Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur recounted the time of joining UTV as an executive before Parineeti launched in the theaters and just after Rang De Basanti was wrapped up with the shoot. Recently in an interview he spoke about the controversy associated with the political drama Rang De Basanti prior the release, while also extended his gratitude to the army for endorsing the film then.
While speaking to Mashable India he made a statement on why Rang De Basanti like films won’t be made these days as producers are dubious to invest in films of political nature.
“Yes,” he averred in agreement. “You could actually have a film that dealt with political issues, and still not… I mean, we still had a few issues with regard to the depiction of the armed forces. We had to do screenings for senior members of the armed forces, but to their credit, they allowed the film to release. It was incredible. And that’s the film that actually showed me the power of cinema.”
Whether these films would run into more issues if made in contemporary times, Atul Kulkarni told Bollywood Hungama in 2021, “Suppose if Rang De Basanti was made 30 years ago and not 15 years ago, toh obviously woh film alag banti. Par kahaniyaan toh hum wahin kahenge jo hum kehna chahte hai (If it had been made 30 years ago the film would have been made differently. But the story would still be the same).”
The film was out in 2006 and helmed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, starring Aamir Khan, Siddharth, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kunal Kapoor. The film served to be a massive hit at the box office while later went on to win the National Film Award for Best Popular Film. It was also nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2007 BAFTAs.
