Ever since its release earlier this month, Major has come in for a huge amount of praise. Filmed in Telugu and Hindi, Major tells the life story of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the young braveheart who went down fighting in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack. Making his Hindi film debut in the role of Unnikrishnan is Telugu actor Adivi Sesh, who has also written the film’s story and screenplay.
A box-office winner and still going strong, Major was filmed in over 75 locations over a gruelling 120 days and also stars Prakash Raj, Sobhita Dhulipala, Saiee Manjrekar and Revathi. It is directed by Sashi Kiran Tikka.
The Telegraph chatted with Adivi Sesh — popularly known as Sesh — on the film and more. Raised in Berkeley, California, the 37-year-old actor-director-screenwriter is known for hits like Karma,Goodachari, Run Raja Run, Kshanam and Bahubali: The Beginning.
Major has met with both critical and commercial success. In the vast sea of feedback till now, is there anything that stands out?
Every day I feel that this is the one that really stands out (laughs). We have started a school programme where we are giving tickets to school children in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at half price. Yesterday, I went and surprised some of the kids at a screening. It was extraordinary to see these kids come up to me and say that they now want to do more for the country. They felt they weren’t doing enough... and here we are talking about eight-year-olds! There was this little girl called Sridevi who just kept hugging me and crying inconsolably and saying, ‘He’s (Sandeep Unnikrishnan) not there. He needs to be here.’
These are really the days that make the job worth it, right?
Yes, for sure. Especially because we have worked on this film for three years, and we had to constantly motivate the entire crew. We worked through three waves of the pandemic and now to see this level of an extraordinary response is really something.... Jo log mujhe kal tak ‘tum’ bolte thhe, woh suddenly abhi ‘aap’ bol rahein hain (smiles). It’s insane, insane! We are going to meet the President of India soon. The fact that we are getting to do so because of the film that we have made is so humbling.
The story of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan is extraordinary. Were there any particular instances from his life, apart from his bravery during 26/11, that propelled you to make the film?
I think we all felt a sense of anger and sadness when he died. We all knew of his immense valour and his final 36 hours, but there were so many things about him that made him special. There were so many aspects of his life that no one knew about, and that was the fundamentally driving factor for me to make this film. We wanted to say that here is a man who fought in Kargil... here is a man who did extraordinary things even when he was a teenager.... His life cannot be summed up in just that (26/11) chapter. For us, this has always been Sandeep’s life story, not just a 26/11 film.
What were the biggest challenges of writing the film and then playing the lead?
Often, when you are writing a real-life story, you feel the need to spice it up, add some magic to it in order to make it more cinematic. Here, on the contrary, we had to contend with so many magical moments from his life that we really didn’t know which to keep and which to keep out.
Every time we tell people that this is what we cut out, they say, ‘Yaar, yeh toh hona chahiye tha movie mein’ (smiles). There is so much magic... the fact that he carried someone on his bare shoulders through the snow for more than 12 hours in Kashmir, the fact that he had saved someone from suicide when he was in school... so many moments!
What’s been his family’s reaction to the film?
Uncle (K. Unnikrishnan, Sandeep’s father) and I spoke in 2018 a few days after his speech at the Gateway of India. It was a very nice speech and he praised everyone, except his own son. He spoke of the heroics of Shri (Hemant) Karkare, Shri (Tukaram) Omble, but not about Sandeep. When I asked him why, we deep-dived into a discussion about what he thought of his son and that’s what became the final speech in the film. Through this film, we had the luxury to also explore how a father feels about his son. I thought that became the best part of the film.
How much did you feel the pressure of the responsibility to tell a story like this?
It definitely was a responsibility to know that you are dealing with a man’s legacy. To know that his parents are looking at you and waiting to see what you are going to tell of their son. It’s an extraordinary responsibility and I am so glad that we made Uncle and Amma (Sandeep’s mother) truly happy.
Of late, we have seen films of this nature veering into jingoistic territory. Your film doesn’t. Was that a challenge?
I am very proud that even extremely elite reviewers didn’t find the film jingoistic in any way. I think that has to do with the inherent honesty of Sandeep’s character. And we were always very sure that we wanted to portray him as he was, rather than build him up to be something that he wasn’t. Just that necessity of being honest is what I felt worked for us and the film.
You have a massive body of work in Telugu cinema behind you. Where would you place Major in terms of story, scale and success?
Without a doubt, creatively and emotionally, Major is my best film. Skill-wise, performance, it varies from one film to another. But on the basis of sheer responsibility and then the response to Major, and my own self-satisfaction when I first saw the film, I would count it as my best. Not to mention that it’s my biggest in terms of scale.
I consider myself to be one of those rare lucky actors in India to have five films in a row that have worked at the box office. But this one has become so big. Just to get the kind of respect we have got from Shri Uddhav Thackeray, the chief minister of Maharashtra, or to have the defence minister (Rajnath Singh) launch our slogan. We are not that well connected to be able to do these things... I don’t come from a political family (smiles). But just to have leaders cutting across party lines to come forward and understand the honesty of what we have attempted through this film has been special.
Major, of course, marks your Hindi debut. The lines are blurring in the Indian creative space. What do you make of the pan-India film phenomenon that has primarily stemmed from the Telugu film industry?
I think we have been in a good space creatively in the last five-six years. India, as a whole, has been telling some great stories over the last few years. I am not really sure how the whole streaming service thing is because I feel that this whole pause-and-play process messes with the creative experience in a big way. So I am a big believer in the theatrical experience.
Honestly, I feel guys like me wouldn’t have survived in the ’70s. We would have been relegated to parallel cinema. But now we are being able to tell authentic stories in the way we want to tell them.
But what I have seen over the last few years is that every time a rule is made, there is always someone to break it. Among the top three or four Indian films at the box office, two are dubbed films, and I am proud to have worked in one of them (Bahubali: The Beginning).
What’s it looking like for you post the humongous success of Major?
Anybody who had a plan before 2020, that really went out of the window! (Laughs) My plan is to keep telling great stories. Out of my next four films, at least two if not three, have been announced as Hindi and Telugu films... in the sense that we are not going to be dubbing them, we will make them in the two languages. For me, it’s always been the creative context that stirs the heart, what’s strategic really doesn’t.