/
Netaji's grandnephew wants Fauzi teaser pulled over fictional Hitler meeting scene; makers silent
Chandra Kumar Bose, Netaji's grandnephew, wants the teaser of Prabhas's film Fauzi withdrawn and its director to apologise, saying mixing fiction with history is a crime. The teaser shows Netaji meeting Hitler in 1942 and describing the hero as a spy. The makers have not responded.
A
4 min
Chandra Kumar Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, has demanded that the teaser of the Prabhas film Fauzi be withdrawn and that its director apologise, saying that mixing fiction with history is a crime. The teaser opens with a dramatised meeting between Netaji and Adolf Hitler in Berlin, and in it Netaji describes the film's fictional hero. The makers had not responded to the demand, according to the latest reports.
The teaser
Fauzi is a period action film, set in the 1930s and 1940s, in which Prabhas plays an Indian soldier, strategist and spy who fights British colonial rule. The teaser, titled File No 25, was released on 23 October, which was Prabhas's 47th birthday. It opens in Berlin in 1942, with a scene set on 29 May, in which Netaji meets Hitler.
In the scene Netaji speaks about an Indian superspy who has troubled the British and helped Japan to gain control of Singapore. He also describes a code inspired by the Bhagavad Gita, which is presented as harder to break than Germany's Enigma code, as a weapon against British intelligence. The teaser later introduces Prabhas in an action sequence in which he fires a large gun.
The meeting between Netaji and Hitler did happen, but the conversation in the teaser about the fictional character is not historical.
The objection
On 26 October Bose, who is a socio-political activist and a former vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal, wrote on social media that mixing fiction with history is a crime. His post followed one by Suparno Satpathy, who had shared the teaser and praised it, but had cautioned against mixing fiction with history, since films influence generations and showing Netaji endorsing a fictional character could distort understanding of the period.
Bose asked the director, Hanu Raghavapudi, and the production company, Mythri Movie Makers, to take the teaser down and release a new one that does not misrepresent history. He asked the director for a public apology to the people of India, and said he hoped that Prabhas would read his appeal. In an interview, he said that creative freedom should not come at the cost of historical accuracy.
He argues that Netaji approached Hitler to seek help for India's independence, that Netaji opposed fascism and backed democracy and the rights of people, and that the teaser misrepresents the context of the meeting and reduces his stature. A report on Wednesday said that he had now tagged the Prime Minister in a post and asked for action against the film, but the other reports do not mention the Prime Minister.
Opinion online is divided. Some viewers have asked why the legacy of a freedom fighter is being used to build up a fictional hero. Supporters of the film say that Fauzi is a work of fiction and that historical fiction has always placed invented characters next to real ones.
The film is written and directed by Hanu Raghavapudi, whose earlier film Sita Ramam was a success, and it is produced by Mythri Movie Makers and presented by T-Series Films. The cast includes Prabhas, Imanvi and Anupam Kher. It is scheduled to be released in theatres worldwide on 19 March 2027, after the earlier window of December 2026 was changed.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Teaser | File No 25, released 23 October 2026 |
| Director | Hanu Raghavapudi |
| Producer | Mythri Movie Makers; presented by T-Series Films |
| Release | 19 March 2027 |
The makers have not said whether they will change or withdraw the teaser. In the past, the makers of historical and biographical films in India have faced demands of this kind from families and groups, and responses have ranged from adding a disclaimer to cutting scenes or changing a release date, and the outcome depends on whether the objection moves from a social media demand to a legal notice or a request to the censor board.
The Central Board of Film Certification certifies the film itself before its release, not the teaser posted online, so the debate over the teaser may continue until the film reaches theatres. Viewers who want to judge the matter can note that the Netaji-Hitler meeting is a matter of record, and that the conversation about the fictional spy is invented for the film.
A
4 min
What did you think?
