Back in 2006, Aamir Khan’s Rang De Basanti was released and spread its colors of new-age patriotism. The coming-of-age patriotic film was a ground-breaking script that reimagined and reinterpreted the conventional depiction of patriotism by injecting the youth’s zeal and emotion, as well as their impact, into the patriotic landscape of our country. This year, in January, the film marked 17 years of its huge success. While the Hindi film industry continues to churn out sequels and with the noise that there might be a 3 Idiots sequel, a question was posed to the director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, whether he’ll be stoked to helm a Rang De Basanti sequel. The film-maker replied with a resounding ‘No’.
In an interview with Bollywood Life, the film-maker explained his reasons behind not jumping on the bandwagon of sequels. He stated,
“I have said what I had to say with Rang De Basanti, and I don’t want to repeat that. If I had something else to say, I would say that, but with some other film and not with the Rang De Basanti. Also, it is the certain kinds of movies that demands a sequel, like James Bond, Mission Impossible. I made a film on college students who get so inspired by the likes of young revolutionaries who dropped their pens and picked up their guns, and gave up their lives for the country, and for the people of the country”.
He further shared, “The way the story was told, catered to the younger generations, and I realised to make this film because I was like that in my college days like, only complain about the system and didn’t jump in to the fire and there are many who do the same, take comfortable jobs and only crib about the system and do nothing about it. Rang De Basanti was a personal film, something I couldn’t do, and I wanted that young people should watch it because they are the ones who can change the system, so retelling the same story is not possible.”
Released in 2006, Rang De Basanti was directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The film stars Aamir Khan, Siddharth, R. Madhavan, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman and British actress Alice Patten.
The movie traced the story of five freedom fighters of the Indian Independence movement through the lens of a British film student who goes on to instill the fervent emotions of patriotism in five young men during the course of shooting of her film.
At the time of it’s release, Rang De Basanti shattered all box office records and emerged as the highest grossing films of all time. Not only that, the Aamir Khan starrer also bagged the prestigious National Film Award for Best Popular Film and had also scored a nomination for the BAFTA awards.
Even though Rang De Basanti was India’s official entry to the Oscars, the drama film however couldn’t find a spot among the shortlisted nominations. Regardless of that, AR Rahman who had composed the music for the film was widely appreciated for the amazing soundtrack. Rang De Basanti had also caught the fancy of the critics as they all praised the film for its unique storyline and impeccable characterizations.
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