Shoojit Sircar filmmakers and producer pair Ronnie Lahiri were in a conversation with Kiran Smriti during their MasterClass in the 52nd edition of the Indian International Film Festival (IFFI).
The topic of discussion around the recent duo, critically recognized the film ‘Sardar Udham’, starring Vicky Kaushal.
Shoojit and Ronnie, in the course of the session that lasted more than one hour, discussed the nuances of their projects passion, which was released on the Amazon Prime Video, and what entered to create it without sacrificing their creative vision for the story.
Jodi’s producer-director translates a little project by little for a packed hall, full of film customers, students and media.
One of the interesting conversations was the recreation of the 1919 Amritsar massacre for films, who were shot for more than 22 days with local artists, fake dummies and why it was placed at the end of the film.
“All the times you see in the order of Jallianwala Bagh are real and taken from a surviving story.
Some things are fiction but not much.
I have chased people and I have got the details of them.
We have a lot of debate where we have to put the order of Jallianwala Bagh in the film.
Our idea, and the author of Shubhendu and Ritesh thought is about what we want people to take home from the film.
I don’t want them to take home Sardar Udham Singh or even Bhagat Singh thing.
I want them to take Jallianwala Bagh with them.
In fact, I have received complaints from people that the order is too long and how people have chosen to turn off the film there.
I have told them that they can do what they want but for me, it is important that they are taken home Jallianwala Bagh.
In that order, you are taken home all.
The sequence described the fulcrum point of our freedom at that time.
Everything changed after that.
It is a barbarism sign of colonial power.
I’m glad I can describe without compromise.
”
Ronnie and Shoojit arrived in Mumbai from Delhi about two decades ago to make a film at Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
But they were forced to drop the idea, which lay the foundation for the film in Sardar Udham Singh.
Talking about it, Shoojit said, “We came to Mumbai to make a film about Bhagat Singh but when we saw that there was a surge in the film Bhagat Singh, we decided to divert our focus to Sardar Udham Singh.
At that time, we began learning his life, and everything happened around the time.
Making films on our terms is not easy but we have to find a way.
We continue to maintain a film for 20 years.
When you have an idea and you keep working on it, you start getting tight on the mind that you will play on.
Like Bhagat Singh you see in the film is Bhagat Singh I want to describe people in my film on him.
”

While making biographies, it is very important to understand what filmmakers choose to keep and what they choose to eliminate.
We ask questions for Shoojit about this, in connection with Sardar Udham.
He said, “I thought it was what took us for so long for the script.
We invest around 5 years to write the film.
I also want to include what happened the night before the JALLIANWALA BAGH slaughter.
While foreign audiences were watching the film, I wondered if they would know who Bhagat Singh, was the Rowlatt Law and what actually happened the night before the massacre.
I am worried that they might not be able to understand what happened and why.
I want to enter all the context for each character but maybe now I will do it in a series or something.
“