The armed struggle for Indian independence began in the 19th century with peasant revolts across India. The 1857 War for Independence was the first major coordinated effort in the subcontinent against the British. From then on, till Gandhian satyagraha took centre stage in the 1920s, revolutionaries from across India attempted to topple the British Raj. The upcoming Prime Video series, The Revolutionaries, tells the true story of a few such heroes of the Indian freedom struggle.
Ahead of the show’s release, its four stars – Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf, Pratibha Ranta, and Gurfateh Pirzada – talk to Hindustan Times about their approach to playing these heroes.
‘Had to leave behind doubt’
The Revolutionaries is set right before World War I and focuses on the so-called Ghadar Conspiracy, an attempt by Indian revolutionaries to mount an armed rebellion against the British in 1913. Rohit Saraf plays a young Sachindranath Sanyal, who would later mentor Chandrashekhar Azad, the founder of the Hindustan Republican Association. Playing the young, fearless Sachin was an eye-opener, the actor says, “I had to leave the part of me that doubts completely behind when I took on this role. When you begin this journey, Sachindranath Sanyal is supposed to be this brat who thinks he knows best. And I am the opposite of it. I feel like I know nothing,” he tells us.
‘Gen Z don’t know much before Bhagat Singh’
The show stars Gurfateh Pirzada as Jatindranath Mukherjee, aka Bagha Jatin, the Bengal strongman who is said to have killed a tiger with his bare hands. Gurfateh admits he, like many others, was unaware about the man’s legacy. “I didn’t know much about the man before I came on board. After I auditioned, I started reading about Bagha Jatin and his story. Gen Z, the younger generation, generally don’t know much about the time before Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru. For me, too, it was a learning,” he explains.
‘You don’t get these chances very often’
At the centre of it all is Rash Behari Bose, the man who would later found the Indian National Army and guide Subhash Chandra Bose. Played by Bhuvan Bam, the Rash in The Revolutionaries is a young man taking on the might of an Empire. The content creator-turned-actor says he feels blessed to get diverse roles early in his career. “You don’t get these chances in life very often, or you get them at a much later stage in life. I was so lucky and blessed to do this at this stage. It is a great deal for me,” he says.
‘Women were involved too’
The show’s slight fictionalisation is evident in its portrayal of Pratibha Lahiri. In reality, Pratibha was a pre-teen during the events of the show. Here, she is shown as a 16-18-year-old. Pratibha Ranta, who plays the woman, says she felt responsible for bringing the story of a female freedom fighter to life. “It can’t be that at that time, women were not involved in the armed struggle for freedom. They saw their brothers, their husbands, their sons go and fight. They were certainly involved in some capacity. That is when I sat down with Nikkhil sir, and he very kindly collaborated with me on the additions I wanted to make, such as the action bit. I was after him ki sir action karna hai (I wanted to do action). And he gave me such a beautiful episode to perform,” she tells us.
The Revolutionaries, directed by Nikkhil Advani, is based on the non-fiction book Revolutionaries: The Other Story Of How India Won Its Freedom by Sanjeev Sanyal. It will premiere on Prime Video on September 11.
