'Rang De Basanti' completes a decade, team to gather to release a documentary

On January 26, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s motivational classic Rang De Basanti (RDB) completes 10 years. To commemorate the occasion the film’s unassuming director has many plans.

Rakeysh divulges, “The entire RDB team meets on January 25 at the PVR Juhu. Ajay Bijli of PVR is flying in from Delhi to join us. PVR had just started when we released RDB. It was a big moment for film distribution and marketing and we we were proud to be part of it.”

For the momentous occasion Rakeysh and the RDB team would be releasing the screenplay of the film in a book form,as well as a documentary on the making of RDB entitled Ru-ba-ru.

Explains Rakeysh, “The screenplay for RDB was done by Kamlesh Pandey, Rensil d’Silva and me. The book puts together the screenplay. It also contains interviews with Aamir Khan, A R Rahman and has 50-70 rare pictures. As for the documentary, Ru-ba-ru captures the film’s journey. We are all very excited about ten years of RDB.”

Rakeysh says the issues that the film raised are pertinent to this day, though the winds of changes are discernible. “When the film was released in 2006, corruption had reached a flash-point. Five years after its release, I saw my daughter who was seven then and her friends connecting with the issues that the had film raised. Now my 15-year old connects with the same issues in RDB just as deeply.”

Rakeysh sees RDB as a harbinger of change. “I see changes all around me. Corruption of course remains a burning issue. But the people are no longer content with the status quo. They are angry. They want a change. There is a sense of restlessness among the young. I think the fact that people are no longer happy to accept the status quo is a very encouraging sign,” he says.