Randeep Hooda’s Swantantrya Veer Savarkar was released this Friday and marked the actor’s debut as a director. The actor recently recollected having an eerie experience on the film sets, when he was shooting at Kaala Paani. A part of the film was shot at the Colonial era Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
In a podcast interview with Ranveer Allahbadia, the actor shared, “I started feeling like Savarkar was the director himself.” When asked if ever felt Savarkar’s presence on set, he responded, “Yes, in every frame. There were times when I really felt that. I used to feel sometimes, while working, I used to see a shadow, of myself sometimes, and I used to think, ‘Wow, that looks like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’.”
Randeep further opened up about his experience shooting at the Cellular Jail. He shared that that it was a ‘difficult task’ to get permission from government ministeries to shoot there and the film wouldn’t have been made without that location. “I wanted to spend some time alone in Savarkar’s cell, so I asked to be locked inside it. I was okay for a while, but then, I felt the walls crashing down on me. I started screaming for help, but my voice wouldn’t travel. I became claustrophobic, I began to lose my breath,” he said.
When asked if ever spent the night in the jail, he further opened up and shared that it used a be an ‘eerie silence’ at night. There would be no breeze. But the location was never shut down completely. They would have light and sound shows there at night. I could only sense that there used to be people here once, and now they aren’t. Sometimes, in the wings… But there were so many people, so you can’t tell… But nobody would wander too far.”
News18 gave the film 3/5 stars. The review read, “The film mostly stays true to his story until the Kaala Paani sentence and even a little after that. However, when the political career bit starts to shape, Randeep Hooda takes creative liberty and shows scenes that might have not panned out in real life. The film features a scene in which Bhagat Singh meets Savarkar, an incident that isn’t backed with historical evidence. It also hints at the narrative that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was inspired by Savarkar and sought his guidance while making a crucial political move. There is no evidence of this either and to top it off, last year, Netaji’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose himself clarified that this was untrue. Given that it is a biopic, the film fails to stay true to history and it is heartbreaking.”
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