Nikkhil Advani says Indian revolutionaries' armed struggle can't be called violent: 'It was shoot or be shot'| Interview

Nikkhil Advani is the director and creator of the new Prime Video period drama, The Revolutionaries, about India's armed rebellion against the British Raj.

The story of the Indian freedom struggle has been told on celluloid countless times, but barring the films on Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, or Master Surya Sen, they have largely focussed on the non-violent push for Indian independence. Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani himself has focused on that part with shows like Freedom at Midnight. But with The Revolutionaries, he attempted something different, telling the story of the armed struggle for India’s independence, and that too, through the eyes of revolutionaries that most Indians today would not be aware of.

Nikkhil Advani talks about his new show, The Revolutionaries.

Ahead of the show’s release, the filmmaker sat down for a chat with Hindustan Times about his vision for the show and how he wanted to make history entertaining.

‘Idea was to make history fun’

Period dramas or historicals are not new for Nikkhil, having created Rocket Boys and Freedom at Midnight earlier. But The Revolutionaries is more action than drama. Talking about the approach to this show, he says, “The idea was to make history a little more fun and relatable. Whenever we talk about the other historical figures we have learnt about in school, we always equate them to some lesson we have learnt.”

Nikkhil says that by taking the stories of freedom fighters who are not household names across India, the series retains some freshness. “The great thing about The Revolutionaries is that I had not heard of Rash Behari Bose, Bagha Jatin, Sachindranath Sanyal, or Pratibha Lahiri. In fact, when the first teaser dropped, most people thought he (Bhuvan Bam) was (playing) Subhash Chandra Bose,” he explains.

‘Non-violence came much later’

There is a widely held notion that India won its freedom through non-violent means alone. And while it is true that Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in the British Raj’s end, the contribution of revolutionaries cannot be denied. The show sheds light on the exploits of some famed freedom fighters in the pre-Gandhian era, and their effort to mount an armed revolt against the British before World War I. Talking about India’s armed rebellion, Nikkhil says, “The whole concept of non-violence came much later, around 1920. For them (the revolutionaries), the British were the enemy. These people had the spirit, the passion, a little bit of madness.”

Nikkhil maintains that what they did cannot be termed ‘violence’ in the purest sense. “These guys had no other choice. They had a huge enemy. For 200 years, they were enslaved. So, woh log goli maar rahe hain, hum log goli maarenge (they are shooting at us, we will shoot at them) was how they thought,” he says.

The Revolutionaries, directed by Nikkhil Advani, is based on the non-fiction book Revolutionaries: The Other Story Of How India Won Its Freedom by Sanjeev Sanyal. The show stars Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf, Pratibha Ranta, and Gurfateh Pirzada in the lead roles. It will premiere on Prime Video on September 11.