Bollywood film "PM Narendra Modi" starring Vivek Oberoi in a lead role has completed one year of release, and its producer Sandip Ssingh says the entire course of the project -- right from the making to the release as well as the ensuing controversy -- was a leaning process.
The film captured PM Modi's journey from a tea seller to the leader of the nation.
"PM Narendra Modi" faced a lot of controversies due to the subject and release timing, which was close to the Lok Sabha election of 2019. Election Commission of India stopped the release of the film until the polls got over as the film's running before or during the polls could violate the code of conduct of elections.
Sandip told IANS: "I think I have gained experience from everything that I had to deal with during the release of ‘PM Narendra Modi'. I had to face objections from the opposition party, Election Commission, court, CBFC, followed by film critics and memes on social media -- you name it!"
He added: "We finished shooting the film within 35 days -- that too in several parts of the country. Everyone was scared of the film and that is why politicians were against it. Every opposition party thought that if the film releases they will lose the election. Modi ji did not tell me to make the film in his support. We decided to make the film because the journey of the individual is very interesting and inspiring. Today, people are making a biopic of late Jayalalitha (former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu). There is no problem in that. But the world had a problem with our film. The fact is several filmmakers tried to make a biopic on Modi ji, only we managed to make it, release it and create a buzz around it."
Directed by Omung Kumar, the film features Vivek Oberoi as PM Modi, along with Manoj Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Boman Irani, Zarina Wahab among others.