Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti is a 2006 Indian drama film written, produced, and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The film stars an ensemble cast including Aamir Khan, Siddharth, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kapoor and British actress Alice Patten. It follows a British film student traveling to India to document the story of five freedom fighters of the Indian revolutionary movement. She befriends and casts five young men in the film, which inspires them to fight against the corruption of their own government. Shot primarily in New Delhi, Rang De Basanti was released globally on 26 January 2006. Upon release, the film broke all opening box office records in India, becoming the country's highest-grossing film in its opening weekend and holding the highest opening-day collections for a Hindi film. It received critical acclaim, winning the National Film Award for Best Popular Film, and being nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 BAFTA Awards. The film was chosen as India's official entry for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category, though it did not ultimately yield a nomination for either award. A. R. Rahman's soundtrack, which earned positive reviews, had two of its tracks considered for an Academy Award nomination. Plot In London, film student Sue McKinley finds the diary of her grandfather James, who served as a colonel of the British Army in the 1930s. James oversaw the capture and execution of the three freedom fighters – Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru – at the Lahore Jail and has written in his diary about his admiration for their revolutionary spirit, in spite of his being an officer of the British Empire. Inspired by the revolutionaries' story, Sue decides to make a film on them. She travels to India, where she searches for actors with the help of her friend Sonia (Soha Ali Khan), a student of international studies at the University of Delhi. Amid a string of unsuccessful auditions, Sue meets Sonia's friends: Daljit "DJ" Singh (Aamir Khan), Karan Singhania (Siddharth), Sukhi Ram (Sharman Joshi) and Aslam Khan (Kunal Kapoor). She immediately decides to cast them in her film, with DJ as Chandra Shekhar Azad, Karan Singhania as Bhagat Singh, Aslam Khan as Ashfaqulla Khan, and Sukhi Ram as Shivaram Rajguru.