Sahara plans record turnout for Netaji premiere

Bose, the Forgotten Hero, is trying to enter the record books with producers Sahara India planning to make its premiere a success.

Shyam Benegal's movie, Bose, the Forgotten Hero, is trying to enter the record books with producers Sahara India planning to make its premiere, in the city on May 5, the largest attended one of a film ever.

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The period drama, starring Sachin Khedekar as Bose, would be vying with Brewster McLout, a production from Texas, USA, which holds the Guinness Book record of the biggest premiere ever with 23,930 people attending its opening show.

"We would try to outdo the record held by Brewster McLout for the last 35 years," Priti Sahni, production head of Sahara One Motion Pictures, told a press meet last evening.

The grand premiere, to be held at the Eastern Command ground in the heart of the city, is expected to draw around 30,000 people, she said. "This is being planned on a huge scale. There will be a massive promotional drive in colleges and Cafe Coffee Day outlets to distribute tokens for anybody and everybody interested."

To authenticate the distribution of tokens and confirm the number of people attending the premiere, leading market research body Earnst and Young would carry out their own investigation and send it to the Guinness Book of Record.

Technicians from the UK and India would put together the gala event with a giant screen showing the movie that depicts the most eventful years of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, West Bengal's most revered freedom fighter.

"This is a long film of three and half hours. But I could not have settled for any less to portray the extraordinary life, travels, trauma and achievement of one of the greatest Indians who remained unsung even in his own country," Benegal told reporters.