All language subtitles for Making (1)

(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Mangal Pandey is the story of India's first revolutionary freedom fighter.

The story of the soldier who laid the foundation of the struggle for freedom.

The story is a beginning.

Mangal!

A beginning from which India became free.

I've known him, sir, as a brave soldier.

And a loyal friend.

29th of March, he attacked and injured you.

I cannot deny, but I would like you to look ahead.

Answer in yes or no.

Yes.

Yes or no, Captain.

Just knowing what happened is not enough.

You have to understand why it happened.

Yes or no.

Yes.

Mangal Pandey.

The royal moment of this great film happened in the hands of royalty.

And that too in the hands of British royalty.

A new chapter in the history of Hindi cinema.

And perhaps the biggest film ever made.

Mangal Pandey.

About 15 years ago, Ketan Mehta thought of making this film.

..in the name of freedom.

For Ketan, Mangal Pandey was not just a revolutionary..

..who got lost in the pages of history.

In fact, he was the first pillar of the struggle for freedom..

..who sowed the first seed of rebellion against the British rule.

Long live India!

A seed that gave birth to a free India.

My father wrote a very old manuscript..

..about the martyrs of the struggle for freedom.

The first chapter was about Mangal Pandey.

The first martyr of India's struggle for freedom.

A film should be made on this.

Because Mangal Pandey became a symbol for me.

A symbol of the spirit of freedom.

This film had to be shot at ten locations in six months.

It was going to prove to be a very difficult task..

..for any director and producer.

It was so difficult to make Mangal Pandey for Ketan.

This kind of a huge project is happening.

There is no time for apprehensions.

Actually, you get into it and it's like war and you fight it.

One of the biggest scenes of this film is the Patrakali fair.

In which more than 1000 extras were needed.

And with the presence of 1000 extras..

..that scene became one in thousands.

Everything is available here.

Everything is sold here.

Everything is available here.

Everything is sold here.

Ask for whatever you want.

Get whatever you want.

These extras were brought from the same village..

..where Mangal Pandey was being filmed.

This has given the film an authentic look.

These may not be professionals..

..but their zeal is no less than a superstar.

His name is Avita Bachchan and he is Dharmendra.

These people have brought him here.

Come, sir.

Come for the darshan.

Come, sir.

Give me a shot, sir.

They have requested a lot.

This has been the toughest part of the shoot so far.

And I think probably even after this..

..we won't get to face such tough..

..shooting conditions.

Everyone is rich.

Everyone is handsome.

Everyone is a singer.

Everyone is from the same family.

Everyone is a friend.

Everyone is in love.

Yesterday it was very interesting that the elephant had to dance.

And the actors who were sitting on the elephant..

..dance after getting down.

There were about 1000 people in the scene.

And everyone had to dance.

I was also dancing in the crowd in front of them.

The march from the base of Bairakhpur to Behrampur..

..is one of the tough scenes of this film.

After all, it is not easy to get 400 newly trained soldiers..

..to move forward.

Rehearsals were no less than army training.

The crew was careful.

Because there was no time to rest.

Today we have got about 500 extras.

About 30 cast.

We are close to 500 crew.

22 horses.

2 elephants.

6 camels.

20 bulls.

4 mules.

While making such films, everyone has to put up with the tantrums.

Whether that star is a human or an animal.

Sometimes even animals become tantrums on seeing humans.

Allah is the greatest.

Mangal Pandey is the story of India's first revolution.

Which started the freedom struggle.

This film has been shot in many states of India.

A good opportunity to see India.

There were countless locations.

But mostly it was shot in North India.

In 2-3 places in Maharashtra.

The main set was shot in Bombay in the film city.

This film was first shot from Patodi to Pune.

Then Satara, Vai, Bhor, Panchgani, Mumbai, Kolhapur.

This was shot in Tajikistan.

And finally Ketan said, let's go to Delhi.

We started with a place called Patodi near Delhi.

We went to Pune where all the scenes of the contournment were shot.

And then Satara and Vai were shot near Mahabaleshwar.

Mangal Pandey was born in Balia village of Uttar Pradesh.

But he spent a long time in Bengal.

But all these scenes were shot in Maharashtra.

This is called cinematic license.

