Modiji won’t see our film on his life: ‘Mann Bairagi’ co-producer

By Subhash K. Jha

Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) On his 69th birthday on Tuesday, the news of a film on the life of Prime Minister Narendra Modi took social media and the media by storm, but the film's co-producer Mahavir Jain has an interesting revelation. Modi ji will not watch the film, he asserts.

"Modi ji doesn't like to read or watch content about himself. He is happy that we made the film, but he won't watch it," Jain said, about "Mann Bairagi" the new special feature that traces a hitherto unknown facet of Prime Minister Modi's life.

The film is directed by Sanjay Tripathy, who earlier made "Club 60" -- one of the last films featuring late Farooq Sheikh.

"'Mann Bairagi' is an an idea that Sanjay Tripathy has been living with for many years. He is an award-winning filmmaker who has made documentaries for the BBC and the Discovery channel. 'Mann Bairagi' is about a moment of revelation in PM Modi's life that changed the direction of his life."

Jain says the film is born out of the sheer faith in PM Modi's abilities. "He is a man dedicated to building our nation. We wanted to put forward that incident in his life when he was 17-18 which changed his entire perspective of existence."

The co-producer says there are no commercial motives behind producing Mann Bairagi. "When Sanjay Tripathy came to Sanjay Bhansali Productions and me, all we thought of was the importance of what Sanjay Tripathy wanted to say. We believe Modiji inspires millions of young people across the world. But what inspired him? When was that moment when he chose to dedicate his life to the service of the nation?"

Earlier today, actor Akshay Kumar shared the first poster of the film on Twitter.