Mahesh Manjrekar announces Godse, a film on the man who killed Gandhi

In a tasteless move, actor-filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar announced his next project, a film titled Godse, on the life of Nathuram Godse, the murderer of Mahatma Gandhi, on Gandhiji's birth anniversary.

The filmmaker took to Twitter on Saturday 2 October and shared a crass message along with a poster for the film.

The film will be jointly produced by Sandeep Singh, producer of a biopic of prime minister Narendra Modi, and Raaj Shaandilyaa, who had directed the Ayushmann Khurrana- and Nushrratt Bharuccha-starrer Dream Girl (2019).

This is the third film Manjrekar will be directing for Sandeep Singh’s Legend Global Studio after Swatantraveer Savarkar and White.

Explaining why he picked this subject, Manjrekar wrote, “The story of Nathuram Godse has always been close to my heart. It takes a lot of courage to back a film of this nature. I always believe in hard-hitting subjects and uncompromised storytelling and this one fits the bill. People do not know much about Godse other than he is the man who fired at Gandhi. While telling his story, we neither want to patronize nor want to speak against anyone. We’ll leave it to the audience on who is right or wrong.”

PM Narendra Modi (2019) producer Sandeep Singh told the india Today magazine's website, "Nathuram Godse's story is one which I wanted to tell ever since I made my first film [Mary Kom (2014)]. This is an untold tale that deserves to be presented to cinemagoers. There are various versions of the stories about Godse and Gandhiji."

The cast of the film has not been locked yet as the scripting is underway. Co-produced by Vimal Lahoti, Jay Pandya and Abhay Verma, Godse is expected to go on the floors in the second half of 2022.

Manjrekar recently also announced the release date for his much-awaited sequel De Dhakka 2 (2022). The filmmaker has a slew of other projects at different stages of production — the Salman Khan-starrer Antim: The Final Truth, a remake of the Marathi movie Mulshi Pattern (2018), the Marathi period drama Panghrun, Swatantraveer Savarkar and White.