A period movie on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru is all set for filming.
Bend It Like Beckham’s director, Gurinder Chadha, kicked off an eight-week schedule of her new film, Viceroy’s House, in Jodhpur, reports Mumbai Mirror.
The title of the movie is based on the home of the British rulers in Delhi, India. In 1947, for six months, Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, lived upstairs with his wife and daughter. Below, 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants took up residence.
Against this turbulent backdrop, a personal and political story plays out, as history is being rewritten.
The film is co-produced by Anil Ambani.
British actor Hugh Bonneville, best known for his performances in Downton Abbey and Paddington, will play Mountbatten while The X Files detective, Gillian Anderson, as Lady Mountbatten. Lily Travers of Kingsman fame, will play their daughter, Pamela.
Sir Michael Gambon, seen as Professor Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series, and Simon Callow known for his roles in A Room With A View and Four Weddings And A Funeral have been cast as civil servants.
Tanveer Ghani will play Jawaharlal Nehru, Denzil Smith is Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Neeraj Kabi is Mahatma Gandhi.
It also features Om Puri in a prominent role of a blind freedom fighter.
“I’m Noor, a progressive character from those tumultuous times. He’s a freedom fighter who, when in jail, develops a cataract and goes blind. The Partition forced choices on people and when Noor’s daughter (played by Huma Qureshi), wants to go to Pakistan, he reluctantly agrees.” Said Puri from Jodhpur.
Their journey to Pakistan is horrific as every single person in the train is butchered but Noor manages to push his daughter off.
The veteran actor reveals that Gurinder, a dear friend of his, had offered him a role in Bend It Like Beckham too.
“I wasn’t able to do that but this is a sensitive script and I immediately came on board,” he says.
Puri is also re-uniting with Manish Dayal, his co-star from the British drama, The Hundred-Foot Journey, who plays a Hindu boy caught in the communal fires which led to the division of a nation and the birth of another.
“Nehru, Jinnah and Sardar Patel are all being played by ‘lookalike’ Englishmen, with lots of prosthetics,” says the actor, who still has eight days of shoot left.
Before watching movie no one can't stand against. However if its made by a Muslim why not he will take care of religious boundries.
I think they did a great job by making a movie on such kind of great personalities, because these people are real life heroes.
Wow! This is wonderful historical blog that fills with the full of knowledge.
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