Manjhi's love for his wife inspired Ketan Mehta's 'Manjhi- The Mountain Man'

Bengauluru: Bollywood director Ketan Mehta today said he was inspired to make "Manjhi- The Mountain Man" as he wanted to share the story of a man, who for the love of his wife, carved a path out of a mountain only with a chisel and a hammer.

"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," he said.

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.

Speaking during an interaction at Entrepreneurs Summit conducted by the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, he said it was the most amazing and inspiring story he came across and that too for love, asking for nothing in return.

"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 said.

Asked how he brought out Majhi's character on-screen, the film's lead star Nawazuddin Siddiqui said 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 tak Chorenge Nahin Jab Tak Todenge Nahin' - that's my attitude," he said.

However, bringing out that passionate and intense love of Manjhi for a woman was difficult as he could not find any real life characters, who loves a woman as passionately and intensely as he did, Siddiqui said.

"It was career's challenging role. To go into the mind of such a character is very difficult. It was difficult to get connected with a person in today's world who is having a lot of passion and love... now a days the love breaks up on Whatsapp in a jiffy," he said.

Radhika Apte, the lead actress in the film, said "Manjhi" makes one realise the latent strength of human beings which they are oblivious of.

"If somebody would have told it is a story I wouldn't have believed that because it is unbelievably a difficult task. It is crazy to carve a path out of a mountain. When I went and I saw that. What struck me was as human beings we have so much strength in us and we are just not aware of it," she said.