Bhaag Milkha Bhaag director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra reveals Farhan Akhtar-starrer was extension of Delhi-6 | Exclusive

Written By Simran Singh | Updated: Jul 26, 2023, 03:47 PM IST

Image source: File photos

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra believed that he couldn't express his message clearly with Delhi-6, thus he carry-forward his vision in his next film. The director also revealed that initially, he didn't plan to make a biopic on Milkha Singh.

Farhan Akhtar's sports drama, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013), based on India's Flying Sikh, late-athlete Milkha Singh, completed ten years, and director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is marking the special occasion with a special screening of the national award-winning film. BMB will also re-release in cinemas on August 6, significantly for hearing and speech-impaired people in 30 cities across India. 

Before the special screening, Rakeysh joined DNA for a conversation and recalled the audience's reactions to his film. "The film has completed a decade and continues to inspire people. Wherever I go, people across the world, of different age groups, genders, religions, from different countries, and students from colleges and film schools meet me and discuss the film. Interestingly, they don't tell me if the film is good or the music was good. They share how the movie has touched their heart and inspired them in their life. There has been a universal acceptance of the film. Many people confessed that whenever they feel low Bhaag Milkha Bhaag motivate them to fight hard." 

Before Bhaag Mikha Bhaag, Rakeysh's previous film, Delhi-6 (2008), was released with a good opening, but it tanked at the box office. When he was asked if BMB was an extension to Delhi-6, Mehra agreed, and said, "When Delhi-6 flopped, I thought that people couldn't get my message. I wanted to spread the message of tolerance, peace, and letting go of the ghosts of the past. Ek dusre se ladho mat. Ek dusre ke faith ko samjhe, mil ke rahe, pyaar se rahe. So in a way, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was an extension to Delhi-6. In fact, every step we take further is an extension of our previous actions."

In the past ten years, BMB has earned the title of one of the best biopic made on a sports personality. However, Rakeysh revealed that for him, the movie was never meant to be a biopic, but a reflection of the suffering countless people faced during the partition of India. "I never wanted to make a biopic, but to show the horrors of partition. I wanted to narrate a story with a backdrop of India's separation. The partition is one of the darkest phases of Indian history, where over 30 million people were displaced. It's the largest human migration in the history of mankind. I wanted to depict the pain of partition, and then I got to know about Milkha Singh." 

Summarising the late legend's life Rakeysh added, "This person saw the massacre of his family, and his people at the age of 15. He stayed in a refugee camp, without his parents, with no food, or clothes, and then he went on to break a national record that remained untouched for 60 years. He went on to win a double Gold medal at Asian Games. Singh went on create a world record, even confronted his past in Pakistan, and earned the title of Flying Sikh." Mehra said the main objective of my film was to spread the message, "Log bure nahi hote, halaat bure hote hai," Mehra concluded.