The Revolutionaries, starring Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf, Pratibha Ranta, and Gurfateh Pirzada, got its official release date. The show, based on Sanjeev Sanyal’s bestseller Revolutionaries: The Other Story Of How India Won Its Freedom, is inspired by real stories of fearless young revolutionaries, Rash Behari Bose, Sachindra Nath Sanyal and Bagha Jatin, who dared to stand against the behemoth of the British Empire with Pratibha Lahiri. Ahead of The Revolutionaries’ premiere on Amazon Prime Video, let’s understand its real story and how the characters played an important role in the fight against the British Empire.
The Revolutionaries, based on Revolutionaries: The Other Story Of How India Won Its Freedom, will focus on the forgotten armed insurrections against the British Raj that took place alongside the well-known non-violence movement. The important characters in the series will be Rash Behari Bose and Sachindra Nath Sanyal, played by Bhuvan Bam and Rohit Saraf respectively.
Rash Behari Bose
In The Revolutionaries, Bhuvan Bam plays the role of Rash Behari Bose. Reportedly, the revolutionary had laid the organisational groundwork in East Asia and handed over leadership of the Indian Independence League and the Indian National Army (INA) to Subhas Chandra Bose in July 1943. He was recognised as one of the pioneers of India’s revolutionary independence movement. His relationship with Japan helped in building international support for India’s independence.
Rash Behari Bose is also said to be the mastermind of the aborted Ghadar Mutiny of February 1915, uniting secret networks in northern India with returning Ghadar Party members to spark an armed uprising in British military cantonments. He died at the age of 58 on January 21, 1945, in Tokyo, Japan, due to tuberculosis.
Sachindra Nath Sanyal
One of the prominent Indian revolutionaries, Sachindra Nath Sanyal played an important role in the armed revolutionary movement against British rule. He was the co-founder of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) and also mentored Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad. Sanyal was involved in revolutionary activities at a young age and was associated with Anushilan Samiti, a revolutionary organisation active in Bengal and northern India. He teamed up with Rash Behari Bose and became involved in the Ghadar movement and the planned 1915 uprising against the British.
Sanyal was arrested for the same and sentenced to transportation for life to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands. After being released from jail, he helped establish the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) along with revolutionaries including Ram Prasad Bismil, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and others.
The HRA aimed to establish an independent and federal Republic of India through revolutionary means. Sanyal became one of its key ideological figures. He died in 1942, after suffering from tuberculosis while imprisoned by the British. Rohit Saraf plays this role in the series.
Bagha Jatin
Born as Jatindranath Mukherjee, Bagha Jatin was known for his courage, organisational skills, and armed revolution against British rule. He got the name Bagha Jatin for an iconic incident where he reportedly fought a Bengal tiger and killed it with a dagger. He was associated with Anushilan Samiti and then became a major leader of the revolutionary network known as Jugantar. He teamed up with Rash Behari Bose and other revolutionaries who sought to coordinate an armed uprising during World War I.
Bagha Jatin lost his life in September 1915. According to reports, after the British authorities began closing in on him, Jatin and several companions moved toward the Balasore coast in Odisha, where they hoped to receive a shipment of German arms. The expected weapons never arrived. He and his companions, despite being fewer in number, fought a gun battle with the police and military forces near Chashakhand, Balasore. Jatin was critically wounded and captured. He died a day after the incident. Gurfateh Pirzada brings him to life on screen.
The Revolutionaries, written by Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh, Akshita Wadhwana, Shobhit Narang, and Rutvi Mehta, also stars Jason Shah, Paoli Dam, and Tota Roy Chowdhury. The series will premiere on Prime Video in Hindi with dubs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Bengali, along with subtitles in English, on September 11.