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The Waking of a Nation explores the conspiracies that led to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, one of the darkest chapters in India’s history. In this interview with SCREEN, director Ram Madhvani, and writers Shatrujeet Nath and Shantanu Srivastava share insights into the challenges and creative process behind the SonyLIV series. Madhvani also expressed his desire to make a “full-blown masala commercial film” next.
When asked if The Waking Of A Nation was always meant to be a web series, Madhvani said, “If we set out to make a movie, we would have carved it in that way. It was always a series in our minds. Moviemaking has its own dynamics.”
The filmmaker added that it is not the box office pressure that made him take the OTT route. In fact, he will make a “masala entertainer” next. “The next thing I want to make is a full-blown masala commercial film, with lip-sync songs and everything. We are losing the idea of doing movies with songs, that’s what we want to do next.”
Ram Madhvani also opened up about the research and preparation that went into The Waking Of A Nation. He said, “We started writing it five years ago. It took us three years to write it and two to make it. We researched a lot but we have also used a lot of what was already in the public domain. It was my initial idea, after which I spoke to Shatrujeet and Shantanu.”
Sharing details about their Jallianwala Bagh visit before starting the shoot, Madhvani said, “We have used the bullet marks in the show which are still on those walls. Every time you see it, you get a shiver down your spine. It’s sacred ground. Yeh apni desh ki mitti hai. There is a lot of bloodshed in that mitti because of the Britishers.”
Shatrujeet Nath and Shantanu Srivastava, the writers of The Waking of a Nation, further discussed the challenges they faced while writing the script. Shatrujeet said, “There were a lot of challenges, especially since there was so much to say and show. There were so many interesting anecdotes. We wanted to tell the story as compact and quick as possible. It was difficult to decide what to leave out and what to keep. The historical facts are all there. It was challenging to humanise it. We had to dramatise and fictionalise it as well. We had to try and understand those people and what they went through.”
Shantanu added, “The idea was to create a story around it that is emotionally moving. At some stage, it doesn’t matter if something is said in 1919 or now because humans will feel a certain way in the face of loss and tragedy. It wasn’t a challenge but an opportunity for us to create something by weaving it together.”
The Waking Of A Nation, starring Sahil Mehta, Bhawsheel Singh, and Nikita Dutta, is now streaming on SonyLIV.
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