NEW DELHI: A controversy over the teaser of Prabhas-starrer Fauzi has reached the central government, with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose writing to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw seeking strict action and demanding that the teaser be taken down, corrected and released again.
Bose shared his letter on social media platform X on Tuesday, and tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his post. In the letter, he alleged that the teaser distorts history and trivialises Netaji, whom he described as the Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army and the first Prime Minister of undivided India.
He urged director Hanu Raghavapudi to understand the seriousness of the matter, and questioned how the Censor Board could have cleared what he called objectionable content.
At the centre of the objection is a scene in the teaser that, according to Bose, shows Netaji speaking to Adolf Hitler and introducing a fictional character named Fauzi. The teaser is set in Berlin in 1942, according to reports, and presents the meeting as part of its dramatic narrative.
For Bose, the problem is not merely that a fictional character has been placed beside a historical figure, but that the figure in question is Netaji himself, whose legacy, he argues, should not be used as a device to introduce a made-up hero. In a separate post, he wrote that mixing fiction with history is a crime, and urged the film's team to withdraw the teaser, put out a new one and ensure that history is not distorted.
Bose also drew attention to the date on which the teaser was released. It came out on October 23, which also marked the 83rd Balidan Diwas of revolutionary leader Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi, an associate of Netaji. For Bose, the timing added to the offence, because a day associated with sacrifice in the freedom movement was, in his view, marked by a teaser that treated Netaji's history lightly.
His letter makes three demands in clear terms. First, the teaser should be pulled down. Second, the role of the Censor Board in clearing it should be investigated.
Third, the officials responsible for clearing it should be punished in an exemplary manner. The language is unusually strong for a letter about a film teaser, and it reflects the depth of feeling that surrounds Netaji's memory in Bengal and across India, where he remains a figure of exceptional reverence, particularly for his leadership of the Indian National Army and his call for complete independence.
Bose, who signs the letter as convenor of The Open Platform for Netaji, a Kolkata-based group, has also struck a conciliatory note alongside his demands. He has said that if the concern regarding Netaji is resolved, both for the teaser and for the film itself, his best wishes go out to Prabhas and the entire team.
That qualification matters, because it frames the dispute as one about a specific portrayal rather than about the film as a whole, and it leaves open a path to resolution that does not require abandoning the project.
The film itself is one of the most anticipated upcoming releases in Indian cinema. Fauzi, directed by Hanu Raghavapudi and starring Prabhas, is scheduled for theatrical release on March 19, according to reports. The teaser, released on Prabhas's birthday, had been eagerly awaited by his fans, and its scale and period setting had generated considerable excitement before the controversy erupted.
The row now places the makers in a difficult position, caught between creative ambition and the sensitivities that attach to portraying a freedom fighter on screen.
The producers have sought to address the question of historical accuracy in the teaser's own description on YouTube.
There, they state that the motion picture is a work of creative historical fiction with an altered narrative, and that although it incorporates certain historical personalities and references, including Adolf Hitler and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, any imagined conversations, interactions, incidents or interpretations are fictionalised and intended solely to serve the narrative. They add that no representation is made as to the historical accuracy of such dramatised elements.
Reports note, however, that the teaser itself did not carry a visual or audio reference to the standard disclaimer often shown at the beginning of films in India indicating that a film is a work of fiction.
That distinction lies at the heart of the debate. Indian cinema has a long tradition of films that blend historical figures with fictional stories, and disclaimers have become a routine way of signalling that blend to audiences. Critics of the Fauzi teaser argue that a disclaimer buried in an online description is not the same as a clear statement within the teaser, particularly when the teaser is shared widely on social media in short clips that strip away context.
Supporters of creative freedom argue that audiences understand the difference between a dramatised teaser and a history lesson, and that historical fiction has always involved imagining conversations that never took place.
The legal and regulatory picture is also more complicated than a single letter suggests. Technically, the teaser falls under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which is also headed by Vaishnaw, and is governed by the Information Technology Rules of 2021, although Bose's letter is addressed to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
The Censor Board, formally the Central Board of Film Certification, certifies films for theatrical release, while teasers and trailers distributed online sit in a different regulatory space. Bose's demand for an investigation into the board's role therefore raises questions about which body is responsible for what, and about how far ministerial intervention in a film teaser should go.
The controversy also touches a broader question about how India remembers its freedom fighters on screen. Netaji is not an ordinary historical figure in public memory. His disappearance in 1945 remains a subject of speculation and official inquiry, his Indian National Army is remembered for challenging British rule from outside India, and his slogan of giving blood in exchange for freedom still resonates in political rhetoric.
Portrayals of Netaji have therefore always been scrutinised more closely than portrayals of other leaders, and filmmakers who invoke him take on a responsibility that goes beyond box-office considerations. At the same time, Netaji's life, with its journeys across Europe and Asia, its alliances and its military campaign, is inherently dramatic material, and it is unsurprising that filmmakers continue to return to it.
What happens next will depend on the response of the ministry and the makers. The ministry has not yet publicly responded to Bose's letter at the time of reporting. The makers have not announced whether they intend to withdraw or revise the teaser.
If they do revise it, the episode may be remembered as a brief controversy resolved by negotiation. If they resist, the row could grow, drawing in political parties, historians and fans, and setting up a wider argument about creative freedom, historical responsibility and the limits of state intervention in cinema.
For now, the dispute stands as a reminder of how quickly a film teaser can become a national argument in India, especially when it touches a figure as revered as Netaji. A few seconds of footage, a fictional introduction in Berlin in 1942, and a letter from a grandnephew have been enough to turn anticipation for a major release into a debate about history, memory and who gets to tell the story of a freedom fighter.
(Reporting based on The Telegraph and Outlook India.)