'Let the young know who Bhagat Singh was' Sunny Deol on his latest revolutionary pursuit

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Sunny Deol, who plays Chandershekhar Azad in Guddu Dhonoa's 23 March 1931 -- Shaheed, starring Bobby Deol, stated that while making the film on Shaheed [martyr] Bhagat Singh, they were constantly aware that they should not harm his larger-than-life image.

Speaking to the media in New Delhi on Thursday, Sunny denied he had made the film in a hurry in order to cash in on the present political tension between India and Pakistan.

"All sorts of misinformation has being spread about all the films on Bhagat Singh, including 23 March 1931 -- Shaheed. Our film has been made after intense research. Sutanu Gupta [writer of Badal and Damini] and Sanjay Masoom [writer of Bichhoo]," states Deol.

"Let us not question the authenticity of the film. Why not wait till the film is released and let me clarify? When we started making the film, we did not know the tension between India and Pakistan would escalate," Sunny explains when asked about the inclusion of certain sequences that have nothing to do with the life of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

He claims the film had been made in a record time of four months. "We started shooting this film on Februrary 10. The film will be released June 7. It is a big film; I hope people like it. We had to hurry up because there are others also working on films on Bhagat Singh [Rajkumar Santoshi's The Legend Of Bhagat Singh releases June 7; Sukumar Nair's Shaheed-E-Azam releases May 31; and Tarun Wadhwaa's Shaheed Bhagat Singh is scheduled for a June release]. We had to recreate history down to the kind of houses that existed in 1920 and 1930's. Despite a fire on our sets we were able to go ahead with shooting and complete it on time," he says.

"I was a youngster when Manoj Kumar released his film Shaheed [1965]. I was so moved by his depiction of Bhagat Singh that I would often cry and wonder whether this man ever existed. I would hear about him from my grandmother.

"One good thing to come out of the release of so many films on Shaheed Bhagat Singh is that the younger generation would come to know who Bhagat Singh was," he adds.

To a query about how important commercial angle is, Deol replied, "We are filmmakers [Deol's banner Vijeta Films produces the film]. And, like newsmen who like to sell their newspapers to make money, we too want to make some money. Though not at the cost of his character," he explained.

Responding to a question as to how he felt while portraying the character of Bhagat Singh, Bobby Deol said that he had never been so nervous in his life while shooting as he was when he was going the character of Bhagat Singh. " I was very excited when I was chosen to play the character of Shaheed-e-Azam. I did not want to go wrong one bit anywhere least people would say that I did not do justice to his character," Bobby Deol said.

About the inclusion of a romance interest in Bhagat Singh's life [played by Aishwarya Rai], Deol says, "You would have to read more on Bhagat Singh to know whether that is true or not."

Meanwhile, the Delhi-based non governmental organisation Article 51 A Forum has, in an open letter to the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj, demanded that the government should appoint a committee of parliamentarians and intellectuals to screen the films on Bhagat Singh before its release, so that the image of the revolutionary is not tarinished by those out to make quick money.

Swaraj could not be contacted. She is outof the capital and is likely to return to Delhi only early June.