When we started location hunting for this film..

..we came to know that there is a contournment near Kolkata.

This story of that place has changed a lot.

It has changed so much that shooting is not possible there.

If you go to Barakpur, there is still that old barricade.

From where Mangal Pandey was hanged.

There is a lot of construction around it.

It has been demolished.

That's why we couldn't shoot there.

Our location managers did a lot of research on the trees.

And finally we found this tree in Satara in a temple complex.

We thought it was very dramatic and shot it there.

It is 20 stories higher than the building.

Most of this film was shot in the interiors of Maharashtra.

But some parts were shot near the Afghan border..

..in a small village of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan was a very heavy sequence of the Afghan war.

Fire!

War in Afghanistan between Indian soldiers of British army..

..and Afghan soldiers.

Because we couldn't shoot in Afghanistan at that time.

That's why we found that location in Tajikistan.

Which is on the other side of Afghanistan, in the mountains.

Fire!

Fire!

Let's go!

Let's go!

It is very difficult to shoot such a big film in outdoor locations.

Like in Pune, 200 British soldiers were needed for Rangoon regiment.

But there were only 50 soldiers.

200 were needed and only 50 were found.

It is very unfair.

We were trying to collect some odd 200 number of British extras.

We went to the flea market.

We set up a stall over there.

We hired kids to go and hand out pamphlets.

We only managed to get about 25-30 people.

Today they wanted about 40 people.

Including the people who came yesterday.

But not everyone came back.

Apart from collecting extras, ADs had more difficult tasks.

Like converting the common people of the village into actors.

Although every person has an actor inside him.

But he often gets scared when he comes out in front of the camera.

Action!

This is the story of the film Mangal Pandey.

The beginning of the freedom struggle.

The first rebellion against British rule.

This story set in the 19th century is of a forgotten era.

It was very difficult to bring this era on the big screen.

But the makers have recreated almost all the elements.

As far as Mangal Pandey's character is concerned..

..we know very little about his personal life.

The historical record is of one day.

The day he started the rebellion against British rule.

We had to create all his personal life and character.

Hit him!

Hit him!

The biggest challenge in Mangal Pandey was..

..to work on the look of the characters.

Because there is very little information about Mangal Pandey..

..in the books of history.

And that's why these looks were created..

..only after inquiring and researching with knowledgeable people.

When I began to grow my moustache..

..it began by me starting to twirl it outwards.

So that it gets that shape.

But now it's become a habit.

It helps me think, I start playing with my moustache.

It's unconscious.

I think I'll miss it once I shave it off.

Apart from the look of the characters..

..it was also necessary to research the ancient objects of that era.

It's a period film.

It was very important to have proper currency here.

That's why we have got these authentic coins from our institute.

As you can see, it's a 1835 year old coin.

A soldier's story involves a lot of fighting and shooting.

An expert's opinion is very important for such scenes.

And that expert was retired Lt.

K.

C.

Ramachandra..

..who trained these actors.

Basically my role here in this shoot was..

..just to train weapon drill, saluting part..

..ceremonial army deployment.

To portray that era it was necessary..

..that the costumes of the characters be similar to that era.

And that's why the costume designer..

.

.did a lot of research about the attire of that era.

After all, every era has its own fashion trend.

The research has been from books from libraries..

..and the uniforms have been researched..

..from the army museum at Sandhurst.

I think each and every little thing has been researched.

To portray the film as it was in those days, art director Nitin Desai

worked very hard.

Nitin is fully self sufficient, just tell him that you don't have to do

anything.

Mangal Pandey is not Nitin Desai's first periodic film.

Before this, he has worked on a film which is almost of the same

era, and that film is Lagaan.

Nitin Desai did not pay double taxes for this film, but did double the

hard work.

Previously I had done Lagaan and all those periods.

Like 1857 was a limited period, so we got correct references for the structures.

Before Mangal's village set was made, a miniature model of that was also made.

Like planned cities, this was a very planned village.

Can we do a nice Rangoli?

I got one expert from Rangoli and I gave him different kind of shapes.

So we created 65 feet, I think biggest Rangoli ever.

Nitin Desai's Rangoli One

of the best sets is a road from Kolkata in 1850.

