did you know Sircar had been a regular visitor of Jallianwala Bagh since 1999, and that cast a very deep impact on him?

Sardar Udham Singh's statue at Jallianwala Bagh/ AFP

¡°I don¡¯t think anyone who has visited Jallianwala Bagh wouldn¡¯t have been affected by it. When you look at the walls, you get numb.¡± For the unversed, the bullets that hit the walls and structures in the Jallianwala Bagh have been preserved.

¡°When you grow and live with these characters of freedom struggles, it is inspiring. I was a fanboy of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Sardar Udham Singh for the personalities that they had.¡±

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¡°His friendship with Shaheed Bhagat Singh is very fascinating to me. He wasn¡¯t just a man who wanted to avenge Jallianwala Bagh, but there are several other parts of his personality that were so mysterious in nature that attracted me a lot. How he -- at that time, in that age -- could travel around the world all alone and undertook those activities as part of Ghadar party for revolution. All that was very fascinating to me¡±.

Shoojit Sircar¡¯s cinema is different from his contemporaries. His cinema is just not meant for entertainment. All his films are very dear to him. From Piku, Pink, Vicky Donor and October -- every story has been very personal in nature to him. For instance, October was inspired by writer Juhi Chaturvedi¡¯s mother.

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In a time when there¡¯s a thin line between jingoism and patriotism, Sircar believes, "You cannot keep your politics aside." He explains, "you cannot be fake and not make what you truly believe in. I have not gone through these events in real life but the film reflects my understanding of it.¡±

This thin line, he says, has always been there, "That question will always be there, but doesn¡¯t mean we will stop reading, writing or listening to poetry.¡±

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When asked about the recent beautification of Jallianwala Bagh, he gave a very interesting response. ¡°I will be much more concerned about the fact that the Jallianwala Bagh incident is not forgotten. Besides, everything is in the hands of the authorities.¡±

Shoojit Sircar concludes by saying that there isn¡¯t a message that I want to send across through this film. ¡°Just that the world should not forget about Sardar Udham Singh. Besides, cinema is a very personal journey for me.¡±

Sardar Udham Singh is slated to be released on Amazon Prime Video on Oct 16. The film narrates the story of the forgotten freedom fighter who avenged the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919 by shooting the man responsible for it, Michael O¡¯Dwyer, who was also the former lieutenant governor of Punjab.

Also Read: Irrfan Khan¡¯s Son Babil Khan Bags His Second Movie With 'Piku' Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar