"The very first time when Nalin Singh (scriptwriter) narrated the script to me, honestly I didn't understand it. I didn't know where I was heading to - World War II, Hitler, Gandhiji- I didn't know about theses subjects in detail. But then after re-reading it and after consulting with my team I got a hang of it, " Sharma, who is making debut production under the Amrapali Media Vision banner, told reporters here.
"It took me six to seven months to finalise. But once I got hold of the story, then there was no looking back. I found conviction in Nalin's narration and confidence there after. We (production house) were looking for a different and hard hitting script but we didn't know we would be doing something like this in our first go, " he added.
"Gandhi to Hilter" is an attempt to spread the message of world peace, he said.
The film points out the difference in ideologies of two leaders, Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi and how Hitler's radical methods led to his end, while Gandhi's non-violence played a pivotal role to free India from British rule.
Pallavi Mishra, who has written the lyrics for the songs in the film and is also co-producing the film along with Sharma reveals that controversies have led them to change the title of the film.
"The Hindi version of the film will now be called 'Gandhi to Hilter', while the international version will still remain with the same - 'Dear Friend Hitler'. We had to change the name because of the controversies.
"Gandhiji had addressed Hilter as his 'Dear friend' when he wrote a letter to him and we tried to put across the same point. The international format understood the reason so they allowed us to carry forward with the same name that is 'Dear Friend Hitler', " said Mishra.
The film, starring Neha Dhupia and Raghuvir Yadav is based on letters written by Mahatma Gandhi to Adolf Hitler, and is directed by debutante Rakesh Ranjan.