“I Needed 3 Heroes Who Looked Shareef,” Says Tigmanshu Dhulia

For his new paean to patriotism Raag Desh which is about three soldiers in Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army(INA), director Tigmanshu Dhulia  says he needed three honest faces.

“Back then in the 1940s people were so devoid of trickery subterfuge and artifice. Hamare maa-baap kegeneration ke log kitne imaandaar dikhte the(people  from  our parents’ generation looked so honest).”

Dhulia, whose last directorial project Bullett Raja was released a  good  four years ago, had a tough time finding the three faces to play the INA soldiers in Raag Desh . He finally zeroed in on Kunal Kapoor, Mohit Marwah andAmit Sadh.

“It was very important not to cast known stars as these real-life soldiers from Subhas Chandra Bose’s army. I firmly believe iconic stars do not do not justice to real-life characters.When Ben Kingsley played Gandhi nobody knew him. Because of his relatively unexposed personality he became stamped as Mahatma Gandhi for a lifetime. I hope Mohit, Kunal and Amit become  the faces of  the three INA soldiers in the audiences’ mind,” says Tigmanshu.

For the role of  Subhas Chandra Bose, Tigmanshu chose a new actor  Assamese Actor Kenny Basumatary.

“He was already working with me in  my other film Yaara while I was looking for an actor to play SubhasChandra Bose. I suddenly realized Kenny bore a  striking resemblance to Bose.That was it.”