Upon investigation they learn that the crash was due to a corrupt defence minister who had signed a contract exchanging cheap and illegal MiG-21 aircraft spare parts for a personal favour.Īngered by the situation, the group and their supporters decide to protest peacefully at India Gate, a war memorial in New Delhi. Instead, they claim that he sacrificed his life to save hundreds of other lives that would have been lost had he ejected from the aircraft and left it to crash into a populous city.
Knowing that Ajay was an ace pilot, Sonia and her friends do not accept the official government explanation. The government proclaims that the crash was caused by pilot error and closes the investigation. They gradually begin to realize that their own lives are quite similar to the characters they portray in Sue’s film and that the state of affairs that once plagued the revolutionaries continues to torment their generation.Ījay Singh Rathod, a flight lieutenant in the Indian Air Force who is Sonia’s fiancé, is killed when his jet, a MiG-21, crashes. Sue travels to India, with the help of her friend Sonia at the Institute for International Studies at the University of Delhi.Īfter a few unsuccessful auditions in search of the actors, Sue finally casts Sonia’s friends, four young men – Daljit “DJ” Singh, Karan Singhania, Aslam Khan and Sukhi Ram – to portray the revolutionaries.ĭuring the process of filming, the idealism of India’s revolutionary heroes seeps into the protagonists. Upon reading these emotional journal entries, Sue decides to make a self-financed documentary film about these five revolutionaries. McKinley reveals that it was then that he met the third kind - those who die with a smile on their face. McKinley, in his diary, states that he had met two type of people in his life, those who died without uttering a sound and those who died with lots of anguish, crying over their deaths. From the diary, she learns about the story of five freedom fighters who were active in the movement: Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Ashfaqulla Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil. Sue soon discovers that he had served as a jailer in the Imperial Police during the Indian independence movement. The story follows a young, struggling British filmmaker, Sue McKinley, who comes across the diary of her grandfather Mr. “Rang De Basanti” was also chosen as India’s official entry for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category, though it ultimately did not win a nomination for either award. “Rang De Basanti” received critical acclaim, winning the National Film Award for Best Popular Film, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2006 BAFTA Awards. It was the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend in India and had the highest opening day collections for a Bollywood film. Upon release, the film broke all opening box office records in India.
Made on a budget of ₹250 million, US$3.9 million, the film was shot in and around New Delhi. The title can be literally translated as “Paint me with the colours of spring.” “Rang De Basanti,” or in English, “Colour it Saffron,” is a 2006 Indian drama film written, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra.
Photo Courtesy of || “Rang De Basanti” is Hindi cinema at its best, Marissa Hank ’20 writes.