Madhureeta Mukherjee (BOMBAY TIMES; January 7, 2020)

It takes a lot of courage to make a film based on a historical figure. It needs time, patience, passion and of course, big monies to see an ambitious idea make its way to the silver screen. Ajay Devgn, a supremely talented actor and sharp producer, who marks his 100th film with Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, stresses that India might not have the big budgets of Hollywood, but it has talent galore. And he swears by his sword that with this film, he wants to prove that. Read on…

In 2002, you did The Legend Of Bhagat Singh. What made you want to revisit the pages of history again, and this time, explore the life of warrior Subedar Tanhaji Malusare, a military leader in the army of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?
When I played Bhagat Singh, I remember that the film lingered with me for a long time. And it stays with you because they were great people and you know that you can’t be like them. You wonder what his mindset was and what was he thinking when he made those sacrifices. When you watch a film, you can even assume for a moment that this is fictional, but to sit back and think that someone actually did all this in reality, is unthinkable. When I heard about Tanhaji and the way he fought for the country, I realised that if he wasn’t there, the map of India would have changed. He became a local hero. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is known across the country for his heroism. Tanhaji is known mostly in Maharashtra and what we know of him is mostly through school textbooks, and that, too, is limited to probably a small paragraph. It is also not part of textbooks across all boards of education. My children didn’t study about him in school, some of us did.

The fact that he was a warrior whose victories and sacrifice is not as known and celebrated as many others – did this draw you to the subject? You are apparently planning to make more films on unsung heroes? So, these heroes could be from any region, any part of our country, right?
Yes! Today, we are talking about Tanhaji from Maharashtra, tomorrow, it could be a hero from Punjab or Rajasthan. In fact, they will not necessarily belong to only a certain era, we could have unsung heroes from this era, too. There could be heroes who didn’t go to the battlefield, but have done something commendable for our society. There are so many such stories that are relevant in today’s times. That’s how the idea came about, and I want to take stories of such heroes to the audience around the world. We have so many such inspiring stories in India. I am not saying that after watching the film you will become like Tanhaji, you cannot. But, at least, we will know how much effort and pain has gone into our struggle for freedom, so that we learn to respect it. The other part is, when we make films, we try to make commercial movies with a great screenplay, which will intrigue and grip you. So, when I heard the script, I felt that even if I was making a fictional drama on a subject of this nature, the story I would be looking for would be something like this. Even if you treat this like a fiction drama, it works perfectly.

Such films require scale, budget and huge investment in terms of the kind of time, and the blood and sweat spent on it…
I have always done this in my productions, right from films like Hindustan Ki Kasam (1999) and Raju Chacha (2000). There is always a ‘first’ that we have done in the industry. In the film Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha in 1998 (which was 50 per cent my production), it was the first time that a film had a musical promotional video. Back then, there was no such trend of promotional song videos. Now, everyone is doing it. I was always technically very strong, thanks to my father. I have always strived to take things notches higher. Yes, for a film like this you need heavy budgets, but if you are sensible, smart and invest time wisely (we have been working on this film for four years and we shot for 8-9 months), you are sorted. If you are smart, then you don’t need that kind of budgets. This is what I want to prove with this film, that you don’t need big budgets to make big films, you need to be smart and intelligent. The budget of this film would be like any other big-budget film being made here. It’s not that we have gone haywire with budgets, it’s like any other big-scale movie. When you see the quality of the film, you will know that it is the kind of stuff you have not seen being done in India before. The kind of 3D we have in the film, it is what you would have seen in Avengers or other Hollywood films. And it is all done by Indians. Except, for 2-3 action experts, who were with me during Shivaay, too, as I am comfortable with them when it comes to action, everything else has been done here, within our budget.

A great hero needs an antagonist of that stature. Whose idea was it to cast Saif Ali Khan in the role of Udaybhan Rathod, who headed the Mughal army in the battle against the Marathas at Sinhagad Fort?
It was my idea to get him on board. I have been watching the film during post-production, and from what I have seen, Saif is outstanding in the film. He has taken over the film. We needed someone like him to play this character, who is quirky, evil and has a personality that can stand tall in front of the protagonist. You see, in a film like Avengers, too, the villain is stronger than all of them put together. Everyone knows that Tanhaji was a great warrior, I don’t have to try too hard to show that as we are aware of his bravery. I need to show who is he fighting with, and what makes him so great. The antagonist needed to have a powerful presence on screen and we have really worked on Saif’s look and style. Earlier, we thought of casting someone new to play Udaybhan. Then it struck me that if we took someone who has played a villain before, then it would not be as exciting. Saif brings a certain personality to the character which it needed.

