In what could be in retaliation to last week’s anti-Pakistan film Uri, the Pakistan censor board has given the go-ahead to The Accidental Prime Minister which was released at the same time, though it has little relevance to Pakistan.
After showing decent box office numbers in India, the Dr Manmohan Singh biopic will open in Pakistan on Friday. The dubbed Tamil and Telugu versions will also open in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Sunil Bohra, the film’s co-producer, who is over the moon at the numbers, gushes, “We never expected this kind of support for our film. Director Vijay Gutte, leading men Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna plus the entire team had poured their heart and soul in putting a vivid and honest portrait of Dr Manmohan Singh on celluloid. We‘re glad to have succeeded beyond anything we imagined.”
Anupam Kher, who is shooting for an American serial in the US, is grateful for the acceptance to his interpretation of Manmohan Singh’s personality.
“I was ridiculed by knowledgeable critics for my performance. My political loyalties were questioned. But finally the public gave the acceptance we had hoped for,” he says.
Anupam saw Manmohan Singh as his career’s biggest challenge and avers, “Portraying Dr Singh was the most difficult role of my life. I had to make sure that our much-misunderstood erstwhile prime minister did not get a raw deal again in our film. That’s what he got during his tenure as Prime Minister. We didn’t want him to suffer more of the same indignity in our film. I am proud to have played Dr Singh with such dignity.”
