Shoojit Sircar on showing Udham Singh drinking alcohol: ‘He was a young man in London’

In a new interview with Hindustan Times, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar talks about his latest film Sardar Udham. The film features Vicky Kaushal in a lead role.

Shoojit Sircar’s latest offering Sardar Udham is out on Amazon Prime Video. The film features Vicky Kaushal in the lead role and is a biopic on the revolutionary, Udham Singh. In a new interview with Hindustan Times, the filmmaker talks about one of the crucial scenes in the movie.

Shoojit Sircar talks about his new film, Sardar Udham in new film.

In the film, Shoojit Sircar has shown Udham Singh drinking alcohol. Perhaps no other film has shown a freedom fighter drinking alcohol. Asked if he fears any backlash for the particular scene, Shoojit said, “Could be. I won’t say backlash. But there could be people asking me why I have shown him (Udham Singh) like that. But then, he was a young man in London at that point. We do that all the time. For him, it would be normal, what would a young man at that stage do?”

He added, “As for someone who has an objection, I am ready to sit and discuss the scene. I have facts about where Udham Singh went, what he did. I can share all of that. What happens when you are a 23-year-old or a 30-year-old, you are romantic. You will do things that normal people do.”

Shoojit Sircar also said that he avoided using Hindi when it came to dialogues of the British characters in Udham Singh, “I have not used the kind of ‘gora language that Bollywood typically uses’. That hindi said in an English accent. I have never identified with that and never understood the meaning of using such a language. In my film, the British speak English. The British are speaking like British. I also made sure the casting was from there.”

Shoojit wanted to make a film on Udham Singh ever since he arrived in Mumbai to become a filmmaker. This has been Sircar's passion project for 20 years, when he first visited the Jallianwala Bagh massacre site. Co-written by Shoojit, Ritesh Shah and Shubhendu Bhattacharya, Sardar Udham premieres on Amazon Prime Video on October 16.