Sunny Deol became visibly emotional and wept during a tribute to his late father, veteran actor Dharmendra at Batwara 1947 trailer launch.
Director Rajkumar Santoshi revealed that Batwara 1947 was the last film Dharmendra watched and blessed before his demise.
Shabana Azmi shared her experience of filming a highly vulnerable and humiliating scene depicted in the trailer.
The trailer for Batwara 1947 was unveiled on Tuesday. Set against the backdrop of the 1947 Partition, the film explores the chaos, communal riots and family separations. Sunny Deol, Shabana Azmi, Karan Deol, Abhimanyu Singh and director Rajkumar Santoshi attended the trailer launch event in Mumbai. Sunny teared up as director Rajkumar Santoshi shared late Dharmendra’s final blessings for the film.
Sunny Deol gets emotional remembering Dharmendra
Santoshi recalled Dharmendra watched the film and offered his blessings before his death. Sunny became visibly emotional and wiped away tears during the tribute to his late father at the launch event.
The filmmaker said, "Dharam ji ki blessing bahut hai iss film ke andar. Narration suna tha and he was very emotional. Aankh mein aansu aa gaye, bahut aashirwad diya aur Dharam ji ki mere khyaal se last film joh unhone dekhi woh bhi Batwara hai. Tabhi unhone bola tha ki picture bahut chalegi bahut achcha kaam kiya aap logon ne unka aashirwad hai toh I am grateful and I thank Dharam ji today here" (The film carries Dharam ji's blessings. When he heard the narration, he was deeply moved and was even brought to tears and he offered his heartfelt blessings. In fact, I believe Batwara was the last film of mine that he watched; even back then, he predicted it would be a huge success and praised the excellent work we had done).
What Shabana Azmi said about a scene
Azmi recounted a distressing shoot. The veteran actor described filming a violent sequence where the antagonist drags her character and tears her clothing, a moment featured briefly in the promotional clip.
She said, "There is a scene in the film which, personally, as a human being, made me feel very humiliated and very stripped of any dignity. You see a glimpse of it in the trailer, where the villain drags me and tears my kurta. At that moment, I don't think I have ever felt so vulnerable and exposed as I did as a human being."
Batwara 1947 also stars Preity Zinta and Ali Fazal. It is slated to hit the screens on August 14, 2026.
