Research for Akshay Kumar starrer Patiala house gives birth to a standalone documentary

A feature film inspiring a documentary has to be a first of sorts for Indian cinema. Patiala House, which stars Akshay Kumar and takes a poignant look at the plight of the Sikh community in Great Britain is the film in question.

Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Akshay Kumar in a still from Patiala House

Put together by Priyamvada Narayanan, an assistant director on Ashutosh Gowarikar's Lagaan, the documentary was born out of Advani's extensive research on the 1979 Sikh riots in London's Southall district.

Separate comment
The documentary on the riots is now being edited and put together to be screened worldwide as a standalone comment on the most turbulent period of the Sikh community's history in England.

Never before has research material for a Hindi film become the basis for a documentary on the subject.

Says Nikhil, "The story is of how second-generation Sikh boys in Britain had to shave off their hair and beard to escape the wrath of the rioters.

In my film, the sequence of nine-year old Gattu getting his hair shaved is borrowed from the anti-Sikh riots in Britain and Delhi where young boys had to abandon their turbans."

Nikhil also researched the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi following the assassination of India's former Prime Minister, the late Mrs Indira Gandhi, to understand how deeply scarred and traumatised the Sikh community became.

He adds, "I had to look at the two main real-life anti-Sikh riots. We had to document all our research on the subject. That's how Priyamvada Narayanan came into the picture."

He stresses that he has been very careful with details on the Sikh culture and religion, "We've been true to history. But we haven't made a historical.

The characters are based on real ones. But they aren't true copies. In the first hour of storytelling, the audience will feel the suffocation and claustrophobia of the characters. Then begins their sense of liberation.

I want the audience to feel for the characters, and not just for their historical background."