The hilarious reason why British High Commissioner wants to watch 'Gangs of Wasseypur'

Alex Ellis, the British High Commissioner to India, is compiling a list of Hindi movies to watch

Alex Ellis, the British High Commissioner to India, is looking to improve his Hindi by watching Bollywood movies. To that end, he recently asked his followers to recommend good Hindi movies he could watch to improve his language skills – but a hilarious typo he made in a follow-up tweet left Ellis’s Twitter followers in splits.

“I need recommendations of Hindi films to watch to improve my language. A colleague suggested Sholay - what do you think?” the British envoy asked Twitter. He received dozens of suggestions where classics like Sholay ranked high, but newer, critically-acclaimed films like Gangs of Wasseypur were recommended too.

After getting a flood of recommendations, Ellis shortlisted three films to begin his deep-dive into Bollywood. The list includes slapstick comedy Chupke Chupke, the famously foul languaged Gangs of Wasseypur and the 1975 blockbuster Sholay – which Ellis misspelled as ‘Chole’.

Thanks for the suggestions. So I’ll watch

1. Chole
2. Chupke Chupke
3. I hate violence but Gangs Wasseypur so I can say something friendly to the cricket opposition

I have seen Lagaan () - that’s why I tell my colleagues every day “Dugna lagaan dena padega”

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— Alex Ellis (@AlexWEllis) April 11, 2023

The British High Commissioner to India said he wanted to watch Anurag Kashyap’s two-part crime drama Gangs of Wasseypur (which was recommended to him several times on Twitter) so as to have some “friendly” words to throw at the opposition during cricket matches.

Anurag Kashyap had faced criticism for the colourful language used in his movie. “I come from a place where cuss words are part of everyday language and my characters are people who don’t have a rich vocabulary. We are not using profanities for effect,” the director had clarified in 2012.