Actor-director Randeep Hooda recently shared the teaser of Swatantra Veer Savarkar, a biopic on freedom fighter and Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar, which has erupted into a controversy. The film marks the directorial debut of Randeep and is written by him along with Utkarsh Naithani.
While posting the teaser on Twitter, Randeep wrote, “The most wanted Indian by the British. The inspiration behind revolutionaries like – Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh & Khudiram Bose. Who was #VeerSavarkar? Watch his true story unfold!.”
The teaser itself poses questions on Gandhi’s ideology and Randeep, in a voiceover, states that Gandhi was not wrong, but had he not been stubborn on his principles of non-violence, India would have been independent 35 years earlier. The voiceover further states that few participated in the freedom struggle and the rest “just wanted to gain political mileage in the garb of the fight for independence.” The 1:13 minute video then goes on to label Savarkar as the man who inspired Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, and the armed revolution against the British.
This invoked a reaction from Chandra Kumar Bose, the grandnephew of Subhash Chandra Bose, who replied to the tweet and accused Randeep of “distorting” history. “Sorry- the most wanted leader & freedom fighter was – #NetajiSubhasChandraBose. He was the only front line leader who had ‘shoot at sight orders’ & had sacrificed his life on 18 August 1945,for freedom of our nation.If you respect #Savarkar pl.don’t distort history!”
In a recent interview, Chandra Kumar Bose stated that Netaji was inspired by only Swami Vivekananda, who was his spiritual Guru, and freedom fighter Deshbandhu Chitranjan Das, who was his political mentor.
“Apart from these two people, I don’t think Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was inspired by any other freedom fighters,” he told India Today.
He added, “Savarkar was a great personality, a freedom fighter, but Savarkar’s ideology and the ideology of Netaji were diametrically opposite. So, I don’t see any reason why Netaji would follow Savarkar’s principles and ideology. He actually opposed Savarkar.”
Twitterati itself was divided over the issue. While some applauded Randeep for making the film to show “the truth” of Savarkar to people, others blamed him of making “propaganda”. “Thank You for this film. Country should know the truth about #SwantantryaVeerSavarkar Ji and expose those who played with our History,” wrote one. Another wrote, “Dude you really need to correct this history. Bhagat Singh detested their radical form of freedom struggle (including Lala Lajpat Rai’s )but still endorsed them because they were freedom fighters. In fact, he drew satisfaction that the Punjab-based freedom fighters were secular.”
