Rajkumar Periasamy’s Amaran, starring Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi as Major Mukund Varadarajan and Indhu Rebecca Varghese, was released in theatres on October 31. A section of the audience took offence that Mukund’s caste wasn’t mentioned in the film. At the film’s success meet in Chennai, the director clarified why he chose not to include it.

‘Major Mukund Varadarajan was an Indian’

Rajkumar spoke about how Mukund’s wife, Indhu, and his parents had a few requests for him before he made the film. India Today translated what he said in Tamil as, “Indhu had only one request. She wanted me to cast someone who had strong Tamil roots, as Mukund was a Tamilian. I found that in Sivakarthikeyan. She also wanted the film to have a Tamil identity.”

Similarly, Mukund’s parents asked Rajkumar to mention that he was an Indian more than anything. He reportedly said, “Mukund’s parents mentioned that he always wanted to tell the world he was an Indian. He never wanted any identity other than Indian and Tamilian, even on his certificate. They requested me to give him only those identities as an army man.”

The director also said that as a filmmaker, it never ‘occurred to him’ to mention Mukund’s caste. He said the late Major’s family never asked him his caste, nor did he ask them theirs. The film was made in the same spirit as a ‘respectful gift’ to the Ashoka Chakra awardee.

About Amaran

Amaran is a biopic about Major Mukund, who died in 2014 during a counterterrorism operation. He married Indhu in 2009, and their daughter, Arshea Mukund, was born in 2011. The film is an adaptation of India's Most Fearless: True Stories of Modern Military Heroes by Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh. The film received positive reviews from critics.

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