It was a proud moment for the locals of Palakkad in Kerala, when Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar announced a new project on Tuesday about the doyen of a famed Palakkad family, Chettur Sankaran Nair.

Karan noted that he is “extremely excited and honoured” to back the film that will “unravel the legendary courtroom battle that Sankaran Nair fought against the British Raj to uncover the truth about the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Sankaran Nair’s bravery ignited the freedom struggle across the country and is a testament to the power of fighting for the truth.” The film is titled The Untold Story of C Shankaran Nair.

The project is set to be based on the book, The Case That Shook The Empire, written by Sankaran Nair’s great-grandson Raghu Palat and wife Pushpa Palat. Raghu is happy and proud that Sankaran Nair’s ground-breaking fight, which changed the course of Indian history, is being brought into the limelight.

“It is time that we started telling our own history, rather than depend on the British version, where they made themselves to be benign administrators,” says the retired banker and writer.

In fact, it is in writing our history that Sankaran Nair was confronted with a defamation suit. It was brought against his book Gandhi And Anarchy, in which he held Punjab Governor Michael O’Dwyer responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, in which about 400, of a large group of peaceful protesters, died in a shooting. When he refused to withdraw the book on O’Dwyer’s demand, a case was brought against him at the Court of the King’s Bench in London in 1922.

Sankaran Nair, advocate general of the Madras Presidency, was the only Indian on the Viceroy’s Executive Council. He had resigned after the massacre. “It was not too difficult to get the precise historic details of the case. I had had the opportunity to speak to my father and grandfather about him. Also, Sankaran Nair had written an autobiography, and his sons-in-law Madhavan Nair and former ambassador K P S Menon had written about him, so we had records at home. Also Indian and British news reports on the case, which took place from April 30-June 30, 1922, the longest case in British civil history, were available,” says Raghu.

So, how did the case, which will be the focus of the movie, play out? In a system that was heavily biased, it wasn’t surprising that the 11-member jury ruled overwhelmingly against Sankaran Nair. “The sole voice in his favour came from famed economist Harold Laski. But the British Parliament made the judge resign for his biased handling of the case. Also, his book propelled the freedom fight and gave the thrust to push for Independence, rather than settling for dominion status, which is until then on the cards,” points out Raghu.

The film is set to be directed by Karan Singh Tyagi. The cast has not been finalised yet.