Who were Thugs of Hindostan- dacoits or victims? Movie cast, story and reality behind the cult thugees

One of the most talked about movies at present is Thugs of Hindostan. The makers of the film starring Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif have created huge buzz around the film with its first look posters.

While it is known that Thugs of Hindostan is based on the popular novel - Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor way back in 1839, many still wonder if the story is real or not.

First let us tell you about the characters in Thugs of Hindostan, and who is playing who.

Amitabh Bachchan: He plays the character of Khudabaksh, who is the commander of the gang.

Fatima Sana Shaikh: She will be seen as Zafira, who is fierce and her arrow never misses the target.

Llowd Owen: The British actor plays the role of John Clive, the antagonist. He is cruel and merciless.

Katrina Kaif: Playing the character of beautiful Suraiyya, she is capable of making entire Hindostan go weak on the knees.

Aamir Khan: Last but not the least, Firangi, who is entertaining but can never be trusted.

Who were the thugs of Hindostan?

The novel was based on an anti-hero character called Ameer Ali and talks about crimes like dacoity and murders in the early 18th century in India.

While the novel apparently presented the "Thugs of Hindostan" as criminals, a video on YouTube channel of FMF gives a completely different narration of the same.

The video, which took reference from Rajiv Malhotra's book "Breaking India", Swadeshi Indology, lectures of Prof. Kapil Kapoor on 'India Inspires' and Infinity Foundation, starts by explaining how the word "thug" became a synonym to dacoits and murderers.

It claims that "Thugs of Hindostan" were no criminals, but a Kali-worshipping tribe, which lived in the jungles of India. It stated that during the British colonialism, the latter wanted to destroy the jungles of this tribe to occupy the land. Facing resistance from the tribe, the Britishers took measures to project the "thugees" as criminals through "atrocity literature"," according to the channel.

FMF mentioned Confessions of a Thug as one of those literature that portrayed the "thugs" as criminals. It added that the British parliament in 1871 passed an act called the Criminal Tribes Act, using which it was made legal to carry out mass murder of a list of Indian tribes that were labelled as criminals by the British government.

It stated that over 100 such tribes were abolished because they resisted the destruction of their habitat. In order to justify the genocide, the British government released huge funds to several scholars to come up with books that would project thugees in a bad light, the video stated. It further stated that this is how the word "thug" became a slang.

Published on June 8, the video titled "Who were The Thugs of Hindostan? Untold Truth" received over 4 lakh views, and got massive appreciation in the comments.

International Business Times, India could not independently verify the truth behind the story.