Sad story of Indian prince Duleep Singh

”˜The Black Prince’, a film by Kavi Raz, is being released in cinemas today on July 21, is the story of Maharaja Duleep Singh, Punjab’s last king.

Duleep Singh was the son of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, who was only five-year old when his mother Rani Jindan was banished to a palace in the outskirts of the city by the British.  His father Maharaja Ranjit Singh who had acquired Koh-i-Noor diamond having bought it from Shah Suza, died in 1839 when Duleep was just one year old.  The famous well known possession, the Koh-i-Noor was deceptively wrested by the British from young prince and cut and set in Queen Victoria’s crown. The diamond was taken to England, as researched and claimed in a book, Kohinoor: The Story of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond, written by British writer and Historian William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. The diamond was signed away as part of the Lahore Treaty, so also the rich kingdom, by the then 10-year old prince and him being sent to England at the age of fifteen where he was brought up by his British guardian Dr. Login.

Young prince presented to the British

The prince was converted to Christianity and he became favourite of Queen Victoria. The film ”˜Black Prince’ is the sad story of Duleep Singh who lost everything and died penniless in Paris. The film research found that the prince had in his later years turned back to Sikh faith and was reunited with his mother, during the last two years of her life, when she told the Maharaja about his Sikh heritage and the Empire which once had been his to rule. Thats when he started to question how the British had taken away what was rightfully his, and demanded recompensation.

Kavi Raz’s film, The Black Prince, traces how the Maharaja was torn between two cultures; comprehensively detailing his early life, his struggle to reconnect with his past and faith, and also, in later years, his valiant fight to free his people and raise the voice of India’s Independence.

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