Mumbai, March 14 Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker said that his movie “Lagaan” was not inspired by Dilip Kumar’s “Naya Daur”, and that it rather shares its DNA with the popular Asterix comics.
The period sports-drama, which deals with themes of hope, courage, and fighting injustice, revolves around a small village in Central India, burdened by high taxes imposed by an arrogant British army officer, who then challenges them to a game of cricket, as a wager to avoid paying the taxes they owe.
Aamir plays the lead role of Bhuvan, a villager from Champaner, Gujarat.
“Naya Daur” (1957), directed by BR Chopra, revolved around Shankar (Dilip Kumar), a spirited tongawala, who fights to protect the livelihoods of rural workers against a callous businessman (Kundan) introducing motor buses, culminating in a high-stakes race between a horse carriage and a bus.
“It’s a misconception. I was not inspired by ‘Naya Daur’ and I had not even seen the film. I was drawing on my own childhood memories of going to my hometown, Kolhapur, visiting farmland, and observing how farmers lived, so that was my personal experience,” Gowariker said after the screening of “Lagaan” at the Red Lorry Film Festival on Friday evening.
The film, which completes 25 years in June this year, was screened on the first day of the 2026 edition of the festival.
The director revealed that they had screened his 2001 film for the late BR Chopra, who, according to him, “loved” the movie.
“BR Chopra sahab was in a wheelchair at that time, and ‘Lagaan’ was one of the last films that he saw. Chopra sahab loved the film, and he felt that this depiction of village life and this story had not been captured,” Gowariker said.
Gowariker said that when he finally saw “Naya Daur”, he could see the similarities in how both films dealt with modernization.
“I realized that the obvious comparison was the race between a truck and a bullock cart, which was about modernization, like man against machine, and what would survive. That was a different kind of film,” he said.
Instead, the filmmaker asserts that “Lagaan” aligns more closely with the French comic series, Asterix, than any other source.
“ (‘Lagaan’) is Asterix. Asterix was our main inspiration… because we have a small village fighting the Roman Empire, and here we have a small Indian village fighting the British Empire. The film was very successful in France for that very reason,” Gowariker said.
The French comic series is about a Gaulish village that, thanks to a magic potion that enhances strength, resists the forces of Julius Caesar's Roman Republic Army in the time after the Gallic Wars.
The film features an ensemble cast including Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Suhasini Mulay, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Raghubir Yadav, Rajendra Gupta, Raj Zutshi, Akhilendra Mishra, Yashpal Sharma, AK Hangal, Shrivallabh Vyas, Pradeep Rawat, among others.
The screening of “Lagaan” was attended by Yadav, Mishra, Rawat, and a few others.