Former bandit king Malkhan Singh, who ruled the ravines of Chambal in the seventies, curiously, will not be seen holding a goblet of wine all through his two-and-half-hour-long biopic, Malwa Ke Sholay
Former bandit king Malkhan Singh, who ruled the ravines of Chambal in the seventies, curiously, will not be seen holding a goblet of wine all through his two-and-half-hour-long biopic, Malwa Ke Sholay, set for all India release on August 19.
The redoubtable “emperor of dacoits” of Chambal, who had amassed a total of 94 police cases, including 18 cases of robbery, 28 of kidnapping, 19 of attempt to murder and 17 cases of murder by the time he bade farewell to arms in 1982 in the presence of then Madhya Pradesh chief minister late Arjun Singh, has perplexed the production team of the Bollywood venture. His only condition for making the biopic was that he must be projected as a teetotaler in the movie.
“The condition sounded weird to us since we all know dacoits are usually addicted to alcohol. We could not elicit a convincing reply for his strange term. He dismissed our curiosity by offering the unconvincing logic that the dacoits usually do not get drunk for fear of being caught unaware by police party,” a member of the production team told this newspaper on Wednesday.
“This is true that Malkhan Singh set the condition that he should be projected as teetotaler in his biopic”, director of the movie, Mukesh R.K. Chouksey, who also portrayed the role of the ex-Chambal bandit, confirmed to this newspaper.
Sixty nine-year-old former bandit has also played a key role in making of the movie by accompanying the crew members to the sites in Chambal region where he had encountered some of his tumultuous events of his almost two-decade-long stay in the ravines of Chambal.
