Even though Randeep Hooda is evidently excited to begin work on his directorial debut, SwatantryaVeer Savarkar — based on the life of freedom fighter, activist, and writer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — few would know that his appointment as director, was a chance occurrence. 

The film on Savarkar, who developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while imprisoned in Ratnagiri in 1922, was to be helmed by Mahesh Manjrekar, who had to eventually bail out due to scheduling issues.