Bollywood takes on Hitler
Bollywood romance takes a whole new direction with a movie being made on the love life of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun.
The movie, Dear Friend Hitler - starring Anupam Kher as Hitler and Neha Dhupia as Eva Braun – is being directed by rookie Rakesh Ranjan Kumar.
"It will be a romance but not in the typical sense," said Kumar. The film "aims to capture the personality of Adolf Hitler", he added.
"As a leader, he was successful. I want to show why did he lose as a human being? What were the problems, what were the issues, what were his intentions?"
"Eva had been Hitler's girlfriend since she was 17 years old. The film shows how she comes in his life in his last days," Mr Kumar said in a report in The Times newspaper.
According to Kumar, the movie title is based on two letters Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Hitler begging him not to go to war. The letters were addressed as “Dear Friend . . .”
Mr Kumar's debut as a director has been lent weight by the casting of Kher, one of the subcontinent's most acclaimed and prolific actors, as the lead character, while Dhupia, is a former Miss India. Dhupia says she has researched widely to prepare herself for the role.
"How do you marry the most hated man in the world? I think it's by taking each day at a time," she said.
However, those hoping for a typical Hindi melodrama, replete with song and dance, are likely to be disappointed.
Mr Kumar is aiming, it seems, for something closer to Downfall, the heavyweight German film lauded for its insight into Hitler's psyche - albeit with an Indian twist. Dear Friend Hitler, due to be released at the end of the year, will tell the story of the fascist leader's final days in his Berlin bunker.
It was there, while the Soviet army bombarded the German capital, that he married Braun in a brief civil ceremony about 40 hours before he killed himself on April 30, 1945. The couple met in October 1929 but the existence of Braun was kept from the German public until after the war.
The film will also focus on the fate of the Free India Legion, an armed unit made up of Indian soldiers that was raised in 1941 and attached to the German army.
The legion, which fought alongside Axis troops, was a rogue offshoot of Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful freedom movement that campaigned to liberate the subcontinent from British rule.
The project is thought to be the first Bollywood film that will focus on Hitler, who chose the swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol, for his Nazi emblem and with whom many Indians are fascinated.
Kumar said his film "shows Hitler's love for India and how he indirectly contributed to Indian independence".
One of the film's producers said: "If we should thank anybody for Indian freedom, it should be Hitler" - a reference to how Britain's war effort exhausted its finances, contributing to its relinquishing control over its former empire.
"But just because you delve into the mind of Hitler does not mean that you condone his barbarism," the producer added.
The film is already questioning the makers’ storyline about Hitler’s “love for India”. As one blogger on www.guardian.co.uk says:
“Indian directors have as much right to make movies about Hitler as anyone else. There is certainly no shortage of Hollywood movies that display an abject disregard for historical accuracy. But it would be worthwhile for the makers of Dear Friend Hitler to research what Hitler really thought of India, and what he did in Europe. Then, like the many Indian independence leaders who strongly rejected fascism, they might come to a better informed conclusion.
"Hitler and Japan must go to hell," said independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru, later India's first prime minister. "I shall fight them to the end." If Kumar and his producers believe they are honouring the cause of Indian freedom by associating it with Hitler, they are profoundly mistaken.”
Bollywood romance takes a whole new direction with a movie being made on the love life of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun.
The movie, Dear Friend Hitler - starring Anupam Kher as Hitler and Neha Dhupia as Eva Braun – is being directed by rookie Rakesh Ranjan Kumar.
"It will...
Bollywood romance takes a whole new direction with a movie being made on the love life of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun.
The movie, Dear Friend Hitler - starring Anupam Kher as Hitler and Neha Dhupia as Eva Braun – is being directed by rookie Rakesh Ranjan Kumar.
"It will be a romance but not in the typical sense," said Kumar. The film "aims to capture the personality of Adolf Hitler", he added.
"As a leader, he was successful. I want to show why did he lose as a human being? What were the problems, what were the issues, what were his intentions?"
"Eva had been Hitler's girlfriend since she was 17 years old. The film shows how she comes in his life in his last days," Mr Kumar said in a report in The Times newspaper.
According to Kumar, the movie title is based on two letters Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Hitler begging him not to go to war. The letters were addressed as “Dear Friend . . .”
Mr Kumar's debut as a director has been lent weight by the casting of Kher, one of the subcontinent's most acclaimed and prolific actors, as the lead character, while Dhupia, is a former Miss India. Dhupia says she has researched widely to prepare herself for the role.
"How do you marry the most hated man in the world? I think it's by taking each day at a time," she said.
However, those hoping for a typical Hindi melodrama, replete with song and dance, are likely to be disappointed.
Mr Kumar is aiming, it seems, for something closer to Downfall, the heavyweight German film lauded for its insight into Hitler's psyche - albeit with an Indian twist. Dear Friend Hitler, due to be released at the end of the year, will tell the story of the fascist leader's final days in his Berlin bunker.
It was there, while the Soviet army bombarded the German capital, that he married Braun in a brief civil ceremony about 40 hours before he killed himself on April 30, 1945. The couple met in October 1929 but the existence of Braun was kept from the German public until after the war.
The film will also focus on the fate of the Free India Legion, an armed unit made up of Indian soldiers that was raised in 1941 and attached to the German army.
The legion, which fought alongside Axis troops, was a rogue offshoot of Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful freedom movement that campaigned to liberate the subcontinent from British rule.
The project is thought to be the first Bollywood film that will focus on Hitler, who chose the swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol, for his Nazi emblem and with whom many Indians are fascinated.
Kumar said his film "shows Hitler's love for India and how he indirectly contributed to Indian independence".
One of the film's producers said: "If we should thank anybody for Indian freedom, it should be Hitler" - a reference to how Britain's war effort exhausted its finances, contributing to its relinquishing control over its former empire.
"But just because you delve into the mind of Hitler does not mean that you condone his barbarism," the producer added.
The film is already questioning the makers’ storyline about Hitler’s “love for India”. As one blogger on www.guardian.co.uk says:
“Indian directors have as much right to make movies about Hitler as anyone else. There is certainly no shortage of Hollywood movies that display an abject disregard for historical accuracy. But it would be worthwhile for the makers of Dear Friend Hitler to research what Hitler really thought of India, and what he did in Europe. Then, like the many Indian independence leaders who strongly rejected fascism, they might come to a better informed conclusion.
"Hitler and Japan must go to hell," said independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru, later India's first prime minister. "I shall fight them to the end." If Kumar and his producers believe they are honouring the cause of Indian freedom by associating it with Hitler, they are profoundly mistaken.”
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