‘Lagaan’ not inspired by ‘Naya Daur’, it is more like Asterix comics: Director Ashutosh Gowariker

Mumbai: Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker said that his movie Lagaan wasn't inspired by Dilip Kumar’s Naya Daur, and that it rather shares its DNA with the popular Asterix comics.

The period sports-drama, peppered with themes of hope, courage, and fighting injustice, revolves around a small village in Central India, burdened by high taxes by an arrogant British army officer, who then challenges them to a game of cricket, as a wager to avoid paying the taxes they owe.

Aamir features in the lead role of Bhuvan, a villager from Champaner, Gujarat.

Naya Daur (1957), directed by BR Chopra, revolved around Shankar (Dilip Kumar), a spirited tongawala, who fights to protect the livelihoods of rural workers against a callous businessman (Kundan) introducing motor buses, culminating in a high-stakes race between a horse carriage and a bus.

“It’s a myth. I was not inspired by ‘Naya Daur’ and I had not even seen the film. I was going by my own childhood memories of going to my hometown Kolhapur, going to farmland, fields, how farmers lived, so that was my personal experience that (I’ve added),” Gowariker said post the screening of “Lagaan” at the Red Lorry Film Festival on Friday evening.

The film, which completes 25 years in June this year, was screened on the first day of the 2026 edition of the festival.

The director revealed that they had held a screening of his 2001 film for the late BR Chopra, whoa according to him, “loved” the movie.

“BR Chopra sahab was in a wheelchair at that time and one of the last films that, he saw was Lagaan. Chopra sahab loved the film and he felt this kind of village life, and this story has not been captured,” Gowariker said.

Gowariker said that when he finally got around to seeing Naya Daur, he could see the similarities in how both films dealt with modernisation.

“I realised the obvious comparison was that there was this race between truck and bullock cart, it was about modernisation, like man against machine, what will survive. That was a different kind of film,” he said.

Rather, the filmmaker asserts that “Lagaan” aligns more closely with the French comic series, Asterix, than any other source.

“It (‘Lagaan’) is Asterix. Asterix was our main go to… because we’ve one small village fighting the roman empire, here we’ve a small Indian village fighting British empire. The film did very well in France for that very reason,” Gowariker said.

The French comic series is about a Gaulish village which, thanks to a magic potion that enhances strength, resists the forces of Julius Caesar's Roman Republic Army in the time after the Gallic Wars.

The film boasts of ensemble cast including Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Suhasini Mulay, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Raghubir Yadav, Rajendra Gupta, Raj Zutshi, Akhilendra Mishra, Yashpal Sharma, AK Hangal, Shrivallabh Vyas, Pradeep Rawat, among others The screening of Lagaan was attended by Yadav, Mishra, Rawat and a few others.