Directed by Hardik Gajjar, the film marks Gandhi’s maiden tryst in the Hindi film industry as the leading man. This drama, set against the backdrop of Bhavai, a popular folk theatre form of Gujarat, was earlier titled ‘Ravan Leela'
Pratik Gandhi Picture Courtesy: Mid-day Archives
Pratik Gandhi has acted in two Hindi films before shooting to fame and sensation last year with Hansal Mehta’s massively popular and admired web series ‘Scam 1992- The Harshad Mehta Story’. These two films are ‘Mitro’ and ‘Loveyatri’. Coincidentally, both the films had a Gujarati connect with Gujarati speaking characters.
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His upcoming film ‘Bhavai’ is also about a popular folk theatre form of the state. Gandhi here plays the role of Ravan in Ram Leela stage plays. The film was earlier titled 'Ravan Leela' and this led to social media backlash. The name has now been changed to ‘Bhavai’, as mentioned above but that hasn’t stopped people to call for a ban on the film.
Gandhi recently said, “When Valmiki wrote Ramayana, he could have described him as a black character, or talked about his shortcomings only, but he didn’t. When this hasn’t happened right from the beginning, who are we to claim what is right and what is wrong? Why was Raavan called a prakaand pandit (learned scholar) or a Shiva devotee? Perhaps he also wanted people to understand the greyness, and didn’t want to paint him just as a demon.”
There are several interpretations of the Ramayana across India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia, and it is interesting how people belonging to different countries have “tweaked the story and believed their versions”.
Also Read: Pratik Gandhi: Knew we’d struggle with release as I was a nobody
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