Riteish Deshmukh and Ritesh Sidhwani met officials from the central Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) with a special request. Since radicalisation of impressionable minds is one of the major problems that anti-terror officials have to contend with, the objective of the Bangistan team was to meet the misguided youth, who had chosen the path of terrorism and show them their movie.

Bangistan is a film that deals with the fates of two misguided youths who become suicide bombers at the behest of their fundamentalist masters. Riteish Deshmukh and Pulkit Samrat play out these characters who are given a specific mission. The film has been creating a buzz because of its bold theme and its catchy fusion soundtrack.

“Our intention was to get to the youth who have been brainwashed. We wanted to understand what drives them to take this path and show them our film, Bangistan, since it talks of the issue and portrays the journey of two suicide bombers (Riteish and Pulkit) who transform in their journey and realise the futility of giving up their lives for the cause of terror. We were not given permission, but our interaction with the officials was an eye-opener. We were informed that most of these 21 to 24-year-olds are self-taught with incendiary material available on social media. They are educated but are highly impressionable and come from different religions,“ says Ritesh Sidhwani.

“The kind of information they are brainwashed with is astounding, considering that some of them are even educated. They buy into this well-constructed story of doing good for their community by committing suicide and heading to this elusive destination in their afterlife that no one has any clue about and in the bargain, their leaders here are benefiting from their death,“ says Riteish Deshmukh.

Bangistan, presented by Junglee Pictures and Excel Entertainment, releases August 7.