As ‘Major’, based on the life of 26/11 hero Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, is receiving a lot of love from the audience and critics alike, writer and lead actor Adivi Sesh reveals how he could not show an interesting incident from Sandeep’s life in the film.
Mumbai, June 13 As ‘Major’, based on the life of 26/11 hero Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, is receiving a lot of love from the audience and critics alike, writer and lead actor Adivi Sesh reveals how he could not show an interesting incident from Sandeep’s life in the film.
In conversation with IANS, Sesh shared that how, keeping the sentiment and the mood of the film in mind, there are some fascinating incidents of Sandeep’s life that he as a writer, could not keep in the main narrative of the film.
Sesh told IANS: “We actually had the opposite problem while weaving the story, that one usually has in a biopic. You see, since real life is mostly dry and not that dramatic when someone writes a story, they fictionalise some moments to make it more cinematic. But there were so many incidents that have happened in Major Sandeep’s life that we could not put them out in the film.”
Sharing one of such incidents, the actor-writer added, “One of the stories that Amma told me was when Sandeep sir was a teenager. One day, uncle came back home and when he entered, he saw there were around 30 girls’ sandals outside. He was wondering what happened and then he got to know why so many girls are suddenly here!
“There was a rumour in school that Sandeep’s wedding is getting fixed and that was the reason all those girls from school came to Amma to impress and convince her to get them married to Sandeep sir! Of course, Uncle and Amma had a good laugh about it. And when I heard that story I so wanted to keep it in the film, but I couldn’t! Sandeep sir was the most favourite for everyone from his childhood really.”
“There were stories and anecdotes that really proved that he was a born hero. But these little moments, we could not keep in the film otherwise we would have received a backlash and the mood of the story would have got diverted,” Adivi added.
The story of ‘Major’ revolves around the 36 hours of the operation during the Mumbai terror attacks of 26/11. Major Sandeep was an NSG training officer who was the team commander for the rescue operation at the Taj Mahal Hotel saving the lives of the hostages. He was martyred while saving the lives of others. NSG saved the lives of 250 hostages in that operation.
The film ‘Major’ is directed by Sashi Kiran Tikka, also starring Prakash Raj, Sobhita Dhulipala, Saiee Manjrekar, Revati – released in theatres.