Kesari Chapter 2 actor Alexx O’Nell: ‘Hurts to tell the story, but it must be told’

Kesari Chapter 2 actor Alexx O’Nell on how the film gives a new perspective on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre after The Waking of a Nation

Only a month after filmmaker Ram Madhvani’s The Waking of a Nation focused on the Hunter Commission that investigated the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Kesari Chapter 2 takes us back to the bloodiest chapter in Indian history. Karan Singh Tyagi’s directorial venture looks at the aftermath of the 1919 massacre by telling the story of lawyer Sir C Sankaran Nair, who had resigned from the Viceroy’s Executive Council after the tragedy. While Akshay Kumar plays the lawyer, Alexx O’Nell portrays Lord Chelmsford. “The Viceroy of India, Lord Chelmsford, was a progressive thinker and reformer. But the events of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre find him on the wrong side of history. Ram Madhvani made The Waking of a Nation that gives one perspective on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, this story gives another. Today, we must show how people rose against the oppressive forces of their time,” says O’Nell, who is also seen in L2: Empuraan.

Alexx O’Nell

The actor says that through Kesari Chapter 2, also starring Ananya Panday, the makers want the audience to remember the turning point of Indian history. “Though it’s a story that hurts to tell, it must be told,” underlines the actor, who has reunited with Kumar after Joker (2012). How was it catching up with him? “On the set, we gave each other a hug and caught up on all that had happened. I respect him as an actor.”

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