12 years of ‘Rang De Basanti’: Here are some unknown facts about the film
Last updated on - Jan 26, 2018, 08:00 ISTShare fbsharetwsharepinshare
11/1112 years of ‘Rang De Basanti’: Here are some unknown facts about the film
Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra got his idea for Rang De Basanti while shooting his documentary in Gujarat. The film, which was shot in New Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan, and Punjab, was officially launched at a hotel on 1 February 2005. When shooting began, Mehra made an announcement to his crew saying that they would enjoy their holiday only in July. Instead of filming at the actual locations from the script, other locations were selected for picturisation. One such scene is where Soha Ali Khan is filmed at the India Habitat Center that masquerades as the University of Delhi. On similar lines, New Delhi's Modern School at Barakhamba Road served as the location for all the scenes pertinent to All India Radio station, which is shown to be stormed by the youngsters in the film. Development of Rang De Basanti originated with several ideas Mehra came up with early on but later dropped or greatly evolved into new directions. One of these involved a group of youngsters who worked in an automobile repair shop, while another was about the life of Bhagat Singh, an Indian freedom revolutionary. During this time, he personally conducted a survey with a group of youths in New Delhi and Mumbai about the Indian revolutionaries he was planning on depicting, which indicated that many of youngsters did not recognize the names of some of the most prominent revolutionaries. This led Mehra to believe that the sense of "patriotism had blurred" in the young generation. Because of this, he dropped his original plans in favor of a new idea in which a British documentary filmmaker on a visit to India realizes that the local "kids are more Western than her".This new story, which eventually formed the basis for Rang De Basanti's script, was influenced by Mehra's upbringing, youth and experiences over the years, including his desire to join the Indian Air Force while in school, as well as his recollections of listening to Independence Day speeches and watching patriotic films such as ‘Mother India’.
