Decoding the controversy around Randeep Hooda's film 'Swatantrya Veer Savarkar'

Randeep Hooda is all set to turn director with his maiden venture Swatantrya Veer Savarkar. He shared the poster and the teaser of the film on his social media page few days ago and the reactions and responses have been polarizing, to say the least. Why so?

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s grandnephew‘s reaction

Let’s start by first looking at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s grandnephew’s tweet. Hooda claims Savarkar was the most wanted Indian by the British, and Bose claims otherwise.

He tweeted- “Sorry- the most wanted leader & freedom fighter was #NetajiSubhasChandraBose. He was the only front line leader who had ‘shoot at sight orders’ & had sacrificed his life on 18 August 1945,for freedom of our nation.If you respect #Savarkar pl.don’t distort history!”

Sorry- the most wanted leader & freedom fighter was – #NetajiSubhasChandraBose. He was the only front line leader who had ‘shoot at sight orders’ & had sacrificed his life on 18 August 1945,for freedom of our nation.If you respect #Savarkar pl.don’t distort history! pic.twitter.com/fddTM4iaTX

— Chandra Kumar Bose (@Chandrakbose) May 29, 2023

And in an interview with India Today, Bose said, “Apart from these two people, I don’t think Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was inspired by any other freedom fighters.” Hooda has shown in the teaser that this was the man that was the inspiration of many freedom fighters, including Bhagat Singh. It seems Hooda has been called out incessantly for distorting historical facts for cinematic and creative liberties.

Savarkar and his controversial life

He was convicted of sedition and for the murder of A.M.T Jackson, the district collector of Nashik in 1910-1911. He was sentenced to two terms of twenty-five years which were to run one after the other and not concurrently, making it, in effect, a 50-year-long imprisonment. He filed a petition to be shifted from Cellular prison in the Andamans to a jail in the Bombay presidency in 1921. He was later discharged in January 1924.

Some of his admirers claim his mercy petitions were only a ploy for him to come out and continue his struggle against the British. In 1921, Savarkar wrote his seminal tract ‘Essentials of Hindutva,’ which laid the foundations of Hindutva as an ideology.

Twitter reacts to Hooda’s film

And Randeep Hooda claims that Savarkar inspired Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose