Ghazi is the first film that will glorify Indian Navy: Rana Daggubati

The Ghazi Attack sans any commercial elements -- heroine, special songs, comedy -- but still said was said to be made on a big budget.

Rana Daggubati talks about The Ghazi Attack

After over 45 years since Pakistani war submarine PNS Ghazi was sunk (or sank?), a “first-ever underwater war” film Ghazi would be something that we might have “never seen in the history of Indian cinema”. The hunk or “sea beast” Ghazi was something that triggered the Indo-Pak 1971 war and since then there were multiple stories from the both the nations with theories of the destruction of the submarine.

While, many Majors and Admirals from both the nations recorded multiple contradicting facts about the incident, The Ghazi Attack is something that is loosely based on the facts and a lot of fiction. “Sinking of Ghazi is a fact. It is lying there in the sea in, the Bay of Bengal. The rest of my story is complete fiction,” said debutant director Sankalp Reddy who has been researching and working on this film for the past one-and-a-half years.

The film sans any commercial elements — heroine, special songs, comedy — but still said was said to be made on a big budget. Why? “We had many stories about wars in our cinemas that glorified army, but nothing on navy. I took up this film because I felt the naval force also deserves equal glory and space in our history for the war they fought,” said Rana Daggubati, the lead actor in the film.

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However, the hero said that it was not a cakewalk for him. He recalled times how he sat with the director for six to seven hours daily, working on 15 different versions to reach his final plot. “Many from the film fraternity said they didn’t understand why I am taking up a submarine-based war film after Baahubali. They thought I was crazy. The reason why we did this film is that I felt it is a very important film to do. It has been 20 years I have been seeing that submarine at R K beach in Vizag but never that idea occurred to me do a film on it,” the actor added.

With more than “80 per cent” of the film made on computer graphics (CG), the director had to work with the CG team at least two or three times on about 700 shots for the film. Well, the team is elated that they had multiple National-Award winning film editor Srikar Prasad working with them.

When there was no female lead as such in the film, it is a little confusing why Taapsee is in The Ghazi Attack. “The producers were unsure about me taking up the role as girls are not allowed in the submarine and there can’t be a female officer in it. They said being a refugee is the only way to be a part of the film. She will have her own character and presence in the film. Also, Sankalp’s research convinced me to take up the role,” said Pink fame Taapsee Pannu.

India says an Indian submarine, INS Rajput, downed Ghazi, while Pakistan says an internal explosion led to the sinking of its largest submarine ever. Let’s wait till February 17 to see what Rana’s Ghazi has to say.

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