Srijit adamant on making film on Bose despite criticism

Kolkata, Feb 22 (IANS) After being criticized by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grand nephew Chandra Kumar Bose over his upcoming film "Gumnami", filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee said he will make the movie even if he is sent to jail.

A man who led the life of a reclusive Hindu saint in Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh in the 1970s/80s came to be known as "Gumnami Baba". Those who met him claimed he was none other than Netaji Bose, whose reported death in a plane crash in 1945 has been doubted by many.

Bose's family members termed that it was a "criminal offence" to term 'Gumnami Baba' as Netaji in disguise without any documentary or photographic evidence.

But an unfazed Mukherjee wrote on Twitter: "To answer your threat to gag me, (Chandra Kumar) Bose, I will stay in my country and make this film. If you drag me to court, I will borrow production design ideas from the court setting and make this film. If you put me in jail, I will write a few more drafts of the script, fine-tune it and make this film."

On Thursday, Bose, who is with the BJP, criticized director Mukherjee, who is making the film titled "Gumnami" for allegedly claiming in an interview that his upcoming movie will portray Bose as the "penniless recluse".

Bose said: "I want to know who are the people supporting this distortion and who are funding Mission Netaji to spread such falsehood to taint and derogate Netaji's image? Who are these traitors? We appeal to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to start an inquiry by the IB."

The National Award-winning filmmaker wrote on his Twitter handle that Chandra Kumar Bose had "threatened to make me leave India" if he showed that "Gumnami Baba could have been Netaji".

He added that there needed to be more "questions, discussions regarding Netaji's final days".

Mukherjee added that a large section of the Bose family believes in a number of theories, including the one on Gumnami Baba.