Bollywood films have been subjected to a lot of criticism over the last few years. Be it the degrading quality of the storylines or the increasing importance of films in shaping opinions, people increasingly want films to answer burning questions and bring to light issues that hold significance. And filmmakers have found the best way to give in to this demand- through biopics.
In January last year, on the occasion of Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death anniversary, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri announced that his next movie would revolve around India’s second prime minister. However, nothing else was revealed.
On this day, 10th Jan 1966, in Tashkent a tiny man called Lal Bahadur Shastri who won a war with Pakistan, soon after a humiliating defeat with China, signed the Tashkent treaty. Hours later he died. A death mystery unsolved till date. Why? pic.twitter.com/azBvX45FeU
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) January 10, 2018
And this year again, Vivek took to his Twitter handle to reveal the poster of the film – ‘The Tashkent Files’. Along with that, he also revealed the name of the two cast members which sent the internet into a frenzy.
On this day, our 2nd PM Lal Bahadur Shastri died mysteriously in Tashkent. Was it heart attack or poison? Even after 52 yrs, the truth of the biggest cover-up of free India has been denied to his family, followers, citizens. After years of research, I present #TheTashkentFiles pic.twitter.com/k53WBSrKk8
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) January 11, 2018
Legendary actors and national award recipients Naseeruddin Shah and Mithun Chakraborty have been roped in for the film.
Privileged to work with two National Award Winners to tell an untold story of beloved Shastri ji. More to come. pic.twitter.com/o13G0uVTXz
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) January 11, 2018
While the storyline and casting of the actors seems extremely fascinating, what’s more interesting is that this is the first ‘crowdsourced’ Indian film. When he announced the movie for the first time last year, he had tweeted, “This is my next film dedicated to Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, on his 51st death anniversary. Please support and contribute ideas.”
He also said, “Death/assassination, questions must be answered. Contribute ideas. This will be first crowdsourcing of ideas for a film.”
And after getting thousands of mails and doing intensive research for years, Vivek is more than excited to delve into this mystery even further with the film.
© Vivek Agnihotri
The lead actor who’d play the role of the former PM still needs to be finalized and we can’t wait to see who’d be roped in for the same.