'I am inspired by Punjab's contribution to freedom'

In his latest, Shoojit Sircar tells the story of Sardar Udham Singh, who avenged the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar

Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar’s latest project ‘Sardar Udham’ has just released on Amazon Prime Video. The film portrays the story of Sardar Udham Singh, one of the lesser-known Indian revolutionaries. He goes out on a mission to avenge the killing of his brethren. They were brutally killed in Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919. In a candid conversation with Metrolife, the filmmaker talks about his inspiration behind the project, the choice to skip a theatrical release, and more.

What drew you to the story of Udham Singh?

There are various factors that played a role. One is that I’m quite inspired and influenced by Punjab’s contribution to the freedom movement. Especially during my college and theatre days, I became quite interested in this part of India’s freedom movement, concerning the Jallianwallah Bagh incident and others. Coming to Udham Singh, I thought it was important to portray a revolutionary the right way and tell his story.

Tell us about the research. Were you extra cautious that you were telling the story of a revolutionary?

The initial background research took a lot of time because we looked into lots of evidence of how Punjab was back in 1919. We dove deep into what exactly happened in 1919 and everything that followed since. There was information on revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh but very little on Udham Singh, so we had to look through various sources. For this one, we had to do thorough research to make sure we had the right facts. You have to be extra cautious when it comes to the facts. What he was wearing or not wearing can vary but the emotions, philosophy and morals need to be right.

With many patriotic-themed films releasing in India in the last few years, do you believe we have a big market for such movies?

I wouldn’t be the right person to answer this because I haven’t seen any trend like this. Maybe the viewers are consuming it, so such content is being made more. But I didn’t make Sardar Udham because there is a surge in the market for patriotic films. This is something that had been cooking (in my mind) for a long while.

Why are you skipping a theatrical release?

It wasn’t really a decision to skip theatre. It was just that we had decided much earlier about how we’ll be going about this. We can’t hold on to a film for too long, and we had already committed to Amazon Prime before theatres reopened, so we stuck with that as my experience with OTT has been good so far.

Do you believe OTT is the future of cinema in India?

The theatres will always exist. It’s not like they’re going to go away because of the pandemic. But, on the other hand, OTT is also here to stay. So I believe both will have to somehow balance and work out a way to coexist by figuring out the audience’s pattern and behaviour.