It was on July 12, 2013, when Rakesh Omprakash Mehra’s biographical drama, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, based on the life of the legendary athlete, Milkha Singh, was released in theatres. Farhan Akhtar portrayed the two-time 400m champion in the Asian Games and a Gold medalist in the Commonwealth Games, Milkha Singh in the film. Apart from him, the film starred a line-up of exceptionally talented stars like Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Divya Dutta, Pavan Malhotra, Prakash Raj, K.K. Raina, Dalip Tahil, Yograj Singh, and many more.
The film, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag had won numerous awards at almost every film festival, as it was the sixth-highest grossing 2013 Bollywood film worldwide. However, in a recent interview with a leading news portal, the film’s director, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra touched upon the reason why Milkha Singh had chosen him to bring his story to the big screen. The filmmaker admitted that there were so many filmmakers and producers approaching him for the same for years. Not only this, but the filmmaker also revealed the fee Sonam Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar had taken for doing Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
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In an interview with AajTak, the critically-acclaimed filmmaker, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra revealed why the late athlete, Milkha Singh had given exclusive rights to him for making Bhaag Milkha Bhaag for just Rs. 1. The biographical drama was based on the life of the legendary athlete and is one of the highest-grossing films of all time. However, the athlete had taken only Rs. 1 and gave complete rights to the director, who wanted to bring both his personal and professional lives in front of the world. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra admitted that Milkha Singh had received whopping offers of Rs. 1.5 crore or more for giving rights, but instead of accepting those mammoth offers, he had accepted just one rupee from him. The filmmaker said:
"Milkha Singh ji had received many offers for a film to be made on him. One of the offers was of Rs 1.5 crore for the film rights. I said I don’t have that much money, so you tell me, whatever it is we will do it. You won’t believe but they charged only one rupee for the rights."
Going further in the interview, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra also shared that the reason why Milkha Singh had trusted him in the first place was because of his Golfer-son, Jeev Milkha Singh. The filmmaker shared that the late athlete didn't use to watch a lot of films. Hence, he was unaware of his previous works. But his son has seen some of his works and was quite impressed with Rang De Basanti, which was why Jeev vouched for Rakesh and convinced his father, Milkha Singh to give complete rights to the filmmaker. Opening up about the same, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra said:
"Milkha Singh ji didn’t used to watch films so he didn’t know whether to trust me. But his son had seen Rang De Basanti. He watches a lot of films so he said if someone has to make a film on him, it has to be me."
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At the end of the interview, the filmmaker also hailed his lead actors, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Farhan Akhtar, for charging pennies for doing Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra revealed that when he had approached Sonam, the actress had immediately agreed to it and asked for a fee of just Rs. 11. Something similar had happened when the director had contacted Farhan and narrated the whole story to him. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra shared that Farhan had told him to give any amount, as it wasn’t an important thing for him. Recalling the beautiful gestures from both Sonam and Farhan, he said:
"Sonam took Rs 11 to act in the film. Farhan said, ‘Whatever comes to your mind, give me. The story you’re telling is straight from the heart. Hum hisaab baad mein kar lege, pehle film banate hai.'"
For the unversed, the legendary athlete, Milkha Singh, passed away on June 18, 2021, due to COVID-19-related issues.
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