- Monday, April 29, 2024
By: Mohnish Singh
According to reports, a film on trade unionist and former Cabinet minister George Fernandes, who breathed his last on 30th January at the age of 88, is in the works.
The untitled project will focus on late politician’s life around the emergency of 1975. If all goes well, the movie will begin production in March. Renowned filmmaker Shoojit Sircar, who last helmed the Varun Dhawan starrer October (2018), is expected to call the shots.
The project is being planned by politician-turned-filmmaker Sanjay Raut, whose Thackeray (2019), starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is performing well at the box-office. The script and screenplay of the film have been locked, as per sources.
“George Fernandes is an inspiration in the true sense of the word. He was known for the many roles he took on during his lifetime — a trade unionist, a socialist leader, an anti-Emergency hero, a former Union minister and a Rajya Sabha member. The idea is to bring his life to the celluloid and reach out to a wide range of audience,” a source close to the development reveals.
Apart from focusing on Fernandes’ life from the mid-1950s in Mumbai to Emergency in 1975, the film will also chronicle his friendship with Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. The movie will be bilingual in Marathi and Hindi.
“I seek guidance from Shoojit as he is a close friend and I would love to have a talented director like him on board. But we’re yet to finalise names,” Sanjay Raut said when asked about teaming up with Shoojit Sircar.
