Manjhi’s love for his wife inspired my film, says director Ketan Mehta

“For me he (Manjhi) is Mr India. For me it is our answer for all our problems — the only difference is that he is real, not a fictional fantasy character, which justifies the adage that there is nothing impossible,” said Ketan Mehta.

The film, set to be released on August 21, is based on the life story of Manjhi, a labourer living in Gehlaur village of Bihar, single-handedly built a road through a hill so that the locals could have faster access to nearby hospital. His wife had died because of lack of timely medical help.

“That is why I went ahead and made this film to share it with as many people as we could. That’s ‘Majhi the Mountain Man’, a man from a very backward region of Bihar,” he added. Asked how he brought out Majhi’s character on-screen, Siddiqui said that the story made an instant connect with him because, just like the film character, he also struggled for 15 to years to establish himself as a popular actor.

“I like this dialogue in the film ‘Tab <g data-gr-id="21">tak</g> <g data-gr-id="22">Chorenge</g> Nahin Jab Tak <g data-gr-id="23">Todenge</g> Nahin’ — that’s my attitude,” he added.