Producer Sandeep Singh, who is known to make films like Aligarh, Sarbjit, Bhoomi, PM Narendra Modi, is currently in the process of producing biopics on Veer Savarkar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He recently announced that he is shelving his film on the life of King of Mysore, Tipu Sultan.
He took to Twitter to announce his decision and wrote, “The film on Hazrat Tipu Sultan will not be made.
I kindly request my fellow brothers and sister to refrain from threatening or abusing my family, friends and me. I sincerely apologise if I have unintentionally hurt anyone’s religious sentiments. It was never my intention to do so, as I firmly believe in respecting all beliefs. As Indians, let us forever unite and always give respect to one another!”
When the film was announced, a short video was shared claiming that during Tipu Sultan’s rule, “8000 temples and 27 churches were destroyed. Four million Hindus were forced to convert to Islam and forced to eat beef.” It further goes on to claim that “more than one lakh Hindus were imprisoned” and that “over 2000 Brahmin families were wiped out in Calicut.”
During the announcement of the film, Sandeep had said , “This is the cinema I personally believe in. My films stand for truth… I was brainwashed into believing him to be a braveheart as shown in our history textbooks. But nobody knows his malevolent side. I want to expose his dark side for the future generation.”
Pawan Sharma, who was to direct the film, had said, “What we are taught in school about Tipu Sultan is gross misinformation. I stood absolutely shaken and disillusioned to know his reality as a bigoted king. Through my film I am daring to show a brutal reality that has been manipulated just for us to take him to be a warrior hero.”
The film was scheduled to be released in Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.