New Delhi: After months of delays and court hearings, director Kedar Gaekwad will release his film on the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts, Match Fixing: The Nation at Stake, on 17 January 2025.
Initially, it was to hit theatres on 15 November. But one of the accused in the case, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, petitioned the Bombay High Court against its release until the verdict was delivered. He feared that the movie would influence public perception and the trial. But the HC on Thursday dismissed his petition, stating that the movie is “based on fiction”.
Gaekwad has based his film on retired Col Kanwar Khatana’s fictionalised account, The Game Behind Saffron Terror (2022), which delves into themes of political conspiracies, espionage, and alleged covert operations by intelligence agencies in India and Pakistan.
While he agreed with the HC that his movie is a piece of fiction, he added:
“Because the book is written by an insider from the Army, it has some authenticity as well.”
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More than an India-Pakistan film
Match Fixing explores a fictional narrative around a series of terror incidents between 2002-2008, including the Malegaon blast, the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, and the Samjhauta Express blast. It explores whether these attacks were orchestrated by the Congress-led government to target the Vishva Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, said a statement from the producers.
Produced by Pallavi Gurjar under Artarena Creations Private Limited, the film stars Vineet Kumar Singh, Anuja Sathe, and Manoj Joshi, with the script penned by Anuj S Mehta.
While the India-Pakistan political tension has been explored multiple times on the big screen, Gaekwad claims Match Fixing is “very different” from the likes of LOC: Kargil (2003), Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019), Shershaah (2021), and Mission Majnu (2023).
“I have kept the storyline very realistic,” he said, adding that his movie shows how the governments of both India and Pakistan were playing politics amid the terror attacks.
“How did they use the blasts to their advantage? What was Pakistan’s motive? How did India react or didn’t react? What was the reason behind India not retaliating after the 26/11 attacks? Match Fixing answers these questions,” said Gaekwad, who is making his Hindi film debut.
He added that he was drawn to the script because he wanted to explore the perspectives of the Indian government (then led by Congress) and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) behind introducing the term ‘Hindu Terror’.
That said, Gaekwad emphasises that the film isn’t “anti-Hindu or anti-Muslim”.
“It is not against any religion or community—it is against the narrative created by the government in power in 2008.”
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
U will always find someone mentioning ajmal kasab in Hindu terror charges they’ll never mention ats chief hemant karkare death who had a laptop evidence against Hindu terrorist he arrested many such people and he was mysteriously killed in 26/11 and not even his jacket was left with had evidence of bullet being fired that’s exactly where Hindu terror charges become more crude lol sadhvi pragya is the one accused who lies like there no tomorrow changes her statement again and again yet she called sadhvi that’s the Hindu privilege in this country they’ll cry about ajmal kasab being muslim but being a Hindu u can’t be terrorist even after causing thousands of riots ove rth years giving inflammatory speeches everyday online and yelling against supreme court in 1992 causing danga all over India still ur innocent there’s no Hindu terror at all this movie is justification and a spit on justice and face of every victim be it Hindu or Muslim that being from particular religion u can always escape punishment and shame in this country
The UPA govt actively peddled the “Hindu terror” theory. Even the 2008 Mumbai attacks would have been blamed on Hindu terrorist. Quite unfortunately for Chidambaram and company, Ajmal Kasab got caught. And thereafter, there was no denying the Islamic extremism emanating from Pakistan. Otherwise, they would have put the blame at the door of the RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal.