Bengaluru: Kannada film director Vishal Raj is on cloud nine as he never expected to have an opportunity of screening his latest film to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Vishal Raj, who hogged the limelight when his earlier film Ingale Marga bagged Karnataka State Film award for the year 2013, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 20 to screen his latest film July 22, 1947 in New Delhi. Raj was accompanied by Suresh Angadi, MP from Belgaum and film crew including Sudha Rani and Suchendra Prasad and music director Sangeetha Katti. Narendra Modi was able to allocate 20 minutes to watch a few important sequences of July 22 1947.
According to Raj, Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only appreciated the film ‘July 22, 1947’ but also wanted the film producer to re-make or dub it into other languages since July 22 1947 is the first film made on the importance of the tricolor.
“I never dreamt of having an opportunity to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi forget about the rare opportunity to narrate him about my filmJuly 22 1947. I have to thank Belgaum MP Suresh Angadi who encouraged and supported me to meet Narendra Modi. Before meeting the Prime Minister, we met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. It is Jaitley who insisted me to arrange screening of July 22 1947 for the Prime Minister,’’ says Raj with a smile.
Its shooting was held for 35 days in and around Belgaum and Hadagi which is known as a Gandhi Gram where Mahatma Gandhi stayed for a few days. Suchendra Prasad, who also happened to play a key role in Ingale Marga, is playing the lead role in this film. Achyut Kumar, Sudharani, Shobharaj, Nanje Gowda, Laya Kokila and Sathish are the other star cast. Sangeeta Katti makes debut as a music director with this film.
The director had adapted Sarjoo Katkar’s novel with similar title for this film. This novel has bagged best story award from the State Government for the year 2015. The story revolves around Indian tricolor that was adopted by the Indian Constituency Assembly on July 22, 1947. “I am very happy to hear the news of Prime Minister Narendra Modi watching this film. The director had adapted my novel Devaraya to make Ingale Marga that won Karnataka State award for the year 2013. July 22, 1947 is my second novel to be adapted by director Vishal Raj. It highlights the patriotism of a Group D employee at the Deputy Commissioner Office. He works as a keeper of the tricolor at the DC office. His duty is to hoist the tricolor in the morning and take down the flag in the evening. The director had arranged a premier on July 10 in Belgavi. It received a good feedback from the audience. I am waiting for the release of July 22, 1947 at as many theatres as possible across the state since it conveys the importance of our tricolor and has the potential to create awareness among the youth,’’ says Sarjoo Katkar.
The film was scheduled for the release on July 22 but got postponed to August. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi opined releasing this film in August will be apt and we have decided to follow his advice. We are making arrangements to release it at various theatres across the state,’’ the director said.
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