Netaji's kin plan PIL to stop 'misuse' of his name in movies on his 'afterlife'

A movie on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's 'after-life' of what he may have done after the 1945 Taipei air crash releases on October 28

Days before the release of a movie on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's “after-life” of what he may have done after the 1945 Taipei air crash, the freedom fighter's kin said they are mulling a PIL to stop “misuse of his name for financial gains”. Reacting to it, the director of the film Sannyasi Deshonayak (Monk-National leader), which is slated to be released by October-end, Amlan Kusum Ghosh, claimed on social media that the opposition from people who were stoking a "fake controversy" would be good for the movie.

Read | Bose — 'Prince among the patriots’

The film, based on a hypothesis that Bose may have survived the crash which occurred in August 1945 and later returned to India to become a monk, is slated to be released later this week, while another was released in 2019 for an OTT platform which dealt with several such theories of his supposed after-life. Chandra Kumar Bose, a grand nephew of the freedom fighter, questioned the Central Board of Film Certification's clearance given to movies based on “such contentious theories”.

"This has become quite a practice ... filmmakers are making films on Netaji without knowing or reading the reports of the Commissions of enquiry which probed his death in the Taipei crash. Netaji has been shown in a bad light. You cannot do that. Authors and filmmakers who claim to be Netaji researchers have denigrated the freedom fighter by comparing him to a recluse (called Gumnami baba) without any clinching evidence,” Bose told PTI .

Netaji's image is being tarnished by such books and films, Bose claimed. “We are planning to file a PIL in this regard and are consulting lawyers. We are considering filing it in Calcutta High Court or the Supreme Court as it is a national issue," he said. He said he and his family members welcomed the central government's steps, inaugurating museums and statues of the leader, but felt actions of the Censor Board in clearing such contentious movies were inappropriate.

Sannyasi Deshonayak, a film directed by Amlan Kusum Ghosh based on the mysteries surrounding Netaji's death after the Taipei plane crash, is scheduled to be released on October 28. Ghosh has claimed that his movie is based on an interview of retired Supreme Court Judge Manoj Kumar Mukherjee, whom the central government had in 1999 directed to probe into Netaji's death.

The Mukherjee Commission, which tabled its report in Parliament in 2006, had concluded that Bose "did not die in the plane crash" as reported by eye-witnesses, including his close confidantes from the INA, and that "the ashes in the Japanese temple were not of Netaji". However, this report was later debunked by many researchers as well as Bose family members who pointed out flaws and inaccuracies in the report including the fact that the remains of the leader kept in an urn at the Renkoji temple in Japan were never subjected to a DNA test as sought by Japanese priests and others. Theories that he survived or was never on the aircraft that crashed gained ground as a result of the report, as also a hypothesis that he may have turned into an ascetic or been imprisoned in a Russian gulag.

Reacting strongly to the move by Bose, director Amlan Kusum Ghosh said a Facebook post he had shared was also his stand and said that the opposition would be "good for the effort (movie)." "This is good for the effort. `Fake' controversy is best for the pursuit of truth. Genuine people don't go after publicity," he told the news agency.

The producers of Gumnaami (Nameless), which was released in October 2019 and dwelt on the disappearance mystery after the air crash, refused to comment on the issue.