“They were told to leave. They didn’t. So I opened fire.”
This chilling statement was reportedly made by General Reginald Dyer after he ordered troops to fire on thousands of unarmed people at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in 1919. Over 100 years later, the horror of that massacre still remains fresh in India’s memory.
Karan Singh Tyagi, a lawyer-turned-filmmaker, is making his movie debut with Kesari Chapter 2, a film that revisits this tragic event. Even though many filmmakers like Shoojit Sircar, Richard Attenborough, and Ram Madhvani have explored the massacre before, Tyagi believes the story is still very relevant—especially today, in a world filled with misinformation.
“The event connects deeply with today’s times,” Tyagi says. “After the massacre, the truth was hidden. Local newspapers that tried to report what really happened were burned down. A survivor even wrote a poem called Khooni Baisakhi, which the British banned. Instead, they spread lies in the media, saying the people at Jallianwala Bagh were armed and dangerous, and that Dyer was acting in self-defence.”
Tyagi explores two sides in his film: how the British Empire acted before and after April 13, 1919, and the human side of the tragedy—what it meant for the people who were there.
In 2025, as conflicts still rage around the world, Tyagi feels it’s more important than ever to tell such stories. He focuses on the real-life story of C. Sankaran Nair, the only Indian member of the Viceroy’s council who dared to stand up to the British. When he resigned in protest, he boldly told the Viceroy that the Empire was being run by “yes-men” and he might as well replace him with a jamadar (a lower-ranking officer).
Tyagi, who has always been interested in politics and justice, was inspired by the book The Case That Shook the Empire, written by Nair’s great-grandson Raghu Palat and his wife Pushpa Palat. He also studied other sources, including survivor accounts and historical books, which support a powerful claim: that the massacre was not a spontaneous act, but a planned attack. A plane flew over the garden to check the crowd size, and troops were deliberately selected. Interestingly, Sikh soldiers were kept unaware, possibly because they would have refused to participate.
Tyagi also shared his anger over a documentary where General Dyer’s great-granddaughter, Caroline Dyer, defended her ancestor by calling the victims “looters.” He says the British went out of their way to protect Dyer and even praised him as a hero.
Although Kesari Chapter 2 started as an independent film, it stars Akshay Kumar, who Tyagi says gave one of his best performances. “He really connected with the story,” Tyagi says. “He grew up hearing these stories from his grandfather and father.”
As the film’s release approaches, Tyagi and his co-writers hope audiences remember a powerful quote from poet Pablo Neruda that the film ends with:
“Empires perish because they listened to their lawyers and ministers, and not to their poets.”
Tyagi adds, “Empires must listen to the common people of this country.”
September 07, 2025
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