In our own country we are shooting down our own icons-Randeep Hooda

Actor Randeep Hooda is going to be seen in a biopic based on the life of freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar,known as Veer Savarkar in the film Swatantrya Veer Savarkar. The actor is going to make his directorial debut as well as he has taken up the job of co-producing this film along with Anand Pandit, Sandeep Singh,Zee Studios and Yogesh Rahar. 

Talking about why he chose to make a film on Veer Savarkar, he says, " There is a movie made on Mahatma Gandhi ,Bhagat Singh ,Sardar Patel, I was part of movie Rangrasiya and played Raja Ravi Varma ,I did ,Charles Sobhraj ,so why should we not make movie on Savarkar .Movies are the great medium to reach out to people .America too have done it recently with Oppenheimer .In our country we are shooting down our own icons, which is unbelievable. He was brave but he was labelled as a coward. He was not an apologist. He felt that he had to contribute a lot to India's freedom struggle culturally and socially. He wanted to get out. All the promises made to the enemy are not to be fulfilled." 

 Randeep explains ,how interpreted this character and says,” Every person is result of its circumstances,what I tried to do as an actor is the explore circumstances that made Veer Savarkar ,who he was .His ideology ,thought process .What I felt was that he was man of giant intellect ,resilience, smartness. He believed in saam-daam-dand-bhed.In whatever way he wanted Britishers to go away .I guess his story could not reach people and I think he too felt that."   

The actor has been part of quite a few biopics in the past, speaking about that he states, “It is a mistake of producers that I keep getting such roles . It is hard in some aspects and easier in some aspects .It is hard because people have a reference be it is a look,voice ,pictures ,you have to get that right ,more than that you should get thought process right.A man said what he said and did what he did ,and why he did it is important . In terms of fictional characters ,it is easier in that sense but it doesn't have a reference. But in both cases I really enjoy doing biopics none the less as it gives me out of body experiences nobody gets that. "  

Savarkar’s life has always been surrounded by controversies ,when asked him as a director-writer ,what part of his life ,Randeep chosen to highlight in the film he reveals, “We have tried to showcase major important aspects of Savarkar's life ,whatever questions were raised on him ,I have tried to address it all ,in  Bapu's assassination ,he was not found guilty by the court not because they did not have an evidence but he had no connection to it then there was Kapoor Commission formed on it . They too had some doubts but the Supreme Court upheld the decision that was passed in 1948-49 after Gandhi ji's assassination .He was not maafi veer.  He filed petitions and pleas and he had the right to do so. There were many people who did  that. If you are sentenced to 50 years of jail in Kaala Paani in a 7X11 cell ,you won't rest there and think of it as a resolve for the next 50 years of your life. You will use any means to come out of there.”

What made Randeep turn director with this film he says, “ I have never been an actor ,who listens to everything of his director.I often like to be engaged with the director ,normally I know my scripts very well and read it extensively. There is a simple analogy behind becoming a director from an actor that I was an individual tennis player. Now I have become captain of the football team and now I am making them play individual tennis. So it was a difficult task but I had decided that I would complete this project. The struggle is nothing in front of Savarkar ji’s struggle. Somewhere I believe I was chosen for it."

The actor has not only acted ,directed and produced the film but also written it and says, “ I and Utkarsh Naithani wrote the screenplay ,we wanted to keep people engaged from one step to the other ,we discover things as we move on . From the commercial angle of it I made sure that it doesn’t sound preachy . We went in hard to cover his story from 1897 to 1950 . We kept in mind the reality and dates ,we wrote it in a way that it looks dramatic and engaging,enthralling . It is almost like a thriller.” 

Randeep has been through a tremendous physical transformation for this film ,speaking about it he says, “I do that in every role ,it is more ,it is more pronounced in movies like Sarabjit,Do Lafzo Ki Kahani and here or Inspector Avinash,CAT. But I think more than that it is important to get into that thought process ,how that particular character sees the world . Physical transformation is the most basic part of it but it is tough ,my mother leaves me and goes back to Haryana and says I can’t watch you like this as you have not eaten anything. In this case I have lost 30-32 kgs. It is more than the Sarabjit film but if a person is locked in Kaala Paani with minimal food,bad conditions. Then you will have extreme weight loss and he had jaundice so many times while he was there and in the end he looked like a skeleton. My health suffered a lot. My sister Anjali Hooda ,was with me ,she is very careful of all my transformations. She has warned me now not to do it again. But I probably will. I can do things with VFX but so don’t want to cheat myself. I say no to every project I see because I already know how many months and years it is going to take,but once I have chosen it .Then it is for me to experience as a human being .Putting myself in another human being's shoes ,that cannot happen overnight .I end up making less money than others but I hope my work lasts longer and I could set up an example of some kind. To love your work is to actually love the God that is what it is.”