Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra wrote, produced, as well as directed Rang De Basanti, a 2006 Bollywood Hindi-language drama movie co-written by Rensil D’Silva.
The plot follows a British film student who travels to India to record the storey of five Indian revolutionary soldiers. She befriends as well as casts five young guys inside the movie, inspiring them to fight against their own government’s corruption.
Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, and British actress Alice Patten are among the ensemble cast members. The majority of the movie was shot in New Delhi. On January 26, 2006, India’s Republic Day, this movie was released worldwide. The movie shattered all opening weekend box office records in India, and became the country’s best-grossing movie and having the biggest opening-day revenues for a Bollywood movie.
It got positive reviews and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 BAFTA Awards, receiving the National Film Award for Best Popular Movie. Rang De Basanti was India’s original partner for the Golden Globe as well as Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Cinema category, yet it did not receive a nomination for either award. Two tracks from A. R. Rahman’s soundtrack, that received favourable reviews, were nominated for Academy Award nominations. Rang De Basanti received the Filmfare Award for Best Film in India.
Due to sequences depicting the usage of MiG-21 fighter aircraft, the Movie Certification Board of India sought the opinions of the Indian Defence Ministry before the release of Rang De Basanti. However, after examining the video, the ministry found no issues and gave UTV permission to release it. Owing to an outlawed Indian horse race, there were some concerns with both the Animal Welfare Board of India.
A. R. Rahman composed the music for Rang De Basanti, which has been published by Sony BMG, while Prasoon Joshi and Blaaze, an Indian rapper, wrote the lyrics. Rahman was set to compose the movie’s soundtrack from the moment it was announced in April 2005. He revealed in a press conference alongside pop artist Nelly Furtado that she had been supposed to have been on the soundtrack at one point, but also that owing to a change in producers as well as other things, it didn’t happen.
Alongside his expertise in Hindi and Urdu, Aamir Khan collaborated on the music with Rahman and Joshi. Mehra and Rahman also picked him to sing from one of the songs.
One of the lyricists, Joshi, was pleased by the director, Rakeysh Mehra, who was willing to adapt to his writing style and innovation. Joshi described the film’s music as “a beautiful experience getting to know the attitude of today’s young and also to pen down their sentiments,” saying it was “a wonderful experience getting to know the thinking of today’s youth and to jot down their feelings.”
Joshi added that one of his songs, “Luka Chuppi,” in which legendary Lata Mangeshkar sings alongside Rahman, was written while he and Rahman were debating a storey about a woman losing her kid. Joshi composed the lyrics about a mother and boy playing hide-and-seek, with both the tragic fact that the son will stay concealed for the rest of his life.
He admitted to crying at Mangeshkar’s performance of the song. The album received a Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, as well as two of the songs, Khalbali and Luka Chuppi, were nominated for an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.
Nilanjana Bhattacharjya, a music professor at Colorado College, pointed out that Rahman incorporated traditional Punjabi cultural themes into his music for this soundtrack while reviewing conventional Bollywood soundtracks.
To show the cosmopolitan lifestyle of the teenagers inside the movie, regionally defined elements including a woman’s prayer at the Sikh Gurdwara (Golden Temple) as well as the bhangra harvest dance are interwoven with more current, global genres such as hard rock as well as hip hop.
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