Exclusive: IFFI 2024: Nikkhil Advani Reveals Freedom At Midnight Has A Sholay Connection

Nikkhil Advani's Freedom At Midnight, tracing back to the time of the India-Pakistan partition in 1947, has been making some noise amongst movie buffs ever since it was released on SonyLiv on November 15. Now, in an exclusive conversation with NDTV, the director of the historical drama revealed its connection with the cult classic, Sholay. The director was asked to shed light on the dialogues of Freedom At Midnight, on which he has given a lot of importance to the dialogues written by ace writer duo Saleem Javed in their year-long career. Nikkhil clarified that he has paid homage to the iconic duo Saleem Javed's works not only through the dialogues but also in various other instances. Nikkhil stated, "Sirf dialogues pe nhi bola tha. Salim Javed sir ka jikr bahut sarein meetings mein hai. Main chahunga ye jo main kehena wala hu, log take it in the spirit that it is intended. [I did not speak only about the dialogues. Salim Javed sir is mentioned in many meetings. However, I want people to take whatever I say in the spirit that it is intended.]” 

Nikkhil Advani added, “Jab Rajendra Chawla came to me and said, 'Samaj mein nhi aa raha hai ye scene jo hai aaplog viceroy ke ghar pe, humlog, ghumoge. Ye Sardar Patel hai aur Jawaharlal Nehru hai, kaise karenge ye scene?" Toh i said, 'Bahut kamal ka scene hoga Rajendra, bahut kamal ka scene hoga, mind blowing likha hai.' [When Rajendra Chawla came to me and said, 'I am not able to understand that for this scene, we all will roam around the Viceroy's house! This is Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru. How will you do this scene?' Then I said, 'It will be a wonderful scene, Rajendra, it will be a wonderful scene. We have written mind-blowing things.']"

Finally, he narrated how he imagined the characters of Freedom at Midnight as that of “Thakur”, “Jai”, “Veeru”, and “Gabbar” from the film Sholay. He continued, "Again, I'm saying I hope people take it the way it is intended to be said. Toh I said, 'Dekh, manle Gandhi jo hai nah woh Thakur hai, Tu yani Sardar aur Jawahar jo hai Jai aur Veeru hai aur Jinnah jo hai Gabbar hai. Ab ye main bana raha hu.' [So I said, 'Look, just assume (Mahatma)Gandhi as Thakur, you mean Sardar(Patel) and Jawahar (lal Nehru) as Jai and Veeru and (Muhammad Ali)Jinnah as Gabbar. And I am making this drama.']"

Produced by Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani, Freedom at Midnight features Sidhant Gupta as “Jawaharlal Nehru”, Chirag Vohra as “Mahatma Gandhi”, Rajendra Chawla as “Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel”, Arif Zakaria as “Mohammad Ali Jinnah”, Ira Dubey as “Fatima Jinnah” and Rajesh Kumar as “Liaquat Ali Khan”.