Director Karthik Subbaraj on why he decided to remove line on Godse from Mahaan

In an interview to Sathiyam News, director Karthik Subbaraj opened up about the politics and challenges of making his latest film Mahaan, starring Vikram, and revealed that he had to remove lines on Nathuram Godse, who murdered Gandhi in 1948. The film follows the story of “Gandhi” Mahaan who is forced since childhood to live only by Gandhian principles whether he likes it or not.

Subbaraj says in the interview for the show Nerukku Ner that the film is not about “true Gandhians, but about ideological extremism in which a person’s freedom is taken away. The hero’s father only thinks of himself, he doesn’t ask what his son wants but makes him promise that he will live as a Gandhian.” He added that Mahaan represents any ideology that is taken “to an extreme without understanding what the founders of the ideology represented.” 

Interestingly, Subbaraj also says that the film initially had a line describing ‘Gandhian extremists’. The line was: “It was actually a person with maniacal ideological devotion, like Godse, who killed Gandhi.” Revealing this in the interview, Subbaraj said that he was asked to remove that line “because it would cause problems.” “I was told I could say whatever I want to about Gandhi, but not about Godse. The issue in the country is that there are problems only if you speak against Godse. One can say Gandhi died, but if you say, ‘Godse killed Gandhi, many people become angry,’” he recounted. 

In recent years, comments on Godse have attracted significant controversy. In 2019, controversy erupted when actor-politician and founder of the political party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) Kamal Hassan said called Nathuram Godse a terrorist. “Independent India’s first terrorist was a Hindu. His name was Nathuram Godse,” he said in April while campaigning in Aravakurchi for the then Assembly bye-polls. The then state minister for Milk and Dairy Development KT Rajenthra Bhalaji of the AIADMK had responded to the statement saying “Kamal’s tongue should be cut-off”. The BJP too moved the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking a five-day ban on Kamal. In other parts of the country too, there have been incidents of BJP leaders praising Nathuram Godse. In 2019, Bhopal MP Pragya Thakur referred to Godse as “a patriot” and later apologised. Similarly a BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh described Godse as “one of the greatest patriots born on Bharatbhoomi” in a Tweet he later deleted.

While Subbaraj makes no direct reference to these incidents, he emphasises to the interviewer, A Muthar Ahmed, that though the line on Godse was removed from the film, he personally has no hesitation in reiterating its sentiment. “Godse was a terrorist who killed the father of the nation. But the state of the nation is that calling him a terrorist leads to repurcussions,” he said.

The clip has gone viral, with many people appreciating the director’s stance. Watch it here.

காந்தியை சுட்டது யார் என்று இந்த சமூகத்தில் சொல்லிக்கொண்டே இருக்க வேண்டும். #Gandhi #NathuramGodse pic.twitter.com/1sv5bC1PsX

— Jeeva Bharathi (@sjeeva26) February 18, 2022

Mahaan released last week on February 10 on Amazon Prime Video to mixed reviews. The film also stars Dhruv Vikram, Simran, Bobby Simha and Muthukumar.