New Delhi: Dug Dug, a new indie film based on Rajasthan’s Om Banna or Bullet Baba shrine, where devotees worship a Royal Enfield motorcycle before getting on the highway, will release in theatres across the country on 8 May.
Written and directed by debutant filmmaker Ritwik Pareek, the comedy-mystery film is inspired by the Rajasthan roadside legend and turns it into a satire about a motorbike that becomes an object of worship after a horrific accident. The film stars Altaf Khan, Gaurav Soni, Yogendra Singh and Durga Lal Saini. With Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Nikkhil Advani and Vasan Bala as executive producers.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter India, Motwane called Dug Dug “one of the best debut films I have seen”, while Kashyap described it as a “visual rave”.
The shrine that inspired the film is located near Jodhpur and is linked to Om Singh Rathore, also known as Om Banna, who died in a road accident in the late 1980s. According to legend, after the accident Rathore’s 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet was taken to a local police station as evidence, but kept returning to the accident site. Eventually, the bike was returned to the spot of the accident, where a shrine ultimately came up. Over the years, travellers have begun stopping there in the hopes of a safe journey before getting on the highway.
Pareek does not use the “Bullet Baba” story directly in Dug Dug. His film, instead, follows a village where a dead man’s motorcycle is believed to grant wishes if people pray to it and offer it alcohol. What begins as rumour soon turns into a commercialised religion, drawing in priests, local leaders, devotees and people who see opportunity in the growing belief.
Pareek said that he first saw the Om Banna shrine as a school student while travelling with his family.
“By the time I grew up, quit my job and decided to make a film around my hometown, this is the story that came to me,” he added.
For him, the film was not meant to mock belief.
“My intention was really to tell a story about how faith grows in an inherently capitalistic world,” Pareek told THR India.
Jodhpur’s Bullet shrine is not the only such place of worship of its kind in India, where faith often grows outside formal temples too. Rajasthan’s Karni Mata temple is known for the rats that move freely through the shrine, while devotees at Talhan village in Punjab have been known to offer toy aeroplanes while praying for visas. Bullet Baba belongs to that same world, where an accident, a legend, and belief can turn a machine into something sacred.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021 and has been making its way through the festival circuit, travelling to MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara International Film Festival and International Film Festival of Kerala. Its journey will culminate in a theatrical release in India, in association with Ranjan Singh’s Flip Films.
The film is produced by Bottle Rocket Pictures, led by Ritwik and Prerna Pareek.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)