Reema Kagti directed Gold is all ready to hit the theatres on August 15. The film starring Akshay Kumar, Mouni Roy, Amit Sadh, Kunal Kapoor, Vineet Singh and Sunny Kaushal is based on India’s first gold medal win as a free nation at the London Olympics in 1948. The film has a strong patriotic fervour and when India is all set to host the Hockey World Cup later this year, Gold is the perfect way to instil the spirit of patriotism in the audience’s hearts. The producer of the film Ritesh Sidhwani and Reema spoke to a leading daily and said how the film has a strong nationalist theme.

The producer-director duo was asked during the interview whether the film Gold will be able to strike a chord with the masses given its strong patriotic theme, to this Reema said, “The film has an underlying nationalist theme. We’ve treated it like it’s a story about avenging 200 years of subjugation.” Adding to Reema, Ritesh said, “You can’t say no to the story of India’s historic win against England in hockey, especially when we beat them on their own turf in London.”

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Gold is based on the golden age of Indian hockey which was spearheaded by Dhyan Chand but is not a biopic on the legendary player’s life. However, Reema and Ritesh did agree that their film borrows and takes inspirations from a lot of these hockey legends but is a fictional account based on a real incident.

Apparently, India had won gold medals in hockey previously too but that was under the British India dominion as our country had not gained independence. However, the 1948 London Olympics changed all that. India won its first gold medal as an independent nation in field hockey by defeating England in the finals and could unfurl the flag as well which became a milestone in the annals of country’s history.