New Delhi: It has been a season of biopics (Thackeray, The Accidental Prime Minister, the upcoming PM Narendra Modi), but one film based on a Union Minister has kicked off buzz about a possible underlying message.
Gadkari, based on the life and times of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, is set to hit theatres in May, coming amid speculation that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and a section of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) want to project him as the next prime minister.
However, talking to ThePrint, Gadkari director Anurag Bhusari, 27, insisted that the film had nothing to do with the Lok Sabha elections, likely to be held this April-May, or the leader’s alleged projection as prime minister. It had been decided long ago, he said, that the film would be released after elections.
According to Bhusari, he was set on the path of making a biopic after watching An Insignificant Man, the documentary on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal — a project, Bhusari said, that “deeply inspired him”.
“I wanted to make a film like that and I couldn’t find a better protagonist than Gadkari,” he told ThePrint.
“But while it was easy to follow Kejriwal because the film was shot during his campaigning days, it was not easy to follow Gadkari, since he was already a Cabinet minister when we decided to start shooting the film,” he said.
Bhusari added that the 90-minute-long film, produced by his Nagpur-based production house, Nayanraj Productions, and a studio called The Graphic Bubble, was shot in Nagpur, where the RSS is hedquartered and Gadkari belongs, as well as Mumbai over six months.
It was made, he added, through crowdfunding “to avoid any sort of tampering with the script”.
Also read: Nitin Gadkari is just being himself — critical, outspoken & unapologetic
‘Simple & accessible’
Union Minister Gadkari, who holds a range of important portfolios such as Road Transport and Highways as well as Water Resources in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, was born in Nagpur on 27 May 1957, and developed an early association with the RSS as a swayamsevak.
His RSS roots are central to the trailer of the film, which is out on YouTube, where the protagonist asserts in a scene that he “was, is, and always will be a swayamsevak”.
“Everyone knows him closely in Nagpur and Maharashtra, but our idea was to put out his early life for all to see…” said Bhusari.
“His initial years, between 1965 and 1999, his foray into the ABVP (RSS youth wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), his struggle in politics,” he added.
“In Nagpur, he is [known as] a simple and accessible person who used to roam around on his Activa,” Bhusari said.
However, Bhusari vehemently brushed aside suggestions that Gadkari was a propaganda film.
“We have presented only facts,” he said. “We have not hidden anything in the film. Even the 2012 Purti Power and Sugar controversy surrounding him have been shown in the film,” he added.
Gadkari was a director in Purti Power and Sugar, which came under the lens over allegations of “dubious investments” through shell firms, though the former BJP president was eventually absolved by the income tax department.
Bhusari said he had not met Gadkari even once for the film, adding that he got in touch with his wife Kanchantai Gadkari and childhood friends for research.
“We believe in making realistic cinema without any propaganda and show facts as they are,” he added.
Gadkari will be the first major film for Bhusari, who told ThePrint that he had earlier made 15 short films which he plans to release after the biopic.
Talking about the difficulties he faced in making the film, Bhusari said the most complicated part was finding a lead actor who resembled Gadkari.
“We [eventually] went ahead with a non-actor [Rahul Chopda],” he added.
Gadkari’s possible prime ministerial aspirations have engaged the grapevine ever since he started taking some veiled digs at the government. He, however, has dismissed the speculation as “day-dreaming”.
The film on Gadkari will hit the theatres just as several films on PM Modi are rolled out as well, including one starring Vivek Oberoi.
Also read: Why Nitin Gadkari could be India’s next prime minister
Raita Samrat best suited him.
I have come across a lot of expressions describing Kejri. But this, “the insignificant man”, is the most apt and fitting.