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Sony LIV’s latest web show The Waking of a Nation tells the story of the aftermath of the gruesome Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Directed by Ram Madhvani, it focuses on the commission that looked into the conspiracy behind the incident.
EXCLUSIVE: The Waking of a Nation writer Shantanu Srivastava on the aftermath of Jallianwala Bagh massacre not being taught in schools, “What to say about the curriculum of NCERT, CBSE and ICSE?”
When, in an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama, it was pointed out to Shantanu Srivastava, one of the writers of the show, that our history books in school don’t go into the aftermath of the massacre, he said, “What to say about the curriculum of NCERT, CBSE and ICSE? (laughs) But the fact is that anyone who is genuinely interested in Indian history and what has done down over the last 75 odd years, it (the show) is a must for everyone to, at least, know what our country has been through, how we have stood up and united with each other against the people who have colonized or terrorized us. As you can see, there is a wave of change.”
He added, “We have spent six episodes talking about what happened after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. So, I am sure there will be a lot of endeavours of making people aware of the nuances of history.”
Shatrujeet Nath, the other writer of the show, was asked about the biggest challenge they faced while writing the show. “There are two stories,” he said. “One is a clinical historical story and the other is emotional human story. When we decided to do something around the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, what led to it and what happened after that, the clinical historical facts were already there for us. The challenge was how to humanize this story. Like, how Amritsar was like for the common people of Punjab during April 1919, not only for Indians but also for common Britishers.”
The dialogues in The Waking of a Nation are conversational but at the same time impactful, especially the lines given to the British actors. Touching upon this, Shatrujeet added, “We have been fortunate to have grown up watching a lot of British shows. So, in that sense, the dialogues came very easy for those characters. For Indian characters, Shantanu is excellent in doing what he does. He knows how to do Singham (Again) and how to do this. The idea is also to not make it theatrical and make it conversational, so that it looks real. The whole point of the show is what it could have been like.”
The Waking of a Nation stars Taaruk Raina, Nikita Dutta, Sahil Mehta and Bhawsheel Singh Sahni in pivotal roles.
Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Ram Madhvani on making The Waking of a Nation, “We were troubled by the wounds in our hearts and minds”
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