Based on the real-life of Sardar Udham Singh, a revolutionary freedom fighter, Amazon Prime Video’s Sardar Udham opened to great reviews from the audience. Directed by Shoojit Sircar, this biopic stars Vicky Kaushal as the protagonist.
However, there’s another movie from 1999 on Udham Singh titled Shaheed Udham Singh that featured a brilliant cast of Raj Babbar, Gurdas Maan, Amrish Puri, Juhi Chawla and Shatrughan Sinha.
The movie was theatrically released on December 24th 1999, two days before Udham Singh’s birth centenary. The movie bagged a National Award for Best Film on National Unity & Integration.
The 2 hours and 45-minute long movie was also screened on August 13th 2016 at the Independence Day Film Festival commemorating 70th Indian Independence Day.
Based on the life of Udham Singh, the movie focuses on how he achieved vengeance for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by assassinating Michael O’Dwyer and was eventually hanged in 1940.
Directed by Chitraarth, the biopic featured Raj Babbar as Udham Singh, Gurdas Maan as Bhagat Singh, Shatrughan Sinha as Muhammad Khan, Amrish Puri as The Sufi Saint, Juhi Chawla as Noor Jehan and John Barry as Michael O’Dwyer.
Apparently, Gurdas Maan was the first choice for the titular role. However, he opted for Bhagat Singh’s role and suggested Raj Babbar’s name. Raj Babbar bagged the Screen (Critics) Best Actor Award for his role in the movie.
Reportedly, the majority of the cast and crew refused to accept any monetary gain from the movie.
Interestingly, Sham Kaushal, Vicky Kaushal’s father, was the AD of this movie.
The music of the movie was composed by Jagjit Singh.
The movie holds a staggering 7 rating on IMDb.