THE BLACK PRINCE
Maharaja Duleep Singh, the son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the last king of Punjab—but he never got to rule. Separated from his mother and taken away to England by the British, he was allowed to return home only twice. Filmmaker Kavi Raz’s (KR) The Black Prince, releasing July 21, depicts the troubled life of the forgotten figure.
Why do you think it has taken long to see an international production on Maharaja Duleep Singh?
KR: For a story to have a proper arc, it must have a journey of the main protagonist, that carries it forward to some final and victorious resolution. Duleep’s life ends in a hotel room in Paris with no one around to even give him a last drop of water. But underneath the tragedy is a story of triumph that most people fail to see. He was victorious in standing up against everything he was taught was wrong, from the age of seven, and even in denouncing the British as his enemies.
What sort of portrait did you want to present?
KR: Maharaja Duleep Singh’s battles were not fought on the battlefield. He didn’t win any duels with the sword like his father, or like the mighty warrior Hari Singh Nalwa, who helped shape the Sikh kingdom of Punjab. His fight was more of an internal battle to overcome his own demons and the manipulation of the British. He fought a lonely war, surrounded by spies, traitors and manipulators. This was a story that needed to be told.
How does Punjab view him now?
KR: Punjab, like much of the world, has a very distorted and English point of view about Duleep Singh—that ‘he betrayed his people and faith’. This is a distorted history that I hope this film will help set straight. His conversion to Christianity, at the age of 14, was not out of choice. What was under his control and truly came from his heart was when he embraced the Sikh faith again.