Politics Insight News Without Politics
Virendra Singh Rawat
Columnist
A Bollywood biopic planned on Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and planned to be released in 2016 has been shelved.
Mulayam was unceremoniously ousted as SP president last month following a bitter power feud in the Uttar Pradesh government, SP and the ruling Yadav clan.
The biographical film titled ‘Neta ji: Mulayam Singh Yadav’ on the septuagenarian leader was announced at a hotel in Lucknow on August 12, 2015 in the presence of several SP leaders, including from his native Saifai village.
Proposed to be made on a budget of Rs 30 crore, the silver screen caper was then projected to be completed and commercially launched around September 2016. Ever since, there has been no news about the project nor was it released subsequently.
The launch ceremony was also graced by then powerful Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister and Mulayam’s younger brother, Shivpal Singh Yadav, who had unveiled the film’s poster as well.
The film was planned to be released in both Hindi and English languages and the concept had the blessings of the Yadav family, film’s director Vivek Dixit said.
The biopic would have etched Mulayam’s journey from Saifai village in Etawah as a poor agricultural family boy to finally rising up the ranks and becoming the chief minister of UP in 1989. Mulayam has been the CM for three terms altogether.
The film was launched under the banner of Godfather Films and Shilpa Motion Works, Mumbai and was to be produced by the trio of Sandeep Shukla, Sarvjit Sigh and Vivek Dixit.
Dixit had noted he was influenced by Mulayam’s persona and his film would reflect the hitherto unknown facets of his personality and toils.
While the film’s star cast was still not final, the names Rahul Bose and Raghuvir Yadav had been doing the rounds as the likely Bollywood actors to essay the title role.
Interestingly, paeans have in the past been dedicated to Mulayam, including in the form of a ‘Chalisa’ (40-verse rhythmic poetry) to eulogise him and his regimes.
As things stand today, the fate of the film is unknown and the project has probably been shelved for good.
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