What was Saif’s reaction when he first heard the script?
He read the script, loved it and said, ‘Give me five great scenes and I will do it.’ Eventually, he had about 20, so I guess it all worked out well.

Sometime around 2015, you had said that we think our audience has changed, and hence, the industry is taking drastic steps and trying all kinds of cinema. Now, five years later, do you believe that the audience has truly evolved in their sensibilities, and they are greedy for anything that entertains or moves them?
Yes, the audience has evolved, and they are accepting every kind of cinema. They are liking the kind of films that I believed in during the 90s. People said that I was stupid to do films like Thakshak (1999), Zakhm (1998) and Raincoat (2004). Today, every actor is doing it and it’s working. With multiplexes, that section of the audience is coming in and actors are willing to do all kinds of cinema. It is a great phase for the industry, and we are at a point where we can make what we believe in. In the 90s, actors could not think about switching genres, today, it is accepted.

And such cinema is not viewed as offbeat anymore…
Cuts in…Now, we call it cinema that is ‘high on content’. Even when we are making commercial films, we need to ensure that it has the right kind of drama and sensibility that will appeal to the audience. You can’t put something stupid or mediocre out there and think that it will work. Just because you have a big film (with a big cast), it does not mean that the content does not matter.

The monitor lizard ‘ghorpad’ angle of the story, which is an important part of Tanhaji Malusare’s tale, is disputed among historians. Like what often happens with most stories rooted in history, there is never a consensus on various facts. Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker recently said that he has never met two historians who agree on all facts.
Different books could state different facts, too. If you are specifically talking about the ghorpad, I know that people might disagree, as scientifically, it does not seem possible. We have followed history, kept all the references, but you have to watch the film to see what we have done with it.

The descendants of Tanhaji Malusare have raised certain objections. Has there been any conversation with them, and will you have a screening for them before release?
Well, we have to justify it and you have to explain it to them. The CBFC is very sensible, and wherever they had a doubt, we gave them all the references required. I don’t need to show the film to his descendants because they have been a part of the shoot. There was an argument about where Tanhaji came from, so we have taken the proof from the family and given it to the CBFC. When you are making a film based on history, you are always walking a thin line. We have to dramatise the story…how else will we tell the story? In history books, you won’t find things like…what did Savitribai (his wife) tell Tanhaji when he was leaving for the battle? So, we have to write that, and fictionalise it. That’s a part of storytelling. Otherwise, there is no screenplay, and the whole story is just one chapter.

This marks your 100th film. Would you say that it’s quite an epic way to celebrate such a landmark moment in your career? From 1991 to now, what would you say has changed the most about the film industry and about you?
Honestly, I didn’t realise it was my 100th film, until Om Raut (director of this film) pointed it out. It is a mere coincidence. Today, the industry has become very professional and if I were to compare it to the time when I had started out, it is like two different people. It is like two different industries. Earlier, it wasn’t so professional, of course, it was a lot of fun, which I miss. But now the stakes are too high, and you can’t afford to take it easy. Earlier, we would chill for hours and do masti on set when the shoot was not happening. All that has changed. Now, you have to complete the schedule on time as everything is on a tight budget. Every hour costs money. Personally, I have become more responsible. We used to do 15 films at a time, but now, we are so involved in every project, hence, we are more focused. There is media pressure, too, earlier we never read a review or did promotions of this kind. The film would be slated for release and we were told about it, as simple as that.

You have always spoken about how we need to give the audience that cinematic experience that we often see in Hollywood films…
Yes, I want to share that vision with the audience, and personally, I love doing it, too. I want to show people that, so what if we don’t have the budgets that the West has, we have the talent here. As the budgets scale up, we can do more, but right now, with what we have, we can do what Hollywood does in 2,000 crores. For Tanhaji, playing the character was not as tough as it was being a producer on the project.