GUWAHATI: Eminent filmmaker Jahnu Barua will direct a Hindi film on legendary Ahom general Lachit Borphukan in a bid to project the exploits of Assam’s war hero in the national and global limelight.
The film to be produced by the Guwahati-based Dream House Productionz, besides top production houses of the country, is expected to hit the screens by the end of 2022.
“For well over 20-years, I have been living with this dream of doing a film on, my favourite war-hero Lachit. There were a number of government initiatives to this effect, including proposal from two former Governors, but because of budgetary constraint the production of such a mega project could not be taken up,” Barua, a 12-time national film award winning filmmaker, said.
The film will have a leading actor of the country playing the role of the Ahom general who defeated the Mughal army in the Battle of Saraighat in 1671.
“It will be after more than seven decades of independent India that Assam’s war hero and pride of India will get his overdue limelight on the national and international stage,” he said.
Barua now wants to depict the story of Borphukan’s life and times across India through a Hindi film because he was a national hero.
In Assam, the legendary warrior is eulogised and revered for his leadership and heroism.
The work on the film has already begun and the production on the film is likely to start by October 2021.
Barua also said that research on the project has already begun, under the guidance of Prof JN Phukan, a scholar and former head of the Department of History, Gauhati University, to depict with accuracy the events leading to the Battle of Saraighat, which captured the Ahom General to the status of a legend.
The 68-year-old filmmaker, who has been conferred Padma Shri (2003) and Padma Bhushan (2015), has written and directed a number of Assamese and Hindi films.
Some of his popular films include Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai (1987), Firingoti (1992), Xagoroloi Bohu Door (1995), Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara (2005), Konikar Ramdhenu (2003), Baandhon (2012), and Ajeyo (2014) among other movies.