Unlike Hollywood, Hindi cinema hasn’t really made enough war films. In such a drought-riddled space, The Ghazi Attack , a Telugu and Hindi bilingual, seems like an anomaly. Based on the mysterious sinking of PNS Ghazi (a Tench-class diesel-electric and the first fast-attack submarine of the Pakistan Navy) during India’s war against Pakistan in 1971, the film has been touted as India’s first underwater war film.
“When you are making a submarine-based war film and looking at past Indian films for references, you don’t have any,” says Rana Daggubati, who plays Lieutenant Commander Arjun Verma of the Indian Navy’s submarine S-21, which takes on the PNS Ghazi in the film. The film also features Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon and Atul Kulkarni in key roles.
War stories
Scenes from Wolfgang Petersen’s German war drama Das Boot (1981) to Jonathan Mostow’s U-571 (2000) were extensively studied as an educational exercise to understand how things are shot under water. “Because we were shooting such a film for the first time in India, there were very few people who knew how to choreograph the action scenes underwater. Needless to say, there was a lot of going up and down in terms of our understanding of it,” says Daggubati.
During the Indo-Pak war, PNS Ghazi (an American boat built during World War II) was one of four submarines that had been deployed against India. Most neutral accounts of history argue that the submarine sank owing to internal explosions. But the film and its actors attribute the submarine’s destruction to a gallant Indian crew, which paradoxically fits the current wave of nationalist cinema and the re-writing of history for dramatic results. “The incident happened in the sea near Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), but the story of the heroism of our naval force has a pan-India appeal. Such patriotic films always get made. Look at Border (1997), the hit film starring Sunny Deol. There are many such films that come time and again.”
The idea of patriotism and the moral dilemma associated with it has been explored in numerous films in Hollywood. But this is a tricky path our films clearly refuse to embark on. “What are the successful films in India? Why [were] Avatar , Terminator or Rambo so successful? Why did Platoon not even open in Mumbai in its English version? There is a reason for that. There are a billion people in this country who haven’t seen Oliver Stone or don’t even understand that kind of cinema.”
Understanding technique
Considering that most of the film’s action takes places underwater, the production crew sourced original raw material to build two ships in Hyderabad. To render a sense of realism, there was an Olympic-sized swimming pool to create the vastness of the sea. “It was a terrific set. We all felt like we were in the real submarine. Even the hydraulic systems were built in such a way that they moved with the water interaction, giving a feeling that you are actually in the water,” says the actor, who incidentally has a scuba diving licence.
The Ghazi Attack is heavily dependent on special effects, like Daggubati’s successful 2015 film Baahubali: The Beginning . “If it wasn’t for Baahubali, we wouldn’t have known how to make The Ghazi Attack . Films like U-571 were made with millions of dollars; we don’t have that kind of money for war films in India. So we spent six-eight months to figure out if we can actually make this film. And if we’re making it, at what cost are we making it. These are expensive pictures. How do we get the texture of water’ in the fastest and the cheapest way? All the visual effects have been done in Hyderabad, and we are very proud of the outcome,” the actor beams, praising the film’s team of technicians, who have worked on intricate visual effects for the first time ever.
Replicating success
This year will also mark the release of Baahubali: The Conclusion , the much-awaited second instalment in the franchise, Daggubati’s biggest success till date. The actor plays Bhallala Deva, the physically imposing evil ruler of the ancient Kingdom of Mahishmati. For this role, the actor drew upon references from real-world despots like Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein to mythological villains like Ravana and Duryodhana. Riding high on expectations, the film is supposed to be bigger than the first. “We didn’t know what response we were going to get. We knew that we were making the biggest film this country had ever seen. And that’s what we achieved. The film was so successful that it became a brand. Now, in part two, we have made it even bigger.”
The success of the earlier film has given an unprecedented boost to the second film. “While making the second part, we discovered a certain bunch of things. During part one, we had never shot a war film before. But in part two, we had certain experience. Now there’s a lot more we could spend, and also get better technology.”
The crew has shot more than 495 days for the two parts, and 350 days were purely dedicated to illustrated action sequences. “Each of the war scenes have taken 60-100 days of continuous action, which is not very easy for anybody.” Bahubali: The Beginning released in 2015, and it has been a very long wait for the sequel for fans. “It’s a very physically taxing film for the actors, for the crew and for everybody during shoot. And after that, there’s a lot of heavy-duty visual effects that’s been done. In India, we’re still understanding visual effects. It’s not [as easy as] in Hollywood, which has a 20-30 years’ edge over us. So, a lot goes in getting those timelines right. Which is why it takes a long to make this kind of a film.”
Actor forever
Born into a film family, the actor had already made a mark in his native industry before making his debut in Hindi cinema with Dum Maaro Dum in 2011. But his Hindi film career hasn’t really shaped up in the best way possible. “I am not even from Mumbai. I don’t live here. Who does Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films? Trust me, nobody.”
He confesses that he never really set out to be an actor; he set out to be in films and its various manifestations, going beyond just the foil of an actor. “I don’t even want a career as actor. I don’t want to be categorised as a Hindi, Tamil or Telugu actor. The reason I don’t have insecurities is because this is not my sole job. I am not in any star race. I am a film-lover and a filmmaker. I act, I produce, I have done visual effects for a long time, I continue running a studio, so I do a bunch of things. I am happy with my evolution,” he says with a wide grin.
