Vivek Agnihotri On His Lal Bahadur Shastri Bio-Pic
“All the guides in Tashkent openly say that Shastri was poisoned,”
Director Vivek Agnihotri has just returned from shooting his film which will expose some uncomfortable truths on the mysterious death of the former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastr in in Tashkent.
Says Vivek, “We shot in Tashkent and Samarkand. Most of the local people are great fans of Raj Kapoor and MithunChakraborty. All the guides in Tashkent openly say that Lal Bahadur Shastri was poisoned. That makes our film more relevant and it will help at least bring out all the facts related to Shastri which the successive governments have hidden from us.”
The film, says Agnihotri, is more about a citizen’s right to know the truth. “If we don’t know the truth about the death of our second prime minister, how can we ever know the truth of anything else? This thought prompted this investigative thriller.”
The director clarifies that this is not a bio-pic on Shastri. “This is a contemporary film and not a biopic. Nobody plays Shastri. Because it’s Shastri’s point of view.”
The endeavour for Agnihotri is to tell the story honestly. “Truth can be told if one is willing to sacrifice material comforts. Materialistic ambition makes us compromise on truth and that’s why we don’t make films trying to investigate the truth. For last 20 years I have a wish to make a film on Osho. Sadly, no actor wants to play him.”
