Shoojit Sircar finds his Udham Singh in Irrfan Khan

Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar for quite some time has been working on a film based on the life of an unsung hero Udham Singh who fought for our Independence. Reportedly the director is now all set to reunite with his ‘Piku’ actor Irrfan Khan for this film.

The director asked Irrfan Khan if he would like to take up the project and the actor happily agreed. However,  due to Irrfan’s sudden illness, the director decided to wait for the actor to recuperate completely. Talking about Irrfan’s illness, Shoojit told Mumbai Mirror, “I’ve been speaking to both Irrfan and his wife (Sutapa Sikdar), he’s responding well to the treatment and trying to cope with the knowledge that he’s battling NeuroEndocrine tumour by treating the recuperation in Europe like a short and unexpected holiday. I’m planning to visit him next month. We hope to roll by the year-end, but will wait till Irrfan is ready to shoot.”

Shoojit had always wanted to make a film on Udham Singh who sacrificed his life for the country’s freedom but not many people know about his story. Talking  about how he got inspired to make this film the director shared, “In 1995, during my theatre days in Delhi, I would go with a group to Punjab which was just coming out of a period of turmoil, and sing songs on communal harmony. I visited Amritsar and Jallianwala Bagh then and was greatly inspired by the story of this fiery revolutionary Udham Singh who shot dead Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in British India, in London to avenge the massacre of 1919.”(Also read: Irrfan Khan returns to Twitter after a brief period- read tweet)

On having Irrfan Khan on board, the elated director said, “To relive Udham’s journey, I need a performance with finesse and depth which Irrfan is capable of. Also, he’s the only international actor we have today and I discovered to my delight that independently he knows a lot about the history of Punjab. It’s easy working with an actor who’s interested and involved.”

Well, we have seen this director-actor duo create magic on screen with ‘Piku’ and now we just can’t wait to see them work together all over again.

Pooja Sharma

Cinephile. Bibliophile. Pluviophile. Selenophile. Autophile. Aesthete. Blood group- Tea positive. Poetry lover. Sucker of rom-coms.

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