The trailer of Nitesh Tiwari's Bawaal, starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor in lead roles, released recently and there were references to World War 2. In the movie, Varun plays a history teacher who takes Janhvi's character to Europe to the World War 2 sites. The trailer drew a lot of criticism on Twitter because of Holocaust visuals and comparisons to Hitler.
When asked about the reason behind not depicting any of the wars India has been a part of, Nitesh told Galatta Plus that he wanted to present "something fresh" to the audience. He added that he had thought about presenting an Indian war and it would have been “very easy to incorporate” but decided against it.
“Rather than him teaching World War 2 in school, he could have been teaching any of our historical stuff. My biggest thing was there is something fresh which I always crave to bring to my audience, both story wise as well as visually."Nitesh Tiwari, Filmmaker
Nitesh also said that, over the years, many Indian directors have made films on wars that India has been a part of and he felt that he could not add a fresh perspective to the subject. “There has been such lovely stuff which has already been done and in plenty of numbers by some of our very renowned filmmakers in our country on the historical wars which our country has been a part of. I personally felt that I would not be able to being anything new on screen if I were to do that,” he told Galatta Plus.
Nitesh further went on to share that the depiction of World War 2 in Bawaal is 'something fresh for the audience.' “We have done Indo-Pak wars and Indo-China war and Kargil and everything, and some very good stuff has been done, I just felt that maybe you know, if I were to bring something fresh for the audience, this was a way to go.”
He continued, "In an earlier draft, there was a reference to Jallianwala Bagh, which I removed after Sardar Udham released. It no longer remained fresh."
Bawaal releases on Amazon Prime Video on 21 July.
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