More often than not, Bollywood directors make their projects seem like the proverbial flash in the pan. Ask them about the details of their film’s plot and the word ‘different’ is loosely used. They’re not in the habit of qualifying their adjectives with much rationale.
But director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra isn’t cut from that cloth. When he speaks of his biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag [Run Milkha Run], based on the life of legendary Indian athlete Milkha Singh, he doesn’t toss around the d-word. Instead, he will fill you in with lesser-known details about his sporting subject, played by actor Farhan Akhtar.
The filmmaker behind the BAFTA-nominated Rang De Basanti spent 18 months studying the runner’s life and can regale you with anecdotes ranging from how he likes to drink his tea or even how he sprinted to school barefoot under scalding sun. This is no cinematic quickie and Mehra is aware of it.
“I wish I had 8 years to make this film, but it took me only 4.5 years. Bhaag Milka Bhaag is not an attempt at Bollywood but at world cinema,” said Mehra in an interview with tabloid!.
Translation? There’s less razzle-dazzle.
Like any average person born to post-colonial India, Mehra knew Singh as the glorious sprinter who made his country proud. But his folklore was then limited to what he gleaned from history textbooks.
“But I got to know him as I spent thousands of hours with him. I always had a dictaphone, a pen and paper. While he was speaking, I understood him. I knew when he would buckle up or withdraw. Or, how he would suddenly break out into a childlike laughter when he spoke about his first flight journey and how he thought the flight had caught fire,” said Mehra. He dubs his venture about this phenemenonal sporting icon as a tale of triumph of human spirit.
“Milkha Singh is not a person who’s running away from life. He runs along and that’s so inspiring.”
Here’s an excerpt from the interview…
Q: What should we expect from Bhaag Milka Bhaag?
A: It’s a story inspired by our first Indian icon after independence. He belonged to the sporting world and what he achieved in the individual sports has never been replicated. We have all grown up with the folklore of Milkha Singh. But that’s not the reason why I made this film. It’s not a film about his defeat or athletics. It’s the triumph of human spirit. I don’t know how many of us know that he had a lost childhood. The world will get to know him better with this film.
To put things in perspective, I am showing you a time when the country at large was celebrating Independence from the British, but millions were suffering after the India-Pakistan partition.
There were huge casualties on both sides. And this 12-year-old boy witnessed the massacre of his family. His mother, father, three sisters, four brothers and cousins were wiped out. There was a mass funeral in his village. Somehow he survived and got on top of a refugee train. He found his way to Delhi. So now there was a boy who had nobody in this world, no roof over his head or no shoes on his feet. So my film will explore what it takes for someone like him to be a world leader against all odds?
Q: Are you focusing on the angst or have you chosen a particular phase in Milkha Singh’s life?
A: It’s not a biopic in the traditional sense. I won’t tell you where he was born and the races he participated in. The whole film is set between 1960 and 1974. We don’t go further than his first 29 years. Remember, I am re-creating a period when everything was in chaos. We never had heroes other than Gandhi or Nehru. So he was the first person who went out and conquered the world.
Here’s a man who slapped himself black and blue after he lost his 1956 Melbourne game. He was so angry. But he wasn’t angry about not winning the medal, he was angry about missing the opportunity to raise the Indian flag. He’s also a boy who picked a knife at the age of 12 when he joined a gang of thugs who used to steal coal from steal engines. He didn’t do it for greed but to survive.
Q: There’s a controversial line about Milkha not wishing to participate in a race in Pakistan. How have you dealt with it?
A: All his demons [in his personal life] were in Pakistan, how can you forget that? Even if you get mugged in a dark alley, you would never want to go out in dark streets again. He felt there was blood in the air. But when the then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said: “Son, we don’t want more Milkhas to happen in either side. You are a soldier and your job is to fight this battle within. So do it.”
He then went to Pakistan and it was a cathartic moment for him. He ran as fast as he could and beat the fastest runner there in 100 meters. The president of Pakistan then gave him the title ‘The Flying Sikh’. So we are bringing that episode to life. But remember that this is not a plot-driven film, we are dealing with human emotions. For me the sporting angle was the action in the film not the drama. The drama is his life. And he trusted me with the story of his life for Rs1 (6 fils) and that was a guiding light.The purpose of his life was so great.
