Nitesh Tiwari's Bawaal, starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor, released its trailer recently and it was hinted that some parts of the film are set in an imaginary sequence during World War 2. The film has Varun playing a history teacher who takes Janhvi's character on a trip to Europe to visit World War 2 sites. The visuals of the Holocaust drew some negative reactions on the internet and in a recent interview, Tiwari has explained why he chose World War 2 in his film. When asked why he did not choose any of the wars that India has been a part of, Nitesh told Galatta Plus that he wanted to present "something fresh" to his audience. He said that he thought about presenting an Indian war and it would have been "very easy to incorporate" but they chose otherwise. "Rather than him teaching World War 2 in the school, he could have been teaching any of our historical stuff. My biggest thing was there is something fresh which I always crave to bring to my audience, both story wise as well as visually," he said. Nitesh added that many Indian filmmakers in the past have made films on wars that India has been a part of and he felt that he could not bring anything new on screen to the subject. "There has been such lovely stuff which has already been done and in plenty of numbers by some of our very renowned filmmakers in our country on the historical wars which our country has been a part of. I personally felt that I would not be able to being anything new on screen if I were to do that," he said. Nitesh insisted that the depiction of World War 2 in his film is "something fresh for the audience." "We have done Indo-Pak wars and Indo-China war and Kargil and everything, and some very good stuff has been done, I just felt that maybe you know, if I were to bring something fresh for the audience, this was a way to go," he shared. Nitesh added that in one of the earlier drafts of the script, there was a reference to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre which he removed after Sardar Udham's release as it "no longer remained fresh." "In one of the earlier drafts, there was a reference of Jallianwala Bagh which I removed after Sardar Udham came. It no longer remained fresh," he said. Bawaal, which appears to be a love story, is set to release on Amazon Prime Video on July 21.