This set was set in Mumbai, a film city.

This is Nitin's best work till date.

And we are finished with the set.

But I am taking time to give proper edging, proper detailing.

Bracket details, pillar details, as well as we are trying different kind of color

shades.

Mangal Pandey Film based in 19th century, Mangal Pandey.

This is the story of a common soldier of British East India Company.

Soldier's job is difficult, Mangal.

Our job is to move, not to kill.

It is easy to kill an unknown enemy.

But to kill our own people.

The soldier who set the revolution on fire.

Film's lead cast is Aamir Khan, Toby Stevens, Rani Mukherjee and Amisha Patel.

Mangal Pandey Aamir Khan is playing the title role in Mangal Pandey.

He gave Mangal Pandey four years of his life.

For Indians, Mangal Pandey was a symbol of freedom.

He was a symbol of freedom for every Indian.

And still is.

He inspired future generations to fight for freedom.

Come on.

Come out.

Horses are here.

Everyone is here.

Everyone gather here.

Fast.

Everyone knows Aamir's dedication to his film.

So it is not surprising that he is fully involved in this film.

What I learnt from Aamir is that he is only happy with it when

he is happy with it.

It was a very protective thing about his performance.

He wanted it the way that he wanted it.

And I felt that was great.

Ketan, did you like that?

Let's do one more then.

I'll come here and I'll do this.

Aamir Khan is involved in every aspect.

But not to be mistaken that he interferes.

Ketan Mehta is the director of the film.

He was the complete captain.

But Aamir Khan's eyes were everywhere.

Did everyone understand what the shot is?

Okay.

Be it short discussions or explaining the scene to the actor.

Or controlling the crowd.

Everyone move 50 feet back.

Because the light is on you.

Aamir was involved in every aspect of the film.

Aamir believes that he becomes an assistant director along with an actor.

It's true that Aamir started his career as an assistant director.

I move forward.

I get attention.

And I move forward.

The assistant director is still alive somewhere with him.

But everyone's reaction should be like...

How did he move forward?

Well, it's much easier for me to pass instructions on to the crowd.

Because they pay attention to what I'm saying.

They listen to me.

And they also want to do what I'm telling them to do.

So they get really excited about the instructions that I give them.

So it just makes the work go faster.

I mean, it's basically the job of an assistant director.

The main source of entertainment for the extras was Aamir's live performance.

This is called extra entertainment.

Listen.

Attention.

Attention.

Die Another Day fame.

Toby Stephens is playing the role of a British officer William Gordon in this

film.

In the footnotes of history, there was a character named William Gordon.

When we were doing research, he had come.

He was such an Englishman.

Who in the end, along with the rebellious soldiers, went against the Company Raj.

I've known him, sir, as a brave soldier and a loyal friend.

One of the finest seaports to serve under my command.

My story in that is that I see the struggle that is about to

happen.

And I'm trying desperately to warn my superiors.

But they won't listen to me.

I cannot deny what happened, sir.

But I would like you to look at the circumstances that led to his

behavior.

Answer in yes or no.

I see through Mangal's eyes the discontent that is there.

And I try and do something about it.

But I fail.

Toby has worked in many Hollywood films.

But he is debuting in Bollywood with Mangal Pandey.

Toby or not to be.

Let's see.

The Company respects every duty.

And will never betray you.

In the film, there is William Gordon's love, Jwala.

In the film, Jwala's character is played by Ameesha Patel.

And this is her first international project.

I loved working with Toby.

It didn't feel like I was working with a foreign hero.

Hindi was a problem for him.

It was an alien language.

But he had worked so hard on his dialogues.

He had learned them so well.

It was lovely working with her.

Because she has this great vulnerability about her.

Which made her perfect casting for Jwala.

Because she is supposed to be this vulnerable, lost character.

That I take in and fall in love with.

This girl is in a very distressed situation at the start of the film.

And Toby Stevens and Aamir Khan save her from this situation.

And how the plot unfolds after that.

And the love story actually begins.

Sir, don't interfere.

This is our tradition.

But it is against the law.

It is a crime to burn anyone alive.

Don't interfere, sir.

It is our tradition.

It is my tradition too.

No one's blood should be spilled.