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The Bollywood is set to release a political-drama film featuring the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh played by actor Anupam Kher. The Accidental Prime Minister is a depiction of the book of the same name written by Manmohan’s media adviser and Indian Policy Analyst Sanjaya Baru.
Baru in his book claimed that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was entirely in control of the cabinet. He alleged that, Singh was completely subservient to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. “There cannot be two centres of power”, Baru remembers Singh explaining to him, “That creates confusion. I have to accept that the party president is the centre of power. The government is answerable to the party.”
#TheAccidentalPrimeMinister is all about the PM, PMO and the Party. Have you watched the trailer yet? https://t.co/aOtTlOhHXG pic.twitter.com/oC9LsMNZZM
— The Accidental Prime Minister (@TAPMofficial) December 28, 2018
The trailer also speaks how Dr. Manmohan Singh was played, manipulated and scapegoat by the Congress leadership. The Accidental Prime Minister is a biographical political drama film, presented by Rudra Production (UK), Bohra Bros in association with Dr. Jayantilal Gada (Pen India Limited). It is directed by Vijay Ratnakar Gutte and written by Mayank Tewari. The film will hit the cinema on January 11th, 2019.
Anupam Kher in a recent media interaction talked lengths about his character in the movie and walked his fans through his decision of finally conceding to perform economist-turned-politician, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who served India from 2004-2014 under the United Progressive Alliance.
Ladies and Gentlemen!! Presenting the trailer of our highly anticipated film #TheAccidentalPrimeMinister.
The Accidental Prime Minister | Official Trailer | Releasing January 11 … https://t.co/TUu4AsTgHM— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) December 27, 2018
“About one-and-a-half years back, my friend Ashok Pandit told me that there is a film being made on Dr. Manmohan Singh and of course everybody heard about the book and the controversy behind the book. So, my first reaction was that I shouldn’t be part of this film because of so many reasons,” he said.
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“I thought it will be a political film and I didn’t know what will be there in the film. The other thing is that it is not easy to portray Dr. Manmohan Singh because he is an active political personality. This film is not based on a political figure who belonged to the 1960s or 1970s era. When Vijay and Mr. Bohra came to meet me so, for the first one or two months, I told them that I didn’t want to be part of it,” he added.
Anupam Kher added that the role of Dr. Manmohan Singh challenged him as an actor. “One day, I saw Dr. Manmohan Singh walking from one place to another on the television. So, the actor inside me told me if I could walk like him. But I was a disaster. That challenged me. I rehearsed his walk for 45 minutes but I couldn’t get it right so, I called the makers for the narration of the script and I was very fascinated by it.”
“I feel everything is difficult about Dr. Manmohan Singh. He has a very monotonous voice and yet there have to be variations then, I said yes to the makers of the film,” he added.
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“I took about six to seven months to prepare for this role. I must have seen at least 100 hours of footage but the most difficult was the voice part of it because he has a typical voice. Then I told myself that if your work is not challenging then, what’s the benefit of doing it?”
“We did the first schedule in England of 40 days and during that time, we were in a secluded place. It used to take one-and-a-half hours to look like Dr. Manmohan Singh. I feel it is the most difficult role I have ever done in my life because Dr Manmohan Singh is known by everybody and even today, he is so active. He is more vocal now than he was in the year 2014,” he added.
The Accidental Prime Minister delves deep into the internal politics of the Congress Party and features how Manmohan Singh handled the situations. He was asked if he fears to counter opposition from Congress as a film in few of the scenes have depicted Singh to be at a hard angle with Congress Party, he said “I feel you have to be little more careful because people take only two minutes to criticize you.
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I feel this has to be perceived as a film and it shouldn’t get into controversy because of its political background because you need to have guts to make this film and I must say our director and producers have the guts.” The trailer also features Aahana Kumra and Arjun Mathur playing the roles of Priyanka Vadra and Rahul Gandhi, respectively in the film. Suzzane Bernet playing Sonia Gandhi in the film has a pivotal role in the story.
Dr Manmohan Singh quietly walked off when he asked for his opinion on the trailer of the movie while ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party has hailed the movie that they claim will reveal the real face of the leading political family of India to the public. Only time will tell if the release of the controversial movie ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ is the political-gimmick to dampen the election campaign of Congress Party ahead of general elections in India in favor of ruling party BJP?