It would look fake, it's not convincing, how is this even possible? These were some of the comments that Anil Sharma encountered from people around him when the director decided to include the famous handpump scene in his 2001 blockbuster Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Sharma, however, was convinced that it was a sure-shot whistle worthy moment that would draw crowds to watch the Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel-starrer and he was proved right.
"No one was impressed when I told them about the handpump scene. They told me it would look fake. The shooting was on hold for two hours. The entire unit was not convinced, they said 'How is this even possible?' They said don't put a commercial scene in a picture as realistic as Gadar," Sharma told PTI in an interview. "Sometimes when you are very angry, you feel like destroying everything around you. We all have experienced that feeling. So, I thought let the character uproot the handpump. And after all these years, people still talk about that scene," he added.
Gadar, a post-Partition drama about an interfaith couple called Tara Singh and Sakina Ali, played by Deol and Patel, was declared a blockbuster and the handpump scene went on to become a pop culture phenomenon so much so that the director decided to give it hat-tip in his superhit follow-up Gadar 2, which released in 2023.
Sharma, who hails from Mathura and often draws references from Hindu scriptures in his stories, said he envisioned Gadar as a tale from the Ramayana. He also likened the handpump scene to the story where Lord Hanuman lifts an entire mountain when he is unable to identify the medicinal herb Sanjeevani important to revive a critically injured Lakshman.
"Tara Singh may not be Hanuman ji but the emotion is the same. So, he can uproot a handpump. Many were not convinced about it till the release of the film. Those who watch English films don't understand how people in our small towns think. They only worry about the public that lives in Bandra, Versova , and South Delhi," he added.
The filmmaker, who started his cinema journey at the age of 17 as an assistant to Mahabharat series creator BR Chopra and later directed films like Bandhan Kuchchey Dhaagon Ka, Hukumat, Elaan-E-Jung, The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, Apne and Veer, said he wanted to make period film on Partition for a long time.
Sharma found the right story when writer Shaktimaan Talwar gave him the script of Gadar, in which a truck driver named Tara travels to Pakistan to bring his wife Sakina back to India post Partition. "I told Shaktimaan ji that this story had the potential to become one of the biggest hits of the country. He asked me 'How?' I told him, 'This is Ramayana and in this story, Ram is going to bring back Sita'. In today's time, Lanka can be Pakistan. People may not understand Ramayana but it is in their blood so they will automatically connect with the film," he recalled. Its sequel featured Deol and Patel with Utkarsh Sharma returning as their son Jeete. In Gadar 2, Tara Singh travels to Pakistan to bring back Jeete amid the India-Pakistan war of 1971.
Utkarsh, who is the director's son, is also part of his upcoming film Vanvaas, starring Nana Patekar. It will be released on December 20. Sharma said he felt a lot of vacuum after his father's death and thought about making a film on the importance of parents in one's life. In this story, the filmmaker said he talks about how elders in the family are exiled by their loved ones for various reasons.
"This is a simple film which we treated with a lot of sensitivity. This is a family film which can be watched together. With a lot of entertainment and humour, I want to tell a story that will shake the conscience of the people," said Sharma, who previously directed Apne, a 2007 film about family.
Patekar, he said, is an actor whose performances are now part of reels, memes and YouTube videos. "Watching Nana Patekar perform will be a great experience for today's generation. The second character is played by Utkarsh. People have already seen him in Genius and Gadar 2."
Sharma is confident that "Vanvaas" will connect with viewers the way Gadar 2 did. "When I announced the film , people were like Anil Sharma is over, Sunny is over and that we were ruining a classic. Funny enough, many people called it Gutter: Ek Prem Katha in 2001 and now it has become a classic," he said. (With inputs from PTI)
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