To justify his splitting of the Shiv Sena and pulling down the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government, chief minister Eknath Shinde took recourse to the ‘explanation’ that he did this for the sake of Hindutva: the party formed by Bal Thackeray had forgotten Hindutva, he said, and was being dragged willy-nilly behind its alliance partners, the Congress and NCP. This contention is now likely to be reiterated in Dharmaveer 2, the sequel to the Marathi biopic on Shinde’s mentor, the late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe. The film was launched by the CM in Thane on Tuesday.
Thane, India - November,27, 2023:he film Dharamveer-2 ( part 2 ) on the life of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's mentor late Anand Dighe was inaugurated ( Muhurth/ launching ) by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Thane , in Mumbai, India, on, Monday, November ,27, 2023. ( Praful Gangurde / HT Photo )
Made under the CM’s patronage, the first part became a talking point and led to speculation even before Shinde’s rebellion against Thackeray. The sequel is expected to show how Shinde chose Dighe’s Hindutva over Uddhav’s secularism and thus rebelled against him. The shooting will begin on December 9 and the movie will be released in April before the Lok Sabha elections.
Dharmaveer 2 will showcase Dighe’s life, his promotion of Hindutva, his role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid and his agitation for the Malang Gad shrine in Kalyan, on which both Hindus and Muslims staked a claim. “Many exploits of Dighe saheb, including these two, could not be accommodated in the first movie,” said producer Mangesh Desai. “The sequel will highlight these.”
As far as Shinde is concerned, the first movie showed his life till he became a minister in the MVA government; the sequel will broadcast his role as the state’s chief minister. The message, coming on the eve of the elections, is far from subtle: that Shinde has been taking Dighe’s legacy of “serving the people” and Hindutva forward.
“We will show how some people sacrificed Balasaheb Thackeray’s Hindutva to gain power by forging an alliance with the Congress-NCP,” said Shinde at the launch of the movie. He also cited how Dighe gave the first silver brick to senior BJP leader L K Advani for the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.
The story, screenplay and dialogue of Dharmaveer 2 are by Praveen Tarde, who directed the first version and will direct the sequel too. “This movie is based completely on Hindutva, the real definition and how Balasaheb and Dighe Saheb practised Hindutva,” said Tarde. “We are planning to release the movie in April 2024.”
Speaking to journalists after the muhurat, Shinde said that Dharmaveer had received a tremendous response at the box-office. The CM had helped along this tremendous response by organising free shows at a theatre in Thane for many weeks not just for Shiv Sena workers but the general public. “He is planning to have free shows of the sequel as well,” said a close aide of Shinde.
The CM told the media, “We could not show much on Dighe saheb in the first movie. Let’s see how much we can show in the second part.” But the movie will of course portray the chief minister who is “serving the common man”. “In the first part, I was the urban development minister and now I am CM. In the last one year and three months, we have taken decisions that will benefit the common people,” insisted Shinde.
The tagline, in a delicious twist of irony, was: ‘Traitors will not be spared’. Aimed at Uddhav Thackeray, the traitor tag got pinned onto Shinde and his MLAs after the split.
Known Marathi actor Prasad Oak will play the role of Dighe in the second part as well. Kshitish Date will play the role of the chief minister in the sequel.
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