MUMBAI, June 5 -- The USSR in turmoil, a war in the gulf, surging oil prices and geopolitical and economic headwinds.Sometimes history can repeat itself at an opportune moment for a filmmaker. When film director Vipul Shah who came of age in pre-liberalisation India decided to revisit India's balance of payment (BOP) crisis of 1991 for a film, little did he expect the prevailing challenges. Best-known in the Mumbai film world for directing pacy Akshay Kumar starrers like 'Aankhen', 'Namaste London', 'Waqt: Race against time' and producing films like Singh Is Kinng and multiple sequels of Commando, Shah's recent filmography has taken a more political turn. In 2023 he produced The Kerala Story, Bastar: The Naxal Story the following year and earlier this year he released The Kerala Story 2 Goes Beyond. On June 12 he releases Governor in which Manoj Bajpayee plays the role of S Venkitaramanan who was the Reserve Bank of India Governor in 1991 when India had to pledge its gold reserves to avoid a sovereign default. With forex reserves down to $ one billion, India airlifted 47 tonnes of physical gold and pledged it to the Bank of England and another 20 tonnes to the Union Bank of Switzerland to get urgent loans to avoid default. Shah's film centres on this episode, and places the decidedly non-flamboyant RBI governor at the heart of it. "It's a classic underdog story. The film brings out the human qualities and the silent power of the governor," says Shah. Though economists stress that any such critical decision like the pledging of national gold has to be made by the centre and not a bureaucrat like the RBI governor. To Shah's mind, Venkitaramanan's character is rather glamorous. "What he did at that time (1990) was massive. War heroes, politicians, cricketers have been made heroes of films but this story is from an India that was very different. Thirty-five years ago, there were no malls, there was no Coke or Pepsi. Getting a landline or a gas connection was also not easy. He (Venkitaramanan) laid the building blocks of the economy that India has become today. The youth need to know this." The BoP crisis during Chandra Shekhar's tenure as India's care-taker prime minister was one of the factors that led to Manmohan Singh liberalising the Indian economy when he became finance minister in PV Narasimha Rao's government. Singh has often been widely-lauded for opening up India's economy and transforming the country. Shah's film tries to show that it came on the back of many a quiet effort by those like Venkitaramanan. "He moved mountains to achieve what he did and his story can inspire people. It tells the audience that as long as you don't give up, you can help your country," says Shah speaking to HT over the phone in Mumbai. But how do you turn a bureaucratic intervention into gripping cinema? Shah, maker of pacy action and comedic films, says Governor will be "a financial thriller." The film has already been screened for select audiences, "Many of whom were move to tears," he claims. In his last few films, he has been accused of packaging political propaganda as commercial cinema but the films also garnered over 40 million views on various OTT platforms. "All those who accused me of making propaganda films, could never challenge me on facts," said Shah. His latest film, he said, would not lend itself to controversy but those trolling the film, have started attacking it without watching it, he said. "The film ends with Manmohan Singh taking oath for the first time as finance minister. The film talks about what played out before that, not about what happened after 1991," said Shah. "There is no doubt that Venkitaramanan led from the front," said Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Executive Director- Research and Strategy, at the think tank Artha Global. "Not like the (finance) ministry was doing nothing but the RBI was obviously playing a big part." He said that apart from the financial stress at the time, it was also a period of political instability in the country as the V P Singh-led government at the centre had resigned and the caretaker government of Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar was in place. Rajadhyaksha said that history may not have given Venkitaramanan his due. "The whole RBI team of that time did it but the RBI Governor led them. I don't think their efforts have been appreciated enough," he added. Economist Madan Sabnavis though said that a drastic decision like pledging national reserves of gold would nothave been possible without the central government on board. "It's the government's call to take and RBI happens to be the implementing agency." He also added that in the situation at that time India had little choice. "When nobody is willing to lend you money and you don't have dollars in your hand to buy goods from outside. It's a situation in which you'll do anything to make sure the economy carries on. That's why the gold was shipped out," said Sabnavis....