A&N Lt guv urges directors to make a film on Kalapani

Port Blair, Aug 16 (UNI) Andaman and Nicobar Islands Lt Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Bhopinder Singh has stressed on having a commercial film on the Cellular Jail here yesterday.

Popularly considered as a 'pilgrimage spot' of Indian freedom movement, the jail is situated in the remote Andaman islands.

Official sources here today said Lt Gen Singh said there should be a film on the jail's history and patriots incarcerated here, after the screening of a 32-minutes documentary 'Cellular Jail National Memorial' by Shila Dutta.

The Lt governor further stated that the documentary was an inspiration and film directors should make a commercially viable movie based on the true facts about the jail.

''People should know about the Cellular Jail, where thousands of freedom fighters were incarcerated and tortured during the British and Japanese regime,'' he added.

The nationalist prisoners were for the first time brought to this jail on March 10, 1858. Later in 1872, the Britishers converted it into a cellular one following the assassination of Lord Mayo by a convict and named it as 'Kalapani'.

The jail was completed in 1906 with 698 cells with seven wings spreading out like flower petals and that is why the jail was called 'Cellular'. The centre of the jail had a tower with a turret connected to these isolated cells.

Mr Singh said several commercial films had been shot at Kalapani earlier. Even a Malayalam film with the same name was shot here but none had mentioned the history of the jail.

UNI