Rustom poster: Akshay Kumar playing ‘honourable murderer’ Nanavati?

Akshay Kumar has already played an Indian intelligence officer (Baby), Armyman (Holiday: A Soldier is Never Off Duty) and a patriotic do-gooder minus a designation (Airlift, Gabbar etc.). With Rustom the Bollywood star is back as a “Decorated Officer. Devoted Family Man” but the story seems to be much less straight forward.

Akshay revealed the first poster of Rustom, in which he plays a naval officer, on Thursday. While we were expecting yet another patriotic film from the Khiladi Kumar, he teased us with a mystery. He wrote, “3 shots that shocked the nation and changed his life! Find out what happened with #Rustom this August 12, 2016.”

Earlier, along with the first look of the film, Akshay had written, “Decorated officer. Devoted family man. Defending his honour. His name RUSTOM. Know his story on 12 Aug #RustomFirstLook.”

Directed by debutant Tinu Suresh Desai and written by Vipul K Rawal, the film’s script has been kept under wraps. Rustom, which stars Ileana D’Cruz in key role, has Akshay playing the role of a Parsi, Rustom Pavri. Since the poster says the film has been inspired by a true incident and is set in the ’50s, buzz insists the film is based on the 1959 Nanavati case where naval officer Kavas Maneckshaw Nanavati was tried for the murder of his wife’s lover, Prem Ahuja.

Read: How Bollywood is keeping it real

The film’s poster says, “Three shots that shocked the nation.” In the sensational Nanavati case, the officer had fired three shots at Ahuja and then surrendered himself to police. Both Nanavati and Akshay’s protagonist are Parsis.

The Nanavati case

On the afternoon of April 27, 1959, Commander Kawas Maneckshaw Nanavati’s wife confessed to him that she was in love with a family friend, Prem Ahuja. Without betraying any emotion, the officer – who was second in command of the Indian Navy’s flagship INS Mysore – Nanavati dropped his English wife Sylvia and two children at a film theatre.

The the 37-year-old officer then went to his ship, took his senior officer’s permission to leave for Ahmednagar and carry a revolver and six bullets. Nanavati went to Ahuja’s house and killed him. He gave himself up to police and confessed to the murder. The case went on and Nanavati got a reputation as the “honourable killer”. He was finally pardoned in 1962. He migrated to Canada with Sylvia and children.