Amish Tripathi reveals a missing chapter in India's History books: Director Senthil Kumar on preparing for his next film titled - ‘Suheldev’!

It’s finally happening! Celebrated author Amish’s latest bestseller, “Suheldev – The King Who Saved India” is now being made into a major feature film.

The film is being produced by Wakaoo Films, Casa Media, and Immortal Studios.

The film will be directed by one of India’s leading creative minds and the most awarded filmmaker in Indian advertising — Senthil Kumar. Senthil is the Chief Creative Officer at Wunderman Thompson (erstwhile JWT), India, and this will be his first feature film.  

After the immensely popular and successful Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra series, widely acclaimed novelist and writer, Amish recently released ‘Suheldev – The King Who Saved India’ amidst great fanfare. The lockdown notwithstanding, the book (published by Westland Publications) has been a roaring success and is already the biggest bestseller fiction book of the year to date. Amish’s 8 books till now have sold 5.5 million copies, making him among the most successful authors in Indian publishing history.

During an interview with director Senthil Kumar, he spoke about India’s ancient history and how it should be documented in form of films. He said, “Our history has been written by the people who ruled us and invaded our country. By those who buried the truth under the guise of writing in foreign languages. It has to be reviewed from every point of view. It is time to study the ancient manuscripts in our multiple languages that are thousands of years old and research the forgotten folk songs and traditional narratives that are buried under the sands of time.”

Kumar elaborated about Amish’s book and said that the story of Suheldev is a missing chapter in our history books and maintained that the film will be an epic war drama set in the 11th century when Mahmud of Ghazni, launched multiple raids on India and also destroyed the holiest Somnath temple.

“It is then that the young warrior Suheldev set out on an adventurous journey and gathered an army of his own, uniting soldiers across all the religions, castes and regions, erasing all our divisions to fight the Turkic marauders as one United India. The action-packed story with many twists and turns builds up to the epic Battle of Bahraich where the united Indian army led by King Suheldev crushed the Turkic army and killed their soldiers to the last man. Such was the nature of the comprehensive victory, that no Turkic army dared to invade India for the next 160 years! Mother India was finally free from foreign plunder and the motherland was united as one,” added Senthil Kumar.

Amish, who recently completed 10 years as an author, will, in Suheldev see his first book be translated on celluloid. He is also the Creative Producer on the project.

Being mounted on a grand scale, with special emphasis on spectacular war sequences, the film will be a magnum opus, an action drama that will be one of the first Indian films to be produced using Virtual Production technology.

Speaking about the film adaptation, Amish said, “Maharaja Suheldev is one of India’s most consequential heroes from the 11th century, who is, sadly, relatively unknown to modern Indians. This tale carries a universal message of unity cutting across class, caste, and religious barriers, a message that is particularly relevant for India today. Maharaja Suheldev's story tells us that when we Indians are united, we are unbeatable. I am delighted that my book Legend of Suheldev is being converted into a movie to reach out to an even wider audience.”

The script is already under preparation, and the producers will soon announce the name of the lead actor to play the role of King Suheldev.