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Swades featuring superstar Shah Rukh Khan will always have a piece of every Indian’s heart for it fills us with great pride and brings a sense of nationalism among Indians living in the diaspora. The feeling of belongingness to one’s motherland has been beautifully articulated in this Ashutosh Gowariker directorial which continues to fuel us with patriotism even nearly two decades after its release. From songs to screenplay to acting performances and everything else that makes a film, Swades ticks all the boxes to become a cult classic. However, it failed to gain the biggest honour – the National Film Award.
Amid the frenzy of the recent announcement of 2021 National Award winners, an old video with a Swades connection has resurfaced which probably sheds light on why the film failed in bagging even the National Award for Best Feature Film despite boasting high patriotic sentiments – a formula that has always worked magic for Bollywood.
The video shows Kannada filmmaker T S Nagabharana projecting plagiarism claims onto Swades. Shocking, right? In the video, the filmmaker says, “I was getting feedback from Mumbai that there is some film called Swades, on 17 December 2004, when the film got released, I was shocked to see. Swades (is) almost a replica of my film which I shot in 2002 and released in 2003.” He further says he tried contacting Ashutosh and producers but had no luck. He adds, “When I asked my producer, he said, don’t go for legal action because it is also a film and let everybody enjoy that. “That’s the generosity of South Indian filmmakers, so I just kept quiet,” he says while beaming with great pride.
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While Nagabharana did let the copying part slide, he was a ‘little annoyed’ when it came to the contest (in National Award). “I told my fellow jury members that it is a remake of my film, you can compare it with that, and when I showed my film to them, they asked why didn’t you sue him? I replied I don’t want Halla Gulla. I am a filmmaker and that’s how Page 3 got the award,” he explains in the video. You can check out the video below:
The reason why Swades didn’t get any national award
by u/raaz9658 in BollyBlindsNGossip
It’s worth mentioning that many have also called Swades a 90s show the inspiration behind the film. An anthology titled Love Stories had an episode ‘Vapas’ which featured Ashutosh as NRI Mohan who came back to India to meet his Kaveri Amma and fell in love with Geeta, drawing similarity to events in Swades. Some reports have also suggested that the film’s plot is also inspired by Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi who returned to India to develop a pedal power generator.
Swades was a box office flop but now enjoys a separate fanbase among fans. How do you like the film? Let us know in the comment section below.
For more Bollywood trivia, stay tuned to Koimoi.
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