Rampal: Arun Gawli film not propaganda

Actor Arjun Rampal says his upcoming biopic on jailed gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli is not an image-building exercise and steers clear of glorifying anything that is undesirable.

The film, Daddy , is based on Gawli (61), who is serving life sentence for involvement in a murder case.

“We made sure that this is not going to be a propaganda film around a character where you are going to be showing him as a good guy, or portraying him in a different image. It’s not an imagebuilding film. We were excited with his life and that’s what we wanted to explore,” said Rampal.

“It took a lot of time to convince [Gawli’s] family but fortunately they came on board. When Arun Gawli came out on parole we had the opportunity to meet him. He said, ‘I don’t want to be shown as a hero. Tell my story the way it is’,” added Rampal.

The film is directed by Ashim Ahluwalia and will mark his foray into mainstream cinema after directing feature-length documentary John & Jane and indie drama Miss Lovely, both of which bagged Indian National Awards.

Rampal says he was initially approached to play Gawli by another set of producers but it was so far removed from real life that he “hated” it.

“Then I locked myself in a hotel room and started writing down a story, which I sent to Ashim for his feedback,” he said.

Rampal plans to release the movie by July. —PTI