The coronavirus-induced lockdown has had an unforeseen impact on the Shiv Sena. It has affected work on a biopic being made by the senior Sena leader, member of Parliament and Saamna executive editor Sanjay Raut, on the stormy petrel of Indian politics—George Fernandes.
After his biopic on the life and times of the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, Raut had announced a movie on Fernandes, who cut his teeth as a labour union leader in Mumbai. Fernandes trounced S K Patil, the then uncrowned boss of the Mumbai Congress in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, but later shifted base to Bihar.
“The shooting schedule was affected by the lockdown. It will be started once the lockdown is over,” Raut told The Free Press Journal.
“The lives of these leaders who played a part in our politics must be depicted on the silver screen. Their life was a struggle in itself. This needs to be presented to the masses in an accessible manner. Hence, like I produced ‘Thackeray,’ I want to bring ‘George’ to the people,” he explained.
Like with ‘Thackeray,’ the movie will be released in both, Marathi and Hindi. The movie may also be shot on location in Mangalore, where Fernandes spent his formative years.
Raut said the story and screenplay were being written by him and Ritesh Shah, who has penned the screenplay for movies like ‘Kahaani’ and ‘Pink.’ He however refused to reveal details about the cast and the director. In a recent column, Raut had said the late Sushant Singh Rajput, who was being considered for the lead role, had been dropped due to issues like his depression.
‘Thackeray,’ ended with the election of the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra in 1995, and a sequel was announced. Similarly, sources said the movie on Fernandes was likely to end with the election of the Janata Party government after the Emergency.
The movie ‘Thackeray’, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Amrita Rao was released last year. The movie had been directed by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Abhijit Panse.
Incidentally, Fernandes and the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray shared a warm personal relationship.
When Fernandes fled his native Mangalore and a Catholic seminary, where he was training to be a priest, for Mumbai in the 1940s, the only line in Marathi he knew was “Majhya sathi kaahi kaam aahe ka? (Do you have any work for me?)” However, the polyglot politician soon mastered the language, which was among the 15 tongues he could speak.
The understudy of the legendary union leader Placid D’Mello, Fernandes plunged into politics and the Socialist movement. With fellow corporators like Mrinal Gore and Shobhnath Singh, he ensured that the business of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was conducted in Marathi, and not English.
Despite their political differences, Thackeray and Fernandes shared close ties and the latter had shared the stage with the Sena supremo during a Dusshera rally in the 1980s. Apart from the Shiv Sena, Fernandes was also said to be the only force capable of bringing Mumbai to a halt. He was also immortalised as union leader 'De casta' in the Marathi movie, ‘Sinhasan,’ which is a cult classic.
