'Raid' director Raj Kumar Gupta: A lot of heroic stories have got lost from those times

Recently, director Raj Kumar Gupta talked about the fictional re-presentation of IT Commissioner Sharda Prashad Pandey in his latest directorial 'Raid'. Starring Ajay Devgn and Ileana D'cruz in lead roles, 'Raid' revolves around the story of Pandey, an IT Commissioner of Lucknow who had raided the house of businessman Sardar Inder Singh in 1981 and recovered assets worth Rs 1.6 crore in cash and gold.

Commenting on the valour of this enigmatic man, Gupta said, 'Everyone wants their story to be real. He was clear that we should not fictionalize it so much that the reality gets buried beneath'.
He further exclaimed, 'Anybody who is parting with an episode of his life would want to see it being told in a responsible way. My body of work helped me win his trust'. While working on the fictional re-presentation, the makers of the film are said to have adopted responsible film-making and were extremely careful about never mentioning the names, following an unsaid conduct about not mentioning particulars in cases of IT raids. Admittedly being intrigued by the entire occurrence of 1981, when Gupta learned that the IT raid went on for 18 hours with 45 people present only for the counting of notes, the director decided to portray it on the screen.
He observed that 'the press wasn't as widespread back then, so the information in the public was limited'.

After a thorough research on the code of confidentiality that the officers maintained back then, he further noted, 'Officers never told their family members where they were going. A lot of heroic stories have got lost from those times. I hope to highlight them.'

Presented by Gulshan Kumar and T-series, the film is slated to release on March 16, 2018.