Q: Was actor Farhan Akhtar your only choice for playing Milkha?
To be honest, initially I was looking for a talent not necessarily from India. I even looked in the West for a person of Indian origin. But casting is all about instincts. There’s no science to it. Something in Farhan’s eyes were similar to Milkha’s eyes. Before this film happened, Farhan and I bumped into each other at parties. So we met for a half hour narration. I spoke to him the way I am speaking to you. In the 20th minute, he decided he wanted to do the film. When I bounced my idea to him, I got the same energy.
Q: Did the dynamics change after hiring a well-known face?
Not at all. If I signed on an actor such as Hrithik Roshan or an Aamir Khan, there’s an image involved. But Farhan has done only three or four films and he was known as the urbane Rock On! boy. So I had to change that. He was going to play somebody who doesn’t know English, knows only Urdu and loves to run barefoot. His skin is tanned, lips are chapped. With Farhan I felt what looks good is his soul and personality.
Farhan Akhtar on playing Milkha Singh
He’s Bollywood’s go-to guy for urbane, slick roles, but Farhan Akhtar cannot lean back on his usual strengths. In biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag [Run Milkha Run], Akhtar plays the legendary Indian sprinter Milkha Singh who was born at the time of Indo-Pak partition troubles. Like every child born to British India, their childhood was marred by displacement.
“Everybody concentrates on my physical transformation but there’s a certain unpolished quality to him,” said Akhtar in an interview with tabloid!. On the outside, Akhtar is buffed, wears a turban and resembles the Flying Sikh, a name that Singh earned due to his sprinting prowess. But it wasn’t the physical transformation that gave Akhtar his adrenaline rush.
“There’s more to my role. Nobody has ever told him how to sit, hold a knife or fork. They express themselves differently, use their hands in a way. I had to inhabit a different world,” said Akhtar. Even courtship was played out differently.
“Even when it came to love, in the era Milkhaji lived – nobody could hold hands. Nowadays we can show holding hands or kissing, but in those days it was impossible to do that. There were so many things that needed to be ingrained in my psyche.” Interestingly, much of the legwork was done by director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and script writer Prasoon Joshi. They spent 18 months with Singh, who now lives in Punjab.
“I did not spend that much time with Milkhaji. But when I met him I spoke to him about how he felt before he prepped for a race or when he lost the Olympics. It was nice to have access to such a legend,” said Akhtar, who made his acting debut with college re-union drama Rock On!!!. He played the popular, cool dude who was a part of a college band with pretty girlfriends on his side. He proved his versatility with friendship tale Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Luck By Chance in which he played a Bollywood hopeful. But playing a living legend comes with responsibility.
“I am playing somebody who’s iconic. The world is watching you. But that responsibility gave me strength and did not become a burden. I didn’t feel trapped by expectation. I just felt inspired,” said Akhtar. The director Mehra chose Akhtar when he saw the same intensity in his eyes as Singh.
“As actors, we rarely get a chance to do such roles. So all I did is put my head down and get down to work. I put in hours to transform myself because in my head I wanted to be an athlete not just pretend to be one,” said Akhtar who made a drastic change in his lifestyle to prepare for the role. No late night parties and multiple hours spent in the gym became his life. But the austere living paid off. At a recent private screening of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, the athlete who sold his life story for Rs1, gave them his nod.
“He enjoyed the film. But what got me thinking was the memories that would have surfaced when he was watching his life play out on the big screen. At many occasions, he had tears in his eyes and at times I heard him laugh out loud. That made me feel vindicated and happy.”
Milkha Singh: The legend
Milkha Singh was born in Lyallpur (now in Pakistan) in 1935. At 12, during the partition of India and Pakistan, he witnessed the sight of his parents and family being butchered in front of his eyes. But he didn’t let his traumatic childhood stop him from scaling to great heights. Dubbed as the Flying Sikh, he was the only Indian male athlete to win an individual athletics Gold in Commonwealth Games. He represented India in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour for his achievements in sports.
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag releases in the UAE on July 11.
