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Why Subhash Ghai considers ‘Hindutva’ director Karan Razdan the “Krishna” of Bollywood?
Produced by Jaikara Films and Lord Shiva Communications, a Pragunbharat presentation, the film ‘Hindutva’ is written, co-produced, and directed by Karan Razdan.
By Chaitanya Padukone
Event ‘chief guest’ filmmaker Subhash Ghai showered heaps of praise on “my late evening old buddy” veteran writer-filmmaker Karan Razdan. The maverick director Razdan had arranged a special preview of his title song Hindutva Hai Hindutva from his latest sensational yet sentimental entertainer movie Hindutva at a Juhu 5-star hotel.
Quipped Subhash Ghai, “Just as Lord Krishna has multiple diverse facets to his avatar right from a ‘Makhan-chor’ to a romantic musician-dancer and to a warrior and then a philosopher who has given us the revered sacred Bhagavad Geeta, Similarly versatile Karan Razdan is an actor, writer, director, producer, is music-savvy and has now dared to make a movie ‘Hindutva’ with a philosophical message of communal harmony,” justified Ghai amidst thunderous applause, at the classy ethnic-vibes event compered by actress-model Ada.
Subhash Ghai addresses audience as Dir Karan and cast of Hindutva
It may be called that writer Razdan (who penned the milestone whistle-blower DD TV show ‘Rajani’) who has written films for Ghai like Trimurti, and also the writer of Dushmani, Diljale Deewane and directed sensational films like Girlfriend, ‘Eight-Shani’, Hawas and Bhatti on Chutti, feels very strongly about the message that his forthcoming film is carrying.
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Clarifies Karan Razdan, “Our youth-centric movie is but obviously political in nature. While there is student politics in the movie, Hindutva also focuses on the random politicization of the word ‘Hindutva’. Some politicians for their personal gains have brought this word into a lot of disrepute, not only in India but also globally. This misrepresentation with serious economic repercussions, became such a cause of concern for me, that I decided to make a powerful film with this very word Hindutva as its title. So, Hindutva, my film, wants to stop the politicization of this word Hindutva,” insists Karan who has ‘acted’ in the iconic mega-hit musical movie ‘Disco Dancer (1982).
Mukesh Tyagi with Ankit Raj at Hindutva trailer launch event
The socio-political-thriller movie which has lyrics by eminent Shweta Raj and music by talented young composer Ravi Shankar (a current favorite of director Ram Gopal Varma) is slated to release on October 7th in cinema theatres across the country. Thanks to its religious-sounding powerful title, the movie has been the frequent focus of public and media attention.
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At the music-launch event attended by celebs like (guest-close buddy of Razdan) Satish Kaushik, singer Madhushree, ‘Bhajan Samrat’ Anup Jalota, emphasized that cine-goers should not get carried away only by the movie title. “Actually, this thought-provoking movie ‘Hindutva’ promotes communal secularism, harmony, and friendship between the Hindu and Muslim communities as both the heroes belong to different religious communities. The heroine belongs to the Hindu community. My role is that of the Hindu hero’s father who is a Pandit-Shastri and I have also sung a bhajan picturized on me” revealed Anup Jalota.
Karan Razdan with Hindutva movie cast Ashiesh S, Sonarika B and Ankit R
The movie Hindutva stars talented actors such as handsome Aashiesh Sharrma (as Bharat Shastri), “natural beauty” Sonarika Bhadoria (multi-layered NRI Sapna Gupta), macho Ankit Raj (as Sameer Siddique), suave Mukesh Tyagi (as aggressive separatist Ghulam Rasool) Govind Namdev, Dipika Chikhlia (as Guru Maa), Anup Jalota, Satish Sharma, Agast Annand, Surmeet and others amongst others. Hindutva is slated to release on the 7th of October in theaters across the country by Pen Marudhar.
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Filmmaker Karan Razdan recalls how difficult it was to conceptualize and compose the title song (sung by Daler Mendi) of his forthcoming film Hindutva. “When lyricist Shweta Raj (also cameo-actress) and I sat down to conceptualize this song I told her that the title song must be the one which truly conveys the authentic meaning of Hindutva.” It turned out to be very difficult initially to encapsulate everything that Hindutva denotes in just one song and make it lyrical at the same time. When finally, Shweta came up with the lyrics ‘Tu mera Astitva hai, Hindutva hai Hindutva’ I knew at the very instant that this would be a good song. Whether it turns out to be a memorable song, depends on the people. All I can say is that this song composed by genius Ravi Shankar with high-octane music arrangements has a soul and has an instant connect and recall-value”
Karan Razdan with Sr. film-journalist Chaitanya Padukone
Produced by Jaikara Films and Lord Shiva Communications, a Pragunbharat presentation, the film ‘Hindutva’ is written, co-produced, and directed by Karan Razdan.
(The writer of this story-article Chaitanya Padukone is an eminent award-winning senior film-journalist-author of memoirs book R D BurMania)
