On Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev's martyrdom day we pay our tributes to the brave sons of Mother India and take a look at the inspiration they have been for Bollywood.
As India remembers freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, known to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of our independence movement, on his 107th birth anniversary, we bring you a few slides on how Bollywood has etched him on the silver screen.
One of the early films based on the life of Bhagat Singh was Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh. The film released in 1954 was directed by Jagdish Gautam and had Prem Abeed, Jairaj, Smriti Biswas and Ashita Mazumdar playing lead roles.
Shammi Kapoor played the role of Bhagat Singh in the 1964 film Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
The film was directed by KN Bansal and besides Shammi Kapoor starred Shakeela, Premnath, Ulhas and Achla Sachdev.
One of the most popular portrayal of Bhagat Singh on the big screen was in the 1965 film Shaheed.
In Shaheed Manoj Kumar played the role of Bhagat Singh.
Prem Chopra was cast in the role of Sukhdev while Anand Kumar played Rajguru.
After a long lull came a deluge of films based on the martyrs. Sonu Sood donned the legendary moustache and hat in the 2002 film Shaheed-E-Azam.
Prof. Jagmohan Singh, nephew of Bhagat Singh, researched for the film.
Shaheed-E-Azam was directed by Sukumar Nair.
The film was one of the first Indian films to be launched in Lahore, Pakistan.
Two films on Bhagat Singh released simultaneously. The first was The Legend of Bhagat Singh.
The film had Ajay Devgn in playing the title role.
Directed by Rajkumar Santoshi the film also starred Akhilendra Mishra (Chandrashekhar Azad), Sushant Singh (Sukhdev) and D Santosh (Rajguru).
The other 2002 film on Bhagat Singh was 23rd March 1931: Shaheed.
The film directed by Guddu Dhanoa also starred Sunny Deol (Chandrashekhar Azad), Rahul Dev (Sukhdev) and Vicky Ahuja (Rajguru).
23rd March 1931: Shaheed also featured Aishwarya Rai as Bhagat Singh's fiancee.
Then in 2006 came the path breaking Rang De Basanti.
Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's innovative presentation of the life and times of Bhagat Singh with a contemporary context struck the right chords with the audiences.
The film starred Aamir Khan, Atul Kulkarni, Kunal Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Soha Ali Khan, Waheeda Rehman and Kirron Kher.
Rang De Basanti turned out to be revolutionary in more ways then one.
