Don’t want bookish portrayal of freedom fighters: Shoojit

SHOOJIT SIRCAR,

Filmmaker

Years ago, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar came to Mumbai, brimming with ideas, to make a name for himself in films. Now, with his latest venture, Sardar Udham, Sircar is bringing to screen one of the ideas that had stayed with him for years, “The subject lived with me [for long], but back then I didn’t have the guts or the resources to do justice to it,” says the director, adding, “It kept burning in me, I kept it alive.”

Ask him about collaborating with actor Vicky Kaushal, who stars in the lead role, and Sircar is glad as Kaushal was able to grasp his vision for the project. “I like to partner with likeminded, warm and humble people. Vicky is all that and more... He understood that the film has to be more internal, about Udham’s mind,” he says, adding, “The film has a different perspective towards freedom fighters [than we usually see]. They are not ‘put on a pedestal’, not a bookish portrayal... That was my effort.”

The Madras Cafe (2013) and Piku (2015) director points out that he felt “justice was not done” to some earlier films about revolutionaries.

“When you make a film, you should have some perspective... And the challenge for me was to make Udham more impactful,” shares Sircar, whose aim is to be truthful to stories and he doesn’t think about catering to certain audiences. He adds, “I make films with integrity. What I think about is that I shouldn’t go wrong and do justice to the subject, in this case to Udham, what he was and what he was meant to